Well this is the "good outcome" IMO - Putin doesn't order an attack, and starts mocking NATO countries for spreading fear.
It's not so much him playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers, but that we're playing chess and he's playing Calvinball. The rest of us would really rather do something orderly, but since he's making up his own rules he wins and everyone else loses, no matter what -- and no matter what it costs.