In this podcast episode, Jürgen tells the special story of the most popular board game in the Western world: chess.
Why chess of all things?
If you Google the word strategy or type it into image databases, you will see that it is strongly associated with a chess piece. Why is that? It's worth taking a closer look and reflecting on this.
What is missing in chess that plays a role in the real corporate world, and where are the parallels?
Although Jürgen is not a chess player himself, he has studied the rules of the game and the theory behind it very carefully.
A few key points about the history of chess
Chess originated in ancient times before the Christian era, around the 6th century. It originates from Persia and derives from the Persian term Shah , which translated means the ruler or king .
The rules were developed in the Middle Ages, and due to the Islamization of the Western world around the Mediterranean, chess quickly became respectable in countries like Spain in the 18th century.
Cities like Paris and London eventually became strongholds for chess in the 19th century. Coffee houses became chess houses and the board with the 64 squares no longer had to be taken from home, but was always on site. Today, chess is known globally - there are tournaments and world championships.
Chess transferred to today's corporate strategy
In the corporate world, the 64 fields represent the relevant market or the relevant environment in which one operates. This is limited. There are two players who are opponents. In economics, this is referred to as a duopoly: two players who are large enough to determine the outcome and between whom there is common knowledge . This means that the knowledge of the players is infinitely interleaved (all know that all know that all know... that all have the same information).
How do you interrupt this? Through strategy and tactics.
There is a given set of pieces. The most important role is played by the king. The goal of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king so that there is no possibility for him to move.
This is the difference to the corporate environment. There, you don't want to destroy or bring down your opponent. Rather, it's about being better than the opponent and gaining more profitable customers.
Nevertheless, the two-player situation is highly interesting because it is a purely strategic interaction: what you do yourself has a direct impact on your opponent and vice versa. One is always interdependent. One's own positioning on the chess board depends on what the other does, while the other knows that it is so and you yourself know that it is so as well.
Thus, in chess, one tries to position oneself in such a way that one can eliminate the opponent as quickly and as well as possible. Chess experts think many moves ahead.
Opening, middlegame and endgame - the three parts of a chess game
Opening
The opening is based on experience and knowledge acquired from other chess games. The opening moves are not always aimed at gaining an advantage themselves, but sometimes a pawn is sacrificed, for example, in order to achieve a better position later on.
In the corporate environment, this is comparable to exiting a business field in order to deploy resources elsewhere.
Middle game
After the opening phase, the game really gets going, because it offers an almost infinite number of possibilities. In addition to strategy, tactics play an extremely important role: strategy binds, tactics can change things in the short term.
In the middle section, strategic and tactical thinking is particularly required. In the corporate world, one is exposed to competition on the market here, which requires consideration of the next steps such as investments, discontinuations, etc.
In chess, this is equivalent to converting pieces: if a pawn reaches the baseline, it can be converted into another piece.
Final
If there are only a few pieces left on the chessboard in the endgame, the next move can mean checkmate. Thinking through the scenarios helps - think the unthinkable! Learn to deal with crisis situations, sacrifice things and make consistent decisions. This requires the right strategy to avoid being mindless.
Strategic thinking and acting is acting - if you set up your routines to practice this, it will give you a great advantage in crisis situations.
The lessons learned from playing chess in a strategy context are future-oriented. It is unlikely that the future will look like the present. That's why you can't always start with the same opening move. This depends a lot on psychology, i.e. on how the opponent is set, and not only on rational thinking.
Value and function of individual employees and chess pieces respectively
So there are fascinating parallels between chess and corporate strategy. The pieces on the chess board represent one's own organization. The king represents the main decision makers of a company. Then there are the bishops, the middle management level, who have different functions and flexibility. The employees represent the remaining chess pieces. What's interesting here is that each piece has a different value.
Competition is relative. How one uses one's resources depends on the activities of competitors in the market. In chess, too, resources are relative to the opponent. At the same time, the chessboard remains as it is. There are the 64 squares and - in contrast to the corporate context - no further possibilities can be added from the outside.
Playing chess helps to develop strategic thinking. Especially when it comes to a situation with a direct or potential competitor. Chess promotes anticipation, looking ahead. A principle of game theory is to put oneself in the position of the opponent and understand the game from his or her eyes.
How important is it to train the strategy muscle and is it trainable at all?
Yes, the strategy muscle can be trained! This is a message that Christian and Jürgen want to spread. Strategy must become a routine, and not automatically, but with constant thought, because the environment is constantly changing. If you like to play, you can train your strategy muscle with chess. It also helps to keep a cool head when you find yourself in a hopeless situation.
Playing chess against computers and simulators
Chess can be played not only against humans, but also against chess simulators or computers. The first chess automaton already existed in the second half of the 18th century. It was mechanically constructed and could make moves independently. It was created at the court of the empress in Vienna, because an official and automaton builder wanted to impress the empress. This is how the Schachtürke was built, against which even Napoleon is said to have once played and lost.
Conclusion - Chess and corporate strategy
Chess game trained. The essential insight from this is: You are prepared to become creative, because you don't know how your opponent will think and play. Even if you have rehearsed moves, things turn out differently. You have to react to this. Not with a shock, but with agile solutions.
We hope that we could inspire you to play through strategic moves more often and to experience strategy. In the European Middle Ages, chess was considered one of the seven virtuous skills of knights. You may want to acquire them and learn from the game.