Donald Trump supporters love to tout his ability to stay moves ahead of his political adversaries. Even after some of his more baffling policy decisions or tweets, they claim Trump is playing 3D or 4D chess, making moves massively more complicated and clever than normal people can comprehend.

Most people have never sat down to play a game of 3D chess, and probably only know of the game from a brief scene in a 1976 episode of Star Trek, where Kirk and Spock play it on a futuristic glass board on The Enterprise.

So in order to fully unpack the metaphor, VICE News spoke with 3D chess experts to find out what the game actually is, and if Trump would be any good at it.