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

by Garry Kasparov

How many moves ahead I saw depended on the position.

truly high level requires a constant stream of exact, informed decisions, made in real time and under pressure from your opponent.

good decisions: calculation, creativity, and a desire for results.

we cannot ignore the creative element, even though we have to harness it to the primary objective of winning the game.

synthesis,

the ability to combine creativity and calculation, art and science, into a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts.

A CEO must combine analysis and research with creative thinking to lead his company effectively. A military leader has to apply his knowledge of human nature to predict and counter the strategies of the enemy.

standards of success and failure in chess are strict. If your decisions are faulty, your position deteriorates and the pendulum swings toward a loss; if they are good, it swings toward a victory. Every single move reflects a decision, and with enough time, you can analyze to a fine certainty whether each decision you made was the most effective.

this kind of objective analysis can provide a great deal of insight into decision-making—which,

ultimately, is the key to

your success or ...

make good decisions and you’ll succeed; make bad ones and you’ll fail.

constantly challenge yourself

learn how to make the best possible decisions.

Not everyone performs at the same level or has the capacity to do so. What is critical is to find your own path to reach your peak; to develop your talents, improve your skills, and seek out and conquer the challenges that will push you to the highest level. And to do all this we first need a plan. In the pages that follow, you will learn how to think strategically, and how to cultivate your own, unique talents. We’ll cover the more practical aspects that go into decision-making, such as understanding the crucial synergy of material, time, and quality, as well as the more human arts of memory, fantasy, and intuition. All of these elements come into play as we strive to become more creative and effective as decision-makers.

I sought out new challenges, looking for things no one had done before.

The map

reveals your strengths, weaknesses, and areas as yet untested.

Acquired patterns and the logic to employ them combine with our inherent qualities to create a unique decision-maker. As time goes by, experience and

knowledge are focused through the prism of talent, which can itself be sharpened, focused, and polished. This mix is the source of intuition, an absolutely unique tool that each of us possesses and that we can continuously hone into an ever-finer instrument.

our emotional makeup as it is expressed in our decisions—what we call st...

You must instead recognize what works best for you and then, through challenge and trial, develop your own method—your own map. To begin, ask yourself, What am I lacking? What are my strengths? What type of challenges do I tend to avoid and why? The method you employ to achieve success is a secret because it can be discovered only by you analyzing your own decisions. This is what my questioners should really have been asking me about instead of my trivial habits: How did I push myself? What questions did I ask myself? How did I investigate and understand my strengths and weaknesses? And how did I use what I learned to get better and further define and hone my method? Those are a few of the questions I have asked myself, and this book contains an honest accounting of my pursuit of the answers.

with practice they will improve your intuitive—unconscious— performance.

To correct the bad and enhance the good you must take an active role in becoming more self-aware.

the essential abilities and skills—strategy, calculation, preparation—that go into making effective decisions.

What changes are needed and why?

combine all of these things to improve our performance.

We must develop our ability to see the big picture and deal with, and learn from, the crises that we inevitably face in our lives.

The “secret” then is to actively, consciously pursue these challenges instead of avoiding them.

have the confidence to trust your instincts, and to know that no matter the result, you will come out stronger.

only two defeats away from a humiliating rout. If ever there was a time for a change in strategy, this was it. Instead of giving in to my feelings of desperation, I forced myself to prepare for a long war of attrition.

guerrilla warfare

reducing my risks, waiting for my chance. I could not afford to expose my...

cautiously, awaiting ...

pressing

advantage

My team and I spent so much time thinking about how Karpov played, which strategies he would employ, that I uncannily felt as if I were becoming Karpov.

creating more winning chances than my opponent.

I was increasingly able to identify my mistakes and analyze why I made them. From that process I learned how best to avoid making them again, to improve the decision-making process itself. This was my first real experience at questioning myself instead of relying only on my instincts. I recognized that I had been too aggressive due to overconfidence. This in turn made me predictable.

identify your mistakes and why you made them

think about why I made the moves I made.

Not just revealing to me the weaknesses, but the importance of finding them for myself.

It’s not enough to be talented. It’s not enough to work hard and to study late into the night. You must also become intimately aware of the methods you use to reach your decisions. Self-awareness is essential to being able to combine your knowledge, experience, and talent to reach your peak performance. Few people ever perform this sort of analysis. Every decision stems from an internal process,

the game is usually accorded either too much or too little respect

become competent at calculation and proficient at maneuvering,

objectives.

Without a goal your play would be aimless. You might be a master tactician, but you’ll ...

strategy is abstract and based on long-term goals, tactics are concrete and based on finding the best move right now. Tactics are conditional and opportunistic, all about threat and defense.

takes both good tactics and wise strategy to be successful.

“Strategy without tactics is the

slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the no...