Chess and business have a lot in common. Both require a great amount of strategic ability. Find out how strategy fuels success in both arenas in this presentation.

1. WHYSTRATEGY
WORKS
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND CHESS
NIR RONEN

2. The one thing that all entrepreneurs have in common? A
competitive spirit. But not just your typical competitive
spirit, one that fully understands a challenge from all
angles and how to see past the stress of “right-now”
problems to find a solution. These are solutions that not
only solve the problem at hand, but also clears the road
of future blocks.

3. An entrepreneur looks toward the end game, as one does in
chess. Being able to diagnose any situation and create a
quick and effective strategy to improve your position is also
one of the biggest factors in a game of chess. It’s not very
likely, however, that you would peg a chess player as being
inherently competitive; we tend to connect competition with
loud and fully encompassing sport. In reality, chess players
thrive under the mindful and competitive spirit of the game.
This is yet another intersection between entrepreneurship
and chess: some of the winningest masters are consistently
calm, cool, and collected.

4. Here, we’ll explore why strategy is such a huge part of
entrepreneurship, and how, like in chess, it’s crucial to
long-term success.

5. ESTABLISHINGTHE
ENDGAME

6. In chess and in business, an objective needs to be
established. Questions like, “What is the goal of this
business deal?” and, “What is the goal of this merger?”
are just pieces of the puzzle. In chess, the goal is pretty
simple: capture the king piece. In business? An answer to
that may not be as clear at first glance, but should
always be identified and as specific as possible. For
instance, a great goal could be that you want to
become the first startup in the world to solve x issue, and
so on and so forth.

7. ALWAYSTWOSTEPS
AHEAD

8. Having a clear goal is a great starting point. But the skills
that will propel you throughout your tenure as an
entrepreneur are a bit more complicated, and can be
found in every move of a game of chess.

9. Staying two steps ahead is absolutely essential as an
entrepreneur and when executing and creating strategy.
Having that endgame in the back of your mind at all times is
crucial. You’ll need to be able to focus on that while solving
issues that come up on your path to fulfilling that objective, or
else you’ll either burn out fast or get defeated fast. The same
goes for chess. If you’re not seeing plays two moves ahead of
the move you’re on, you’ll become stressed by the minute
details that are standing in your way of capturing the king.
Every move you make should have several possible outcomes
that are already equipped with solutions ready to go.

10. KNOWINGTHEVALUEOF
EVERYPIECE

11. To be a true master of strategy, you have to know the
value of every single tool in your arsenal. A beginning
chess player may think that the pawns are throwaway
pieces, since they can’t do all of the tricks that other
pieces can. They are there to serve as a first line of
defense to set up other moves and protect your
strategy, and even there in all their limitations, they
have incredible value – they offer things that other
pieces cannot.

12. In chess, there is also something called pawn
promotion. In this instance, if the pawn makes it all
away across the board, you have the choice to change
it to any piece. In other words, sometimes power is
hidden in the weakest looking objects. Never
underestimate any person on your team – encouraging
and trusting them can help them flourish even more.

13. The same is true of your business; there are always
going to be levels of valued employees as well as some
strategies that work better than others, but value
cannot be duplicated. If you don’t know the value of
your tools, how can you use them? The more tools that
you have an understanding of, the better. This is a
basic part of strategic planning, and will take you far in
business, let alone chess.

14. These similarities between business strategy and chess
will only help you as you move towards a successful
entrepreneurial career. It’s important to keep your head
and take challenges as they come, but to always have
that endgame in mind. If you do this, you could find
yourself to be a champion in both mindful sport and
strategic business in no time.
CHESS&STRATEGY

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