I fired up a few games of blitz chess yesterday.

And dusting off my Queens Gambit Declined brought to mind the many hours I used to spend studying openings and endgames.

At some point, this studying morphed into how to get a broader edge at the chessboard. 

And lots of these lessons are wholly applicable for navigating life too.

For instance:

Taking calculated risks is almost mandatory for chess players who want to win big games.  So it’s not a question of if to take risks, but which risks to take and when to take them

Listening to intuition.  At the quickest time controls, thinking for more than a couple of seconds on a chess move can be a death knell.  So moves are made on instinct and feel, not calculation.  Chess players know to follow and trust their gut, even in moments of high drama and tension

Maximising time.  Top chess players are masters of managing their clocks to maximise the time they have available.  They invest time when they need to, move quickly when they don’t and use their opponents’ thinking time when they can (the chess equivalent of delegating & outsourcing)

Getting in the zone.  When I play a game of chess, any thoughts about what I’m having for tea or what life admin I have on my to-do list are dropped just like the BBC drops a middle-aged news presenter:  instantly, and with no fuss.  This way, I’m fully engaged in the game I'm playing

Control vs Influence.  Chess players know that things which can’t be controlled can still be influenced.  Either through their own play (like steering the game a certain way), or with less conventional methods.  Kasparov, for instance, would stomp around, stare players down, mutter and tut-tut under his breath to unsettle his nervous opponents and try to provoke blunders

Knowing when to stop.  Top players don’t keep playing in hopeless positions.  Instead, they resign and conserve energy.  They know there’s always another game to play, and that there's no shame in starting again

Anyhow, these are just some of the lessons that apply "across the board".

And while I’m not about to start promoting chess products in this newsletter, I’m certainly a supporter of the Royal Game and what it can teach.

Some ideas to ponder perhaps.

That’s all for today. 

 - Tom