Forced Move

"Forced Move" by Henry Lee is a mid-20th century science fiction story about a war between humans and aliens, where the key ideas are sacrifice, how to win a fight, and the relationship between human choices and computer-controlled battle plans. The story follows Ruy, a math expert in the military, who takes a big risk by grabbing control of his fleet's computer during a space battle. Ruy thinks that always letting computers make decisions has made the war stuck, so he sacrifices his own ship to mess up the enemy's plan. By making what he calls "forced moves," he uses the fact that computers can't understand human sacrifice to trick the enemy, which eventually wins the war. At first, his moves cause many ships to be lost, but they also change the battle because the enemy falls into his trap, which demonstrates that human feelings and desperation are very important in war, even when computers are involved.