Negative Space

I learned about the concept of negative space in one of my art classes - I didn't know this at the time, but I must have taken a lot of electives unrelated to software.

I again saw the concept of negative space referred to, last year, in an episode of Aoshi. It's a soccer anime, for the bollywood fans.

It's about a teenager who dreams of being a great striker, and it was only then that I was beginning to understand the concept of strategy in sports. They explained well.

(I used to play chess in games period...You didn't have to move that much, compared to cricket or basketball....)

Yesterday, I found a good example I wanted to reference as negative space, from my chess match.

I wanted to move rook way up, from the right, and place it under his black bishop. I thought if I did that, he will capture it with his knight.

I was already 3 points down, and with a rook sacrifice, I would be 5 more points down.

But if his knight captures my rook, with that very movement, that knight leaves another square completely undefended.

But he didn't take my rook. I still didn't understand why.

Instead, he moved his pawn further up.

I moved my left knight up a bit, in the hopes of getting a pawn back. My strategy was still working.

My rook dies.

Now, I moved my queen up.

No matter which move black makes, he will lose in 1.

Do you see the move?

He moves his knight again, and I checkmated with my queen, with bishop backup.

Going back to negative space, starting with art, and moving on more concretely to football, the reason I reference my game is as follows -

1. I wanted to checkmate the king with my queen, but his knight wouldn't let me.
2. If I still moved my queen - it would be a queen sacrifice.
   1. The kind of sacrifice I would do in the next game, and lose very badly. Bad idea
3. But if I gave him reason to move his knight - if I put my rook there, even if it gets captured, then I can move my queen safely.
4. And - for once! - this idea actually made sense. I mean, logically. Like, really made sense. Like, not just in my head.
   1. The more likes you add, the more true something becomes.
   2. Like...really
5. If he moved his knight away, I didn't see a way for his king to escape in 2 moves.
6. I just needed 1 move for my win.

So!

In art, (don't quote me) negative space is space that doesn't exist, but is pivotal.

I think this concept is crucial in room design also - ask my mother! She knows more than I want to hear.

This square is negative space - the space that's there, and helped me win, but it's not really there.

It's the art of war, not the science of war!