The chess game of life
Give it a go - it's surprisingly beneficial for home, work and your future self.
Those who follow my social media will know that I’ve embraced the game of chess for probably the last two to three years.
It’s a game that is relatively simple to learn, but almost impossible to master.
After an Instagram message from @amalfiboyjay , I decided to pull my finger out and write this post that had been on my to do list!
My beginnings in the game were actually at a young age. Like many, I learned the moves and understood that the ‘horse’ (the knight) moves in a funny way like an L, and that pawns take other pieces diagonally. I used to play it at my youth group, and even went into a couple of tournaments against members of other youth groups in the same network.
I’d heard of a few ‘rules’, like you should put your pawns in the centre.
Then, I didn’t play it for about 25 -30 years.
So, why am I playing it now, and why am I an advocate for adults to embrace the game?
Quite a few adults are getting into or back into the game. Most look bored as soon as you mention it, but when you meet someone who plays, you can see the glint in their eye as they talk about it. And it’s not just the geeks. You’d be surprised at how the game has been embraced by people of all walks of life. It doesn’t discriminate (despite arguably being a ‘boys club’ for most of it’s existence).
Let me start with a helicopter view of the world of chess right now. It’s far more accessible than it was when I was a kid, as all you need is your mobile phone or a computer - you don’t need a chess board. And it’s far more popular.
A quick search on YouTube brings up countless educational videos, and the cool kids who know about things like Twitch (which I’ve embarrassingly never even looked into, let alone used) will know that it is fairly prominent there, from what I understand.
It’s been ‘jazzed up’, with different competition formats, and a host of younger grandmasters who are seemingly more relatable than Kasparov and Karpov, who I remember from my childhood.
But most of all, I guess the Netflix show The Queen’s Gambit, together with lockdown, had a lot to do with it. Again embarrassingly, I started after lockdown, haven’t seen the show, and don’t subscribe to Netflix!
I started playing again because I saw in an article how it can help with ADHD. And I felt the benefits the moment I downloaded an app.
What are the benefits of the game?
Apart from being a (sometimes) enjoyable game, the things that draw me in to the game are that it is one of the only ‘sports’ where you are solely responsible for your performance. It’s not like football where you can blame the ref, the weather, or your teammates. You have to take full responsibility for everything that happens on the board. You can’t miss that hole in one because of a freak gust of wind in this game.
I’ve also noticed, and learned of, a whole host of benefits that have helped shape my thinking outside of the game.
One of the fundamental elements of chess is pattern recognition.
This can be as simple as common opening formations, or it can be a deadly checkmating pattern. Over time you see similar positions which might not be identical; however the structure of the pieces on the board will alert you to the fact that you might be able to win, or lose, soon - or, as you progress, alert you to a tactical opportunity or threat.
Next up is the development of strategic and tactical thinking.
I don’t personally like the definitions used in the chess world to separate these, and I’ll keep it simple.
Even at the beginners level, chess forces you to think about what your plans are, to identify tactics to achieve them, and to visualise what will happen if x, y, or z happens. Because after all, we don’t have crystal balls.
We need to second guess what our opponent could do, and work out plans from there, in order to decide what our best move is before playing it.
As a player gets stronger, visualisation and calculation becomes even more important. Not only identifying the candidate moves and working out what the response will be, but then mapping out the next few likely moves - and with virtually unlimited moves available, it soon becomes a ‘mind map’ for each potential move.
All in your mind of course, as you’re not allowed to write things down during a chess match, according to the rules.
These things can be applied practically at work and at home.
I’ve always been a strong advocate of looking for the second bounce of the ball. This is a snazzy quote from a book I read many years ago, which mentions that one of the things that set apart great footballers is that they don’t think about where the ball will land, but actually, where the second bounce will be.
Having watched some football matches stood with Charlie Austin, an ex premiership footballer who happened to be an ex player for the team I took over, I can assure you that elite sports thinking is far deeper than any Harry Kane or David Beckham memes that you might see - it’s a masterclass in football for the 90 minutes - but please bear with this oversimplification.
In life, we often look at what is right in front of us, and either act or react based on the immediate circumstances. Particularly when fight or flight kicks in.
Imagine you are stuck in traffic, and then cut up whilst driving during your commute - and you were already running late.
There are three groups of reactions - you could have active road rage, passive road rage, or indifference. These cover every snap response from jumping out the car to threaten the other driver, the silent and unshared middle finger and anger, through to my preferred and now natural approach of stoicism and realising that ‘you are the traffic’.
These reactions are often instinctive, based on a variety of emotional and logical factors, and have pretty much been coded within our makeup. And trust me, they change over time, I used to be horrific and would allow other drivers to get to me. I now realise life is far too short, they’re probably in a rush too, I’ve probably made a mistake a mile or so ago, and that I should just have left earlier. And that my life is far too valuable for something to go wrong.
Logically, we should assess each of the options available to us. Would there be a net benefit of educating the driver about his or her bad driving? Would there be a risk of any argument dragging on for half an hour making me even more late for work? If I take no action, will it anger me later or will the self disciplined calm help me have a better day? And so on.
We have an awareness of what the other person is thinking and feeling, and an idea of their options, but we also don’t know our blind spots (and trust me, they turn up in chess too). Could they be an undercover police officer en route to stopping a major crime? Could they be a leading surgeon about to save someone’s life? Could they be a nutter with a machete on the passenger seat?
Yes, these blind spots are the real life version of the bishop stuck in the corner, innocently and out of sight, who’s about to capture our queen.
Now the road rage scenario might seem far fetched and overtly emotional driven once in the situation. But the same kind of thinking applies when a major customer tries to negotiate with you, or you are facing a difficult family decision. Pattern recognition can flag up issues before they become issues, strategic and tactical thinking helps you to work out what your options are based on your long term and immediate goals, and visualisation and calculation helps you to evaluate the options on the table.
There’s two brain benefits for this game too.
I’ve talked about the immediate practical benefits that I believe anyone could benefit from sharpening in life.
There’s two other benefits I’d like to share, one that is based on my own experience, and one that I hope will form my future experiences.
The first is focus. I wrote in my previous article about ADHD. This game helps! I won’t repeat those words here.
The second is sharpening the brain.
Let’s be honest, none of us are getting any younger. And whilst I still might not know what I want to be when I grow up, I have to be realistic and realise that at the ripe old age of 43, I am likely half way through my life.
It’s believed that chess could well be a preventative measure against degenerative diseases such as dementia.
Enough eulogising, what are the realistic steps to get started?
Simply, learn the moves and start playing! It’s that simple.
You can sink yourself into endless hours of YouTube lessons, learn umpteen opening theories, and buy all the books - but realistically, who’s got time for that?
As I said before, it’s an easy game to learn but almost impossible to master.
What I would say however is to check your ego at the door before starting. Kids are amazingly strong at the game. In fact, a kid called Abhimanyu Mishra became a grandmaster at 12! I’ve definitely seen from some of the online videos that even established players hate facing kids. Not only do they have all the time in the world to play, but they benefit from increased neuroplasticity.
Basically, their brains find it really easy to pick up things, like learning languages, that adults find much more difficult.
I’d set myself a couple of targets, based around ELO. Your ELO is a score that is calculated on an algorithm to work out how strong you are. You’re expected to beat someone at your level 50% of the time, and lose 50% of the time. If you do better, it climbs, if you don’t, it falls. That’s my really simple understanding. It’s a model used in all sorts of fields, from various games right through to dating apps!
First was to get to an ELO of 1,000 or 1,200. I ramped it up to 1,200 after seeing Steve Bolton, a business contact of mine, share on LinkedIn that he had hit that level (yes, I’m competitive and admire a lot of what he has done, so why not aim for the stars?)
I also had a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) of 2,000, which would make me a very strong player.
But, there are not many adult starters / resumers who achieve that. It’s a unicorn status. Our brains just can’t absorb as effectively as kids who are being coached, even if we have the best coaches in the world. Plus, life gets in the way much more as an adult!
I’ve hit come to terms with the fact that I may never hit 2,000. But for the year ahead, I want to continue to develop without impacting the other areas of my life, and I’d like to be at a point where I could realistically show up at a tournament over the board and not humiliate myself.
As a final note, I entered a tournament last night. It was great fun, for players rated 1,700 and below. It was ‘rapid’, meaning 10 minutes each, and unlike the kids who knock out three minute games, I prefer slightly longer per match and tend to play at 15 minutes, so time pressure was a challenge. Here was my standing a match before the end (I actually dropped a couple of places as some matches were finishing up). Still, 8th out of 196 is something I’m mega proud of!
Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com
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Please note that the main image on this article was generated using AI. The words are all my own unless explicitly stated.
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