What is Game of the Generals?
Game of the Generals is an original Filipino board game developed to test its players' strategical and tactical skills by using "modern-day" pieces as their pawns for "war."
Its Filipino name is "Salpakan," from the Filipino root word "Salpak," which is literally translated to "to crash," "to clash", or "to collide."
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The game simulates armies at war trying to overpower, misinform, outflank, outmaneuver, and destroy each other. It optimizes the use of logic, memory, and spatial skills. It also simulates the "fog of war" because the identities of the opposing pieces are hidden from each player and can only be guessed at by their location, movements, or from the results of challenges.
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Game of the Generals vs Chess
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With the promise of romanticism ala Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Rommel, the Game of the Generals promptly caught on with Manila's elite crowd. As quickly as a steamroller offensive, GG started to outsell Chess immediately after its formal public introduction. This was February 28, 1973 at First National Community Bank (FNCB), Makati City, with then Information Secretary Francisco S. Tatad as guest of honor. It was the opening of the first tournament in GG history.
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The secratary, speaking at the FNCB launching of the game predicated: ''Millions around the world will be playing this game, which has the qualities of a Sherlock Homes thriller.'' Shortly after, the game still relatively unknown outside Greater Manila, was causing a few trying moments for some provincial folks.
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IIoilo spokesmantony Hechanova, General Manager of Negros Navigation, reported: ''It was funny. I was delayed at the Mactan airport when a companion was detained and questioned for possession of a Game of the Generals set. With all those military pieces in a box, the airport security thought we were up to something subversive.''
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Buth with media publishing photos of sports personalities and Philippine beauties at play and Secretary tatad endorsing the game: ''For those who need an intellectual massage,'' charges of subversion dwindled to isolation as even the guardian of peace and order began to enjoy the game.
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Perhaps threatened by sudden accident of this local upstart introducing into the world of thinking sport, even drawing the interest of sponsors and Chess enthusiasts themselves, the local lord of the Game of Kings mounted his own quiet offensive against the Game of the Generals.
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Big prize-laden Chess tourneys were organized and Grandmasters were imported. When even the Grandmasters started to show interest in the Generals, the Chess offical clamped down on his writer's incursions which mainly dealt with giving GG sets to Grandmasters and getting them to grace GG events and pose for photo releases.
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''I can have you banned from the premised of this event (the Grandmaster's tilt at the Philippine Village Hotel) if you don't stop promoting your game through my Grandmasters'', the Chess lord heatedly threatened. There was even a move in the Philippine Chess Federation to ban its players from joining a GG-Chess tournament, which fortunately pattered out. Nevertheless, Chess players have reported that they are still frowned upon for involving themselves with the local game.
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To date, the cold war between Chess and the Game of the Generals continues but has somehow thawed with the quiet diplomacy of Chess organizers.
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Bloodied but unbowed from skirmishes against the powerfull Chess drive, the Game of the Generals plods on.
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World series eyed
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Roads are always long and lonely, crowds sometimes cynical and callous for those who seeks to pioneer. But GG's volunteers struggle on, painstakingly carving out a place in the world of sport, staking this generation's claim on the game and the country of its birth.
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It is a tribuate to the fighting heart that the Game of the Generals' benefactors now include San Miguel Corporation, Marlbora, Paper Mate Corp., Levi-Strauss inc., Philippine Refining Co., La Tondeña Inc., The Ministry of Public Information, The Kabataang Barangay, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
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In its three years, three millions Filipinos tried the game. It has been introduced to 33 other countries. It has inspired the formation of more than 2,500 GG Clubs and, with its success, cause a rash of 28 other new Filipino game inventions.
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GG is the only board game to have outsold Chess at local bookstores and supermarkets. It also hold the distinction of being the most outstanding invention in the general category of the Inventor's week competition organized by the Philippine's National Science Development Board.
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Today, it also holds the distinction of being the only electronic board game in the world. The invention of the Electronic Arbitek, which replaces the third person or arbiter in a match, also won the award for the 3rd Most Outstanding Electronic Invention Of the Year in the 1978 Philippine Inventor's Festival. It has been manufactured under licence in the United States and other licensing agreements are still in the works.
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It is with a mixed feeling of historical pride and hope that GG pioneers look back to these achievements. Said one rabid fan: ''To have been with it from the start is priceless...we now dream of a World Game of the Generals Championship Series...''
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(Originally in THE TIMES JOURNAL issue of April 21, 1976)