Chess Stories: What one Master's Experiences tell us about Life and Work

After centuries of honing their craft, chess masters have discovered enlightening ways to think about decision-making and strategic planning. They know that they must evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of key pieces and key squares. They place every move within a broad context of flexible, long range planning. And they pass learned definitions, pithy adages, and instructive stories from generation to generation.

During the course of more than thirty years of giving lessons to some very talented youth, I’ve come to believe that the coaching was about much more than chess. I know that my best students would agree. Many went on to attend prestigious institutions of higher education. Not all continued to play, but all confirmed that the skills they learned wound up being useful in life and in the careers they selected.

We make thousands of decisions in our lives. Some are as trivial as what television program to watch or what toaster oven to buy. Others are unarguably long-term and strategic. Which courses to take? What colleges to attend? What jobs and projects to pursue? And how to pursue them. Non chess players who read this book will certainly come away with a better appreciation for the game. More than that, I expect that you will come away thinking more about how you make decisions and how you interact with others.

As a chess player, I won the US Correspondence Chess Championship in 1997 and the North American Invitational Correspondence Chess Championship in 1999. At work, I was involved in strategic planning in IT at Princeton University for more than 20 years. Although I would never admit it to my chess friends or co-workers, each (pre) occupation influenced the other.