Thiel knew the importance of finishing. He had written it in Zero to One. “It is much better to be the last mover,” not the first mover. “Grandmaster José Raúl Capablanca”—Thiel’s favorite chess player—“put it well: to succeed ‘you must study the endgame before everything else.’” The conspirators had studied it, but only so far as their maneuvering took to get the other man’s king on its side. What they failed to consider was that in any chess match between masters, there is always more than one game. Each requires its own unique plan.
