Football is Chess Played With Rhinos



"Nothing mysterious about football. It's just chess played with rhinos." - Charles Coe


Football is Chess Played With Rhinos

Position is everything, yet it is raw power that is appreciated.
Specialists prove their worth to the herd, moving as only they can,
despite being both massive specimens and heavily, clumsily plated.
As leader I know my crews position, down to the very last man
my continued dominance requires each of them for my own protection.
I need some to obstruct, some to chase down, and some to keep me secure.
Of course I need some to advance my plans in the desired direction,
and at times sacrifices must be made, so that victory we ensure.

We labor to keep you out of our space, while working to invade your own,
our progress made with both feint and brutish, open aggression.
After I have won and ascended to a mighty and most precarious throne,
my life has now become obsessed with continued possession.
Crash, tumble, square off and repeat, my forces throw themselves at yours,
knights outrunning, slipping past your defenses, finding the right position,
bishops defining both the method and eventual temper of our wars.
Victory is 
usually assured to the side with the superior tactician.

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Shared with DVerse Poets for Open Link Night.

©2017 Christopher Reilley

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Comments

  1. Lillian here...love that you posted this to OLN today. Such an interesting quotation...and then you've written to it to a T as the saying goes. I can see the rhinos and the football team in the first stanza....and then the shift to chess is so well done in the second stanza. All in the perception, right?

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  2. I love the way you describe football as a balance between the physical power and the tactics...

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