Wasn't history the same? Many policies looked incredibly foolish through modern eyes, yet they had their significance at the time.
Chess had fixed rules, so when a group of experts discussed the same position, players from a hundred years ago and a hundred years later could arrive at the same conclusions. But if chess rules had undergone drastic changes with the times, then discussions of the same position could produce different conclusions in different eras.
"Exactly. Human affairs are inherently full of noise, and human emotions are the same, aren't they? Even if the exact same event happens, not everyone will necessarily react the same way. We have to understand that any theory attempting to apply mathematics to predict what actions another person will take has weaknesses and limits. Put simply, when using the chessboard-flipping method, it's easy to make the wrong judgment when noise, impulsiveness, misunderstandings, or mistaken perceptions enter the picture."
Kirie had indeed said that. When it came down to it, a game like chess required both sides to fight under the same rules and pursue the same objective—victory—before one could read the other's moves. Only because one could assume the opponent would always try to make the best decision was it possible to predict their line of play. But what if the opponent was tired, or acted on a whim, and made a move that wasn't optimal?
What if the game actually had special rules known only to the enemy, allowing them to use moves we didn't know about?
And going even further, what if the opponent had an objective other than victory?
The Little Witch
The foundation of the chessboard-flipping method was to think from the enemy's perspective.
If you misjudged the enemy, every conclusion you reached would turn into nonsense, utterly useless.
Lin Yan