7 Things I

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7 Things Ive Learned About Life From Playing Chess

The game of chess is one of mans great creations. The rules can seem arbitrary to a

beginner, but are actually the product of over 1000 years of tinkering and refining. Themodern gameessentially unchanged now for about 500 yearsis perfectly designed to

stretch the human mind to its outermost limits, but not beyond. The board is ust the right

si!e, and the moves of the pieces have ust the right amount of variety, to offer the tantali!ing

but never attainable possibility of mastering the game with enough time and study.

"oreover, chess is a mirror of life, rich in metaphors for human e#perience. $t is a pitched

battle to the finish between opposing armies, yet completely non%violent, with no inuries

ever reported from playing. $t is a testing ground where we can e#periment and act out

personal dramas with no conse&uences other than wiping the board clean and starting over. '

blend of primitive instinct and sophisticated calculation, it lets a player directly engage the

mind of another human beinglearning from e#perience, memori!ing common patterns,

methodically building a position, setting traps, analy!ing variations, and finally moving in for

the kill. 'nd it is a canvas whereupon great players create masterpieces, like famous

paintings, that can be enoyed by generations to come.

(ere are a few things $ve learned about life by playing chess.

1. Women are powerful, men are essential.

The &ueen is the most powerful piece on the board, the king by contrast is plodding and

slow. )et the game can continue for do!ens of moves after the &ueens are off the boardbutonce the king dies, the game ends. 's in real life, women are often the centers of attention

with their da!!le and flash and drama, but in the end, it is individual male leadership that

decides the outcome.

2. The threat is stronger than the execution.

This is a common saying among chess players. The idea is that by threatening an action, you

can nudge your opponent in a certain direction, but actually carrying out the threat may cause

as many problems for you as for your opponent. The parallels with human relationships are

evident.

3. Chess is 99% tactics.

'nother favorite ma#im. *hile carrying out long%term plans, you have to constantly be on

the alert for immediate dangers or opportunities that can radically change the game. )ou may

become a master player, build a strong career, and have a solid physi&ue, but if a moments

inattention causes you to swerve into the oncoming lane on the way home, it may be all for

naught.

4. Different phases of the game reuire !ifferent s"ills.

$t took me a long time to reali!e that chess is really three separate gameswith commontactical themes and goals, to be sure, but re&uiring very different skill sets overall. The

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opening re&uires a lot of e#perience with common strategic and tactical themes, and yes,

&uite a bit of memori!ation. The middle game involves imagination and creative risk%taking.

'nd the endgame demands e#actitude and mathematical calculation.

+ersonally, $ve always had the hardest time with openingsboth in chess and in

approaching women. The game is literally wide open at this point and can go in a myriad ofdifferent directions, so you have to make strong, general moves that cover a wide variety of

situations. 't the same time, you need to study a lot of previous gamesboth your own and

those of othersto be prepared for different responses.

#. $atent talent in or!inar people can &ecome o&'ious after ears of har! wor".

+awn promotion can be seen as a metaphor for the way in which ordinary people sometimes

have unusual talents that only become apparent to others after years of diligent effort.

(. The &est !efense is a goo! offense.

' clich in sports, this principle applies e&ually in chess. -ven if all you want is a draw,

playing passively is seldom effective against a strong opponent. )ou must actively work to

keep the other player off%balance and create counterplay/ to distract him from his attacking

plans.

). * wea"ness is not a wea"ness unless it can &e attac"e!.

'nother way of saying, perhaps, that your limitations are self%imposed, and that something

you perceive as a weakness on your part may be completely irrelevant in a given conte#t.

Thus, fi#ing your inner gameeliminating psychological insecuritiesmay be moreimportant than addressing the weakness itself.

$ could go on and on about chess. $ could talk about the theories of force, space, and tempo

the way pawn structure gives shape to a position the different styles of play the cautions

against resting on ones laurels $t is not enough to be a good playerone must also play

well/2 and the social connections you can make and the influence you can ac&uire by

playing. 3uffice it to say now, $ believe chess should be a part of any serious mans

education. 3o whos up for a game4

1. $n chess, every move has a purpose. ife obviously cannot be lived with this much

unceasing calculation, nor should we want to live it that way, but there are times when we

must align our actions with a predetermined strategy, instead of bumbling through it.

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7. +lay for the advantage. $f you already have it, maintain it. $f you dont have it, sei!e it.

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8. -veryones playing. 3ometimes its a friendly, often it is more serious. The problem is thatnot everyone knows theyre playing 9 even after they have made a move.

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:. 3ei!e the initiative. $f you wait around for someone else to make a decision for you, they

will; and you probably wont like how it turns out.

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5. earn to spot patterns. There are often clearly defined lines of success that work well.

earn to see these when they repeat, and take advantage of them.

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@. 3implify.

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A. $f you only play pat!ers, you never really improve 9 take on a few tough challenges, and

even if you lose, try to learn something new.

10. But your losses. 3ometimes you are going to lose material. Try to minimise your losses

and move on.
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11. +lay the board, not the player. =ont target your responses at people, target what they say

and do. There is a difference.

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17. 3ometimes you get stuck in a position known in chess as !ug!wangC where whichever

move you make is a bad one. This is ust the way it goes sometimes, in chess and in life.

18. There is nothing more satisfying than a discovered attackC +retending to do one thing,

while attacking somewhere else. earn to play and live less obviously and on more levels.

This makes you less predictable and more interesting.

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1:. ?e prepared to sacrifice material for position. 3ometimes even the greatest material

sacrifice can result in a winning position later on.

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15. $f you spend all of your time chasing lowly pawns, you may be on the receiving end of anopponent who cares less about small victories and more about winning the war.

1

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1A. *hen someone makes a move that you cannot understand, dont read more into it than

you need to. 3ometimes people ust make silly moves 9 thats all there is to it.
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70. (ave a +lan ?. 'nd a +lan B. $f none of those work, youre probably doomed.

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71. +lay for the middle. =ont hold back too much, and dont push through too early. )our

opportunity will come.

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77. (ow you start a game determines how you will finish it. +lay wisely.

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78. $f an opening appears, sei!e it immediately.

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7:. =ont get pinned down. *here something more cherished cannot be brought into play

because it is stuck behind something trivial, make every effort to get it into the game 9 as

soon as possible.

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75. $n the end game, attack the Eing by focussing your attention on his escape s&uaresC *hen

you are in the final stretch, and about to win, anticipate what could go wrong and plan

accordingly.

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7

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7>. $f you are feeling bo#ed%in, free things up.

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7@. *here possible, trade inferior material and positions for better ones.

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7A. The little guys on your side matter. ook after them.

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80. 'ccumulate small advantages.

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81. There are no foregone conclusions in life or in chess.

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87. $gnore meaningless threats. 'nticipate and deal with dangerous ones swiftly.

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88. Fever rest on your laurels. Eeep thinking, looking for new opportunities and trying to

generate new ideas.

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8:. =ont be overly impressed with lofty words or titles. The only thing worse than beingoverly diffident towards those who outrank you, is being dismissive of those inferior to you.

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85. Eeep calm and move slowly.

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8. $f you lose, do so graciously and try to learn at least one important lesson.

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8@. 3ometimes a draw is as good as a win. ?ut a draw is always better than a loss.

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8A. Eeep your options open and always have an escape route.

:0. 3urprise and impress people with unconventional moves. ?ut not with dumb ones.

Breativity always has a purpose 9 doing something wild and cra!y ust for the sake of it may

be fun at the time, but ultimately has no value. ?reak the rules 9 but only if it serves a goodpurpose.

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:1. 'ppraise your position honestly. $f it is bad, do something about it 9 if it is good, make it

even better.

:7. =ont get swept up by distractions.

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:8. Farrow down your choices. 'nd then decide. Take your time, but settle on one plan of

action; and then do itH

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::. 3ometimes you have to sacrifice in order to achieve a break%through.

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:5. 'lways consider the whole board when deciding on a moveC decisions made with too

narrow a focus are often bad.

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:. ook beyond the obvious.

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:@. -noy yourself.

:A. =eep and meaningful is always better than superficially pretty.
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50. $f all else fails; fake it.

6 Strategy Lessons From A Former Chess Prodigy Whos

!o" A C#$

*hile everyone compares business to chess, only a few people can teach the gameIs most

profound lessons. (ere, Justin "oore, B-D of the cloud company '#cient, does ust that.

By David Zax

Justin "ooreis the B-D of '#cient, a rapidly growing cloud services provider. "oore, now

81, is also a former star of the youth chess circuit. 't 10, he found a chess book in his

mothers cabinet by his teenage years, he was one of the 70 top%ranked youth chess players

in the Knited 3tates. *ith the seriousness of an athlete, "oore played chess for several hours

every day for half a decade.

"oore doesnt play much competitively anymore by his college years, he was Lprobably a

bit burnt out,L he confesses. -ven so, the kinds of thinking that his days as a chess prodigy

taught him has deeply informed the way he runs a successful startup. $n a sense, "oore does

still play chess every dayby running '#cient.

Too many startups, says Moore, behave in a way thats "reactionary to the

market, to competitors, to the newest shiny object."

*e caught up with "oore to e#tract a few lessons about how to apply the grandmaster

mindset to the world of business.
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Seeing All Possible Futures

Df course, its a business commonplace to recommend forethought. ?ut in chess, the

metaphor is literali!ed. L)oure constantly looking two, three, four moves ahead,L e#plains

"oore. L$f you do this move, whats the countermove4 *hat are all the countermoves4 'nd

then for all of those, what are all of my potential countermoves4 Bhess is constantly teachingyou to think about what comes ne#t, and what comes after that, and what the repercussions

could be.L

$n a chess game, your mind is constantly running permutations of decision trees. $n business,

your mind should be doing the same.

#yes $n The #ndgame

' chess match is a war of attrition. $f a soccer match is egregiously lopsided at halftime, the

game still progresses, but if *hite accidentally loses his &ueen a few moves in, its likely

hell resign. This means that a properly matched chess game is often fought out to a point

where only a few pawns, pieces, and the opposing kings remaina bare%board state known

as endgame. $n a real sense, the entirety of a chess game is all a prelude to endgame.

LBhess is about getting to endgame,L says "oore. L*hat happens between the start and then

doesnt necessarily matter. )ou could lose more pieces or a more valuable piece, and at the

end of the day, if you capture the opponents king, you win the game.L

3o, too, in many sectors of business, in which many competitors vie for one or a few

dominant, winner%takes%most slots pending 3-B approval2.L)oure looking out a year, two

years, three years,L says "oore. L3ometimes that means in the short term you make

sacrifices.L )ou might make a tactical decision that appears to put you behind, but actually

strengthens your position for when the smoke clears, and each sides knights and bishopshave fallen.

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%elentless Fo&us

$tIs easy to chart a course to endgame it can be difficult to stay on it.

LDne of the biggest mistakes in business is to lose focus,L says "oore. $ts easy to get

distracted by what your competitors are doing. ?ut ust because a competitor launched aflashy feature doesnt mean that you need to match that feature. *hat you need to do is ask

yourself whether matching that feature will advance you towards the goal youve already

identified. 'll too many startups, says "oore, behave in a way thats Lreactionary to the

market, to competitors, to the newest shiny obect.L

Pun&hes' %oll With Them

The annals of chess grandmasters are replete with stories of those who obsessively studied

their losses. L$n every single game,L says "oore, Lyou learn something.... ultimately you have

to take all the lessons from every match you played.L Those earlier losses will be part of your

mental makeup on the eve of a later victory.

!ter three months o! wanderin throuh the weeds, Moores team rea#i$ed that

a better predictor o! customer satis!action was the time it took to respond to a

customer re%uest.

LThe vast maority of startups will fail,L says "oore. )ou have to believe that yours wont.

?ut part of you has to know, too, that though Litll sting, and part of me will be devastatedL ifyours does fail, ultimately any battle scars will make you stronger and smarter for the ne#t

venture.

Pattern %e&ognition

+laying chess teaches you to recogni!e patternsC the tempting bishop sacrifice that actually

led you into a trap, the &ueen swap that looked favorable but prevented you from castling.

)ou play, you learn.

'nd so with business. "oore tells a story of how pattern recognition helped his businessC

$n 7011, "ooreIs team was trying to improve customer satisfaction. They worked from the

assumption that one metric in particularcase backlogwas the best predictor of customer

satisfaction. $t seemed reasonable to assume that if you had low or !ero backlog, then your

customers would be happy. L$t turned out we were wrong,L says "oore. 'fter three months of

wandering through the weeds, "oores team reali!ed that a better predictor of customer

satisfaction was the time it took to respond to a customer re&uest, combined with fre&uency

of updates. Mor months, '#cient had been focusing on the wrong metric.

$n 7017, with a larger customer base and a new playbook, '#cient was again trying to

improve its customer satisfaction. $t was working from the assumption that time%to%response

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and update fre&uency were still the key metrics to watch. 'nd yet even as they lowered their

response time, '#cientIs survey data was Lnot necessarily supporting what we believed.L

Gather than labor under a false assumption for months, "oore and company &uickly

recogni!ed a patternthey needed to &uestion and refine their metrics. They rapidly

determined that while time%to%response mattered, '#cient customers also deeply cared aboutgetting access to a live '#cient employee. LFow when people call '#cient, in a matter of

minutes, theyre connected to a live person,L e#plains "oore. Brucially, '#cient put this fi#

into place in a matter of weeks, rather than months, having refused to fall into the same trap

of relying on a false metric.

'#cient has since investigated and tested all of its key metrics, and has overhauled several.

(no" )our Team

' great chess player has a deep awareness of each pieces role on the board. ' bishop has

different abilities from those of a knight, and its powers are e#panded or limited by a boards

pawn structure.

$n some ways, chess is a laboratory for human resources problems. L)ou have to understand

the strengths and weaknesses of the team, of your employees,L says "oore. L)ou have to

understand that the pawn has its role, and its a very important one, ust as important as the

&ueen, rook, or bishop. -very piece is critical, and the only way to win is to leverage all those

piecesI skill sets together.L

hess and the Dynamics of Business

by Daaim Shabazz, Ph.D.

Over the years there have been many attempts to use chess as metaphor to describe anumber of different realities. Business is one of those realities finding a connection to thedynamics of chess given the use of strategy and tactics. However, what I find more oftenthan not are metaphors clumsily assembled or force-fit into business cases. The result is amish-mash of facts that are confusing only but for the most astute readers.

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Business is a generic term to describe anumber of processes involved in productionof products and services. The process iswhich these activities occur is neither linearnor as organized as a game of chess. Businessis war and there are many events occurring

simultaneously and at different speeds.espite this difference, the stories told by achess game are similar to those that can betold in business. !or e"ample, the idea ofsacrificing material to gain compensation inthe form of an attac# on an opponent orpositional advantage is something companiesdo all the time. There is also the concept ofan overloaded piece which can occur if acompany e"pands too $uic#ly and spreadsresources over a number of areas. There arealso situations where a company maydevelop a commanding outpost in a product

line. Bob Rice spea#s about %strongs$uares% in his boo#, %Three &oves 'head()hat *hess *an Teach +ou 'bout Business.%)hat does all of this mean

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)hen studying for my &B' at *lar# 'tlanta niversity, Dr. Robert Lynn in &ar#etingtrategy told us about Karl von Clausewitz'boo# %On )ar.% He had told us about a /iesand Trout study that referred to von *lausewitz and his theory on attac#ing. The idea wasthat you needed at least a 0(1 advantage in resources to engage in a successful frontal attac#.2erhaps one can thin# of chess game where an attac# was contemplated. o I launch a#ingside pawn storm by playing f3, g3 and h3 4or f5, g5 and h56 thus e"posing my own

castled #ing to danger. 're my pieces developed to support such an attac# )ill I becomeovere"tended if my attac# peters out These are similar $uestions brand managers andstrategists as# when assessing a mar#et.

In the 78s there was a lot of discussion about the 9apanese incursion into 'mericanautomobile mar#ets. The 9apanese #new they would not be able to clear a profit during theirascent, so they sacrificed profits to gain mar#et share with their energy-efficient and cheapercars. Through meticulous production and total $uality management 4T:&6 techni$ues, the$uality of these cars improved rapidly and combined with higher gas prices, 'mericanconsumers began buying the Hondas, the Toyotas and the atsuns 4now ;issan6. )hen the'merica auto companies reacted with cheap substitutes 4!ord 2into, *hevy *hevette, *hevy

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The parallels between business and chess are stri#ingin a number of obvious ways. o much that there arecountless company ads that elevate chess to a loftstatus due to its perceived connection to ma#ingintelligent decisions. Of course there are many othercharacteristics that ma#e chess an attractive pitch.

The idea that chess is a esoteric activity that only asmall percentage have mastered gives the impressionthat one is enlightened. The mista#e I often seeportrayed in the media is that #nowing how to playchess is perceived to be a great accomplishmentwhether one plays well or not.

Of course, the purpose of business ads andcommercials using chess is to merely e"press aconnection to the prestige of the game and not one=sproficiency. &ost of the public understands that chessinvolves foresight and this is a $uality businesses

would claim to have.

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