#39 Inspiration through play: How chess takes your strategic thinking to a new level

In this podcast episode, Jürgen tells the special story of the most popular board game in the western world: chess.

Why chess of all things?

If you google the word strategy or enter it into image databases, you will see that it is strongly associated with a chess piece. Why is that? It's worth taking a closer look and reflecting on this.

What is missing in chess that plays a role in the real corporate world, and where are there parallels?

Although Jürgen is not a chess player himself, he has studied the rules of the game and the theory behind it in great detail.

Chess originated in ancient times before the Christian era around the 6th century. It originates from Persia and is derived from the Persian term shah, which means ruler or king.

The rules were developed in the Middle Ages and due to the Islamization of the western world around the Mediterranean, chess quickly became socially acceptable in countries such as Spain in the 18th century. Cities such as Paris and London eventually became strongholds for chess in the 19th century. Coffee houses became chess houses and the board with the 64 squares no longer had to be taken from home, but was always on site. Today, chess is known worldwide - there are tournaments and world championships.

In the corporate world, the 64 fields represent the relevant market or the relevant environment in which you operate. This is limited. There are two players who are opponents. In economics, this is referred to as a duopoly: two players who are large enough to determine the outcome and between whom there is common knowledge. This means that the players' knowledge is infinitely intertwined (everyone knows that everyone knows that everyone knows... that everyone has the same information). How do you break this? Through strategy and tactics. There is a given set of pieces. The king plays the most important role. The aim of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king so that he can no longer move.

This is the difference to the corporate environment. There, you don't want to destroy or bring down your opponent. Rather, the aim is to be better than the opponent and win more profitable customers. Nevertheless, the situation with two players is extremely interesting, as it is a purely strategic interaction: what you do yourself has a direct influence on your opponent and vice versa. You are always interdependent. Your own positioning on the chessboard depends on what the other player does, while the other player knows that this is the case and you also know that this is the case. In chess, you try to position yourself in such a way that you can eliminate your opponent as quickly and effectively as possible. Chess experts think many moves ahead.

The opening is based on experience and knowledge acquired from other chess games. The opening moves are not always aimed at gaining an advantage; sometimes, for example, a pawn is sacrificed in order to achieve a better position later on. In the corporate environment, this is comparable to exiting a business segment in order to deploy resources elsewhere.

After the opening phase, the game really gets going, as it offers an almost infinite number of possibilities. In addition to strategy, tactics play an extremely important role: strategy binds, tactics can change things in the short term.

In the middle section, strategic and tactical thinking is particularly important. In the corporate world, you are exposed to competition on the market, which requires you to think about the next steps such as investments, discontinuations, etc. In chess, this is equivalent to converting the pieces: if a pawn reaches the base line, it can be converted into another piece.

If there are only a few pieces left on the chessboard in the endgame, the next move can mean checkmate. Thinking through the scenarios helps - think the unthinkable! Learn to deal with crisis situations, sacrifice things and make consistent decisions. This requires the right strategy to avoid being headless. Strategic thinking and action is action - if you set up your routines in such a way that you practise this, it will give you a big advantage in crisis situations. The experience of playing chess in a strategic context is future-oriented. It is unlikely that the future will look like the present. That's why you can't always start with the same opening move. This depends a lot on psychology, i.e. on the opponent's attitude, and not just on rational thinking.

There are fascinating parallels between chess and corporate strategy. The pieces on the chessboard represent the company's own organization. The king represents the main decision-makers of a company. Then there are the bishops, the middle management level, who have different functions and flexibility. The employees represent the remaining chess pieces. It is interesting to note that each piece has a different value. Competition is relative. How you deploy your own resources depends on the activities of your competitors in the market. In chess, too, resources are relative to your opponent. The chessboard remains as it is. There are 64 squares and - in contrast to the corporate context - no other options can be added from outside. Chess helps to develop strategic thinking. Especially when it comes to a situation with direct or potential competition. Chess promotes anticipation, looking ahead. One principle of game theory is to put yourself in your opponent's shoes and understand the game through their eyes.

Yes, the strategy muscle can be trained! This is a message that Christian and Jürgen want to spread. Strategy must become a routine, not automatically, but with constant thought, because the environment is constantly changing. If you like to play, you can train your strategy muscle with chess. It also helps you to keep a cool head when you've maneuvered yourself into a hopeless situation.

Chess can not only be played against humans, but also against chess simulators or computers. The first chess automaton already existed in the second half of the 18th century. It was mechanically constructed and could make moves independently. It was created at the court of the empress in Vienna because an official and automaton builder wanted to impress the empress. This is how the Schachtürke was built, against which even Napoleon is said to have once played and lost.

Chess training. The key insight from this is that you are prepared to be creative, because you don't know how your opponent will think and play. Even if you have practiced moves, things will turn out differently. You have to react to this. Not with a shock, but with agile solutions.

We hope that we have been able to inspire you to play through strategic moves more often and bring strategy to life. In the European Middle Ages, chess was considered one of the seven virtuous skills of knights. Perhaps you would like to acquire them and learn from the game.