How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

by Garry Kasparov

How could the world champion and his challenger both miss something so important in the endgame despite having so few pieces on the board to create complications? I think it’s because the aridity of the endgame, its lack of dynamism, leads players to become blind to opportunity. The technical phase can be boring because there is little opportunity for creativity, for art. Boredom leads to complacency and mistakes. The same is true in the workplace. If one is faced with a repetitive job, it can be difficult to stay alert to opportunities to solve problems creatively. Your instincts slowly go numb when every analysis returns the same answers over and over. What should be a search for excellence and the best solution eventually turns into a “good enough” mentality. We must strive to keep things fresh so we can rely on and enhance our instincts instead of falling into mental ruts.