Like many activities of man, the world is filled with lots of similarities so it was no surprise when the World Eight Ball Champion, Shane Van Boening, described 8 ball Pool as similar to the game of Chess.
The comparison was made during Shane’s interview with renowned sports journalist and anchor of Billiards Digest Live, Michael Panozzo, which was aired on the November edition of the program. Shane responding to a remark made by Panozzo relating to his liking for playing 8 ball Pool and what the 8 ball title meant to him. He said:
“I have been a Pool player for about 30 years, so I am just pretty happy to have the world title”.
Michael: Tell me about 8 ball, you have grown up playing leagues, playing bar table…. You have always said 8 ball is you favourite game?
Shane: “… it is the most popular game in my opinion.”
Michael: Other than popular, what do you like about 8 ball? What do you enjoy about it?
Shane: “Nine ball is more luck to be honest. And, then in 8 Ball, you got to Break the balls, you got to figure out the patterns, you got to find out your shots, there are some clusters you got to figure out. You got to be really careful with the cue ball position, but Nine ball is just easy. Nine ball is just too much luck. Is just like rolling a die. But when you play 8 ball you got to think more”
Michael: When you look at 8 ball, when you win the lag, what is the first thing you got to determine? whether you can runout……
Shane: ‘First, what you can do is look for the easy patterns. It is all about studying the patterns and then you got to stick with the patterns and you got to have good Cue ball control and then like I said, it’s like there is more work to it. Nine ball is just simple patterns. You can just run out at ease. But in eight ball there is a lot of situation you can run into’.
Michael: It is like solving a puzzle?
Shane: Yes. It is just like playing chess really.
Like Chess, Pool Billiard can be classified as a mind game because of its high cognitive and psychomotive content that is built around utilizing reasoning, eye contact, concentration and movement of the arms as the key attributes of both games. I will try to highlight some of these attributes for better understanding:
- Both games can be described as a war game between two opposing armies.
- Both games feature objects that are in 2 groups. Chess has the White and Black objects called pieces, 8 Ball Pool has the stripe and solid objects called balls.
- Chess has sixteen pieces in each group while 8 Ball Pool has 7 balls. Chess has a king on each side, in Pool both sides share a common Black 8 ball.
- Both games require logical, strategic reasoning and both players require the ability to plan ahead (i.e. imagine 4 to 5 moves ahead).
- The objective of both games is to prevent your opponent from achieving their game plan. Chess requires you to capture your opponent’s King and Pool requires you to pot the Black Ball.
- The major difference between both games is that 8 Ball Pool is based on the principle of geometry in mathematics combined with reflection in light, kinetics and motion in physics.
Follow asentv.tv on all our social media handles. Forward all your breaking news and information to broadcast@asentv.tv. Tel: 08135714411 For advertisement, partnership and sponsorship enquires, send email to info@asentv.tv
