These military researchers are trying to draw general military conclusions from chess. They aren't studying the standard form of the game; instead, they've modified the rules in various ways, so that for instance you can't always see your opponent's pieces. I guess it'll be interesting to see if the research yields anything valuable (for either war or chess), but I suspect any valuable new insight will be a function of the modifications they've made to the game, rather than chess's similarity to actual combat. Chess may be a good, abstract model for war, but all of the facets of that abstraction are lessons a good officer should already know. (Do check out LI's post on models, in this case economic.)
Speaking of chess, I have an interesting assignment at the moment. A friend of mine is working on a novel about his experiences in India (more or less), and he's asked me to come up with a chess problem to insert at a certain moment, complete with what pieces should be on the board, etc. It's actually proving to be quite difficult, mostly because the position needs to be plausible as an actual game. If I can find a decent chess utility, maybe I'll post it here when I have it. A contest, maybe?
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