Literary notes about Game (AI summary)
The word “game” in literature is remarkably versatile, functioning both as a literal contest of skill and as a metaphor for life’s intricate challenges. In some texts, it describes structured competitions—ranging from the strategic maneuvers of chess ([1], [2]) and card play ([3]) to sporting matches and even rounds of dice ([4])—emphasizing rules, tactics, and the possibility of draw or defeat. In other instances, “game” conveys a broader, figurative meaning: it hints at the playful yet often serious maneuvers of human relationships, strategic interactions in politics and war ([5], [6]), and even the pursuit of wild animals in hunting ([7], [8]). This spectrum of usage illustrates how authors harness the concept of a game to explore both literal contests and the deeper, sometimes unpredictable, dynamics of life.
- For a beautiful illustration of how to play White in that variation, see the Janowski-Rubinstein game of the St. Petersburg Tournament of 1914.
— from Chess Fundamentals by José Raúl Capablanca - It is doubtful, however, if at this stage of the game it would be possible for White to save the game.
— from Chess Fundamentals by José Raúl Capablanca - My second and wisest one is to play my own game and speak as little as possible to anyone.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - It happened that he laughed just too loud, when he lost a game of dice.
— from Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse - WAR IS A GAME BOTH OBJECTIVELY AND SUBJECTIVELY.
— from On War by Carl von Clausewitz - But man is a frivolous and incongruous creature, and perhaps, like a chess player, loves the process of the game, not the end of it.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - as one canoe had been left we had now more hads to spear for the chase; game being scarce it requires more hunters to supply us.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis - I had never been a sportsman in my life; had scarcely ever gone in search of game, and rarely seen any when looking for it.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant
