5 lessons a Chess Grandmaster taught me about business
The Hyperfocused Entrepreneur
October 24, 2023
Read time: 5 minutes
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I didn’t see my dad much as a kid.
He was an Army Ranger and gone more often than not.
When he was home, we really struggled to connect.
He was emotionally switched off…whereas I was a spastic kid with ADHD.
Surprisingly, Chess was one of the few ways we had to connect.
Now, I don’t know why my dad ever thought teaching a kid with ADHD to pay chess would be a good idea…
Perhaps he thought it would help me develop the ability to concentrate…
But I’m glad he did.
Because this was one of the earliest examples I can think of where somebody believed in my ability to overcome my biology.
And truly, there were very few instances of that in my childhood.
More often than not I felt trapped…
But not when I was playing chess.
Maybe it was born from a deep desire to impress my dad, but I took chess very seriously.
The game took on a deep significance.
I wanted nothing more than to make my dad proud and show him just how good I could be.
So I poured myself into the game and studied religiously…
In particular, I became fascinated with the book:
My Best Games of Chess 1908-1937 by Alexander Alekhine
Why this book?
Because my dad’s name was also Alexander and in my childish mind I thought by studying the games of a former world champion named Alexander, I might be able to figure out my dad’s game.
And wouldn’t ya know it… my weird childhood logic… didn’t actually help.
I played thousands of games against my dad and in each one of them he beat me ruthlessly.
To this day, my proudest accomplishment in chess is not winning the South Dakota State Chess Championship in 9th grade…
Or winning the Governor’s Cup in 10th grade…
It was the first time I beat my dad in a game of chess when I was nearly 16 years old.
It took me over a decade to get that first win.
His response?
“It’s about time.”
By the way, it took me years to realize that was never meant as an insult.
It was actually his way of saying:
“I always knew you could.”
But that’s a story for another day…
Let’s talk about why we’re here:
It turns out that many of the lessons I learned in chess would come in handy later in life when I started my first business.
Today, I’m going to share 5 lessons in particular that I’ve used over the years to build a couple marginally successful businesses…
(and which YOU can use regardless of where you are on your entrepreneurial journey)
Let’s break’em down:
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1. Control the Center
This is one of the most fundamental rules of high level chess.
The player controlling the middle four squares of the board has a massive advantage.
Think of it like the high ground.
From this position your pieces have maximum influence across the battlefield.
The question to ask yourself as the founder (or general) of your business is this:
Where is the center of the board?
You need to answer this question both internally and externally.
The Internal:
What are the fewest number of squares you need to control within your business?
The answer I came to:
• Marketing
• Operations
• Finance
The External:
What are the fewest number of squares you need to control outside your business?
My answer:
• Google SEO
• Amazon Storefront
• Supply Chain
Your center is likely different from mine.
Identify yours and then control them at all costs.
2. True Value of a Piece
One of the first things you learn about chess is that all the pieces have different values.
Typically, these are the points each piece is worth:
Pawn = 1
Knight = 2.5
Bishop = 3.0-3.5
Rook = 5
Queen = 9
King = Priceless
This serves as a quick and easy way to calculate who has the stronger army.
For instance, trading a Knight and Bishop (3+3.5) is roughly equal to one Rook (5) plus one Pawn (1).
Two Rooks (5+5) is roughly equal to a Queen (9) and Pawn (1).
This is a good starting point, but it’s just the beginning.
See, it’s important to understand that the value of a piece is relative to the board dynamics.
For example:
Kasparov showed us in the world championship against Karpov that a single Knight (2.5) if positioned correctly, can dominate a Queen and two Rooks (9+5+5).
That legendary little horsey was dubbed The Octopus Knight and lives in infamy to this very day.
Here’s what this means for your business:
The value of your people is dependent on where you put them on the board.
Jim Collins famously expressed this as getting the right people on the bus in the right seats.
It’s amazing how everything changes when you get this right.
3. Owning the Initiative
In chess there are a few ways to determine who is winning.
The most obvious way is to count pieces.
Often the person with the bigger army has the advantage.
But not always…
Like we just mentioned, a smaller army occupying better terrain can hold off a vastly superior force.
We call this Positional Advantage (which we’ll discuss a little more in a second).
But there is a third way to evaluate a position that 95% of people are completely unaware of…
And in my experience…
Whoever has this advantage, typically wins.
It’s called The Initiative.
The Initiative is determined by which player is dictating the action.
Which player is Acting and which is Reacting.
Answer that question, and you can predict with a high degree of certainty who will ultimately arise victorious.
Napoleon always had the Initiative.
HE dictated where, when, and how the action would unfold and, as a result, despite often having vastly inferior forces, managed to win.
In business (and in life), a lack of skill or experience can almost always be overcome with the appropriate amount of gusto.
So move towards your goals with momentum, inertia, and ENERGY.
4. Position over Submission
I started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu a couple years ago and I quickly noticed one massive difference between the lower belts and upper belts.
The lower belts were CONSTANTLY looking for the submission.
Didn’t matter if you were sitting on their chest, they would reach up with arms extended and try to choke you with their bare hands despite having zero leverage.
The upper belts, by contrast, pretty much only ever went for submissions after they’d thoroughly dominated you positionally.
They were the one sitting on YOUR chest with YOUR arms spread all willy nilly before they finally reached down and with very little effort, choked you out.
The same thing happens in chess (and in business).
New players fixate on the checkmate.
Advanced players understand that if you control the position, the submission will naturally appear.
I think about this a lot as it pertains to sales and marketing.
Too often we go for the knock-out punch (or sale) before we’ve really laid the groundwork.
As a result, sales are WAY more difficult (and uncomfortable) than they need to be.
5. The Hardest Move to Find
In my opinion, one of the greatest players to never win a World Championship was Vasyl Ivanchuk.
I think about him a lot because he said something that’s stuck with me over the years:
“The hardest move to find is a knight retreat.”
I agree.
The moves that require us to take one step back before taking two steps forward are incredibly hard to see not only in Chess, but in Business and in Life.
Intentionally moving away from our goal (whether that be through firing high maintenance customers, rethinking our entire business plan, or taking our best selling product offline) is so unintuitive that we often never even consider it.
And yet…
Sometimes taking a step back is, in fact, the fastest way to move forward.
One of my favorite questions to ask in growing a business is:
What is the best move I’m not even seeing right now?
Answer that and you’ll be well on your way to victory.
Alright, that’ll do it for me!
Until next week,
Stay Hyperfocused,
AV
From YouTube This Week:
How to Unlock Hyperfocus: 10 Rules I Used to Turn ADHD into a Superpower
Want to go even deeper?
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2. If you’re in relentless pursuit of doing less, but better, than check out my podcast, Amplified Impact, for a quick-hitting daily dose of motivation and inspiration.
