When a situation gets complicated, such as in Putin’s war on Ukraine, some analysts might observe that one side is playing chess while the other side is playing checkers. If one really wants to emphasize how outmatched one side is, an analyst might say that the other side is playing three-dimensional chess. Regular old two-dimensional chess is complicated enough, and when playing it at the grandmaster level can be labyrinthine.The game of chess is rather like war. For one thing, chess involves strategy and tactics. Given that, perhaps we can learn something about the war in Ukraine and its mastermind...