Over time as we learned more about playing chess we made a startling revelation chess depends more upon longterm strategy than upon shortterm tactics Up till then wed been happy with a rather shortsighted approach Suddenly we became aware of the big picture We began to see the game as a whole not just a series of individual moves And once we saw the game as a whole we began to see patterns emerge in the play Gambits they call them And the patterns have names such as openings middle games and end games In chess as in screenplay writing the more often you play the more aware you become of its complexities