The Game of the Generals' story
By Ronnie Pasola Jr.
​
(No other board game has caught the fancy of Filipinos the same way the Game of the Generals did. In a short span since its public introduction in 1973, this award-winning Philippine invention has been played by millions. No less than 2,500 GG clubs have now been formed and the game has been introduced in 33 other countries. We recall the humble beginnings of the game.)
​
Conceived and born out of two devastating floods, mistakan as subversive material, frowned upon by the country's Chess lords and snubbed by the All-Filipino Sports awards, the Game of the Generals has quixotically survived.
​
I invented it August of 1967 in Barrio Palanan, Makati, while Greater Manila was choking through a big flood. Stranded with unprogrammed leisure in my hands, I was deep in the study of Chess having jun won a tournament the week passed when I thought about the game.
​
The idea first floated by and then lingered, longing for action. Why not something different from Chess? Why not a game patterned after modern- day combat? Something everybody could identify with? After all, Chess is of ancient origin-- hardly relevant to battle tactics of today.
​
My father chanced into my room as I was cutting out cartolina soldiers, marking them with ranks of generals, middle officers and Privates and pushing them around on a Chessboard.
​
''I am inventing a game,'' I said with the proud intonation of one at the verge of discovery. Quizzically, quietly he left.
​
As I worked onto the third day, I had sadly succeeded in putting together a mere variation of Chess.
​
The fourth day was still one of frustration. With the movements and starting formation I had developed, the pieces may well have been pawns, rooks and bishops.
​
Two days later was D-Day.
​
Calling on the systems used in mahjong and card game, I tried setting up the pieces so that they were unseen by the enemy. It was drastic departure from Chess, followed still by another-- this time taking off from the way generals prefer to fight. This meant allowing a player the free hand at deploying his forces, in contrast to the Chess method of forcing a player to start from one single formation.
​
Then came the tedious process of finalization.
Experimentation...try out games with my father...flanking movements...guerilla tactics...territorial coverages...All these brought in the balance and hierarchy of soldiers, the number of playign squares onthe board and the various ways of winning games.
​
Iwo Jima with its victorious marines, provide the heroic angle for ending a game -- the symbolicraising of the flag signalling the capture of enemy territory.
​
James Bond and Mata Hari reminded me to put in a pair of spies with the introduction of the arbiter between two players securing their cloack-and-dagger maneuvers.
Finally, the movies ''Night of the Generals'' wrapped it up inspiring the dramatic touch needed and people.
Except for a few friends at Philippine Advertising Counselors where I was then employed, the game generally hibernated for five years untill another devastating flood, circa 1972, flushed it out.
​
Actually, it was pushed to the public eye by enterprising journalist Iking Gonzales. He insisted on writing the story as his contribution to the Times Journal's maiden issue. It was with reluctance that I allowed details of the game to be released for fear of misimpressions, martial law having just been declared the month before.
​
Nevertheless, with the birth of the Times Journal on October 21, 1972, the country woke up to the Game of the Generals.
​
Gonzales wrote: ''Altough the pieces stand for military personages, the game-- which is a cross between Chess and cards is as thrilling as it is educational for both young and old. ''In Chess you use cold logic. Here in the new game your move sometimes defies logic. Putting in all the details of a battle plan on the board sharpens your memory and psychological insight. The rules of the game can be understood in less time that it takes to learn Chess.''
​
''It is safe to say that the kings and his court will have their hands full against the general and his men in the near future.''
​
​
​
​