U.S. Marine Sgt. Alec Escalante, a squad instructor

U.S. Marine Sgt. Alec Escalante, a squad instructor with Alpha Company, Infantry Training Battalion, School of Infantry - West, gives a class on how chess correlates with battle tactics as part of the first week of the Infantry Marine Course at SOI-West on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Jan. 27, 2021. IMC is a 14-week pilot course designed to create better trained and more lethal entry-level infantry Marines prepared for near-peer conflicts. The course uses a redesigned learning model for students intended to develop their capabilities for independent and adaptive thought and action. The program of instruction for IMC has been in development for a year and follows guidance from the 2019 Commandant's Planning Guidance and Force Design 2030. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Andrew Cortez)