How life imitates chess

It is calculated that the number of possible combinations on the board is much greater than the number of atoms in the universe (10^81). One estimate approximates this number to something like 10^120.

Similarly, there are innumerable situations in life (private, work, social) that can be seen as entirely comparable to a chess problem, in which strategic thinking, creativity and tactics aimed at achieving victory indicate, by analogy, the way forward: in this way, the age-old ‘game of the king’ teaches one to consider the forces on the field, to take into account the current situation one finds oneself in, to imagine and anticipate the expectations of those in front of one's face and, consequently, to formulate a plan to achieve the objective (checkmate, from the Persian: Shà-a-mat, meaning ‘The king is dead’).

So what are the qualities needed to be successful in a match and consequently achieve our goal?

The magic formula, in life as in chess, does not exist. Instead, it is a combination, a mix of factors that one must work on by knowing how to make the best use of his own possibilities. Each of these qualities or elements would deserve a separate essay, but we can start by making a list of them:

- Strategy and tactics

- Talent

- Intuition vs Calculation

- Preparation, study

- Means (material), Time and Quality

- Vision

- Innovation

- Psychology

Playing any game or aiming at a personal or business goal without a medium- to long-term vision leads to making decisions - move after move - of a reactive nature, playing the opponent's game (your partner, your employer, a hostile customer, etc.) not your own. Jumping from one new situation to another without a strategy will make you believe you have managed that moment, but will make you lose sight of what you want to achieve in the end. Conversely, those who follow a strategy always start by setting an end goal, far in the future, and work backwards in the present. An experienced chess player makes the right moves now because they are based on how he wants the board and the pieces on it to appear 10 or 20 moves later. This does not require the ability to calculate the billions of possible moves or variations in the next 20 moves, but rather to assess where you are now and set micro-goals to get where you want to be. These micro-goals are of fundamental importance in preparing the conditions for the strategy. One must ask oneself questions such as: ‘What conditions must be true for the strategy to be realised? Do certain sacrifices have to be made? What changes might occur along the way and how can I react or force them?’.

Talent is an innate quality, but it is not enough to excel and achieve the final goal. One must make good use of one's intuition, past experience, mistakes made and continuously work on one's weaknesses. Preparation and study are fundamental elements: the great chess champions have studied hundreds or thousands of games already played and commented, they know openings and variants by heart, so as to speed up the initial stages of the game and not lose precious time, and they develop a better awareness of the possible threats that await them.

Material, time and quality are equally important in the development of the game because they allow for sufficiently well-considered decisions to be made on the basis of the pieces available, the time remaining (a fundamental variable because often in chess, as in life, the time available to us is limited) and the quality of the means available: given the scenario, a piece of greater value might have lower quality compared to a piece of lesser value, and vice versa.

The overall view is an aspect often overlooked in the face of problems. Focusing on a specific dynamic, which directly affects us, can make us lose the primary focus of our key objective. It is necessary to detach oneself from the context, to put oneself in another perspective, to have an enlarged view - it is not uncommon to see some chess players during a tournament get up from their chairs and look at the board from above or from their opponent's shoulders.

Another winning element is creativity, the ability to innovate by surprising or anticipating the opponent, taking him into unknown or unexpected terrain. Originality, however, is not an easy thing and can backfire if not well managed: it requires strong self-confidence, a certain tenacity and a good dose of audacity.

Grandmaster Bobby Fisher, an insuperable genius of the game of chess, was a master in this art: he loved to surprise his opponents, provoke them, set unexpected traps for them and then win and humiliate his opponent. Fisher - genius and unruliness - led the United States to win the World Chess Championship back in 1972 against Russia, in the midst of the Cold War, in a tournament that has gone down in history and is well pictured in the film The Great Game, by Edward Zwick - 2014.

I conclude this article with an extraordinary saying by Ralph Waldo Emerson (American philosopher):

‘He who knows the how will always have a job. He who also knows the why will always be his own boss'.

Some facts:

In 1985, Soviet player Garry Kasparov became the youngest world chess champion at the age of 22, and remained so for a full 15 years until 2000. Current world champion Magnus Carlsen is the youngest player to reach an ELO score of 2800 and rise to the top of the FIDE rankings at the age of 18 and 19 respectively.

Recommended reading:

The Queen's Gambit - Walter Tevis, 2014

The Lüneburg Variant - Paolo Maurensig, 2013

The Defence of Luzin - Vladimir Nabokov, 2001

Imparo gli scacchi - Adolivio Capece, 2016

Sources:

How Life Imitates Chess - Garry Kasparov, 2008

The Number of Shannon - Claude Elwood Shannon (1916-2001) engineer and mathematician calculated the estimated number of possible positions on the chessboard (mathematics.chessdom.com/shannon-number)

#chess #strategy #personaldevelopment #selfdevelopment #innovation