Many of these principles are equally applicable to your life and career.

Control the center

A game of chess kicks off with a battle for control over the central squares of the chessboard, which gives greater influence and mobility. When you start your career or new job, identify the core skills, knowledge and networks that make the centre of the chessboard. Formulate your plan and timelines to master these and say ‘no’ to all other choices in the initial stage. Once you control the centre, you have greater choice and influence over your direction and goals.

Piece development, activation

In the first phase of the game, chess masters focus on efficiently bringing out or developing their pieces and activating them on key squares. This takes priority over launching an early attack. This strategy is critical for your career and job. In a new job, project or career switch, first invest in developing key skills, understanding critical processes and building relationships. If you take adventurous action prematurely without this foundation, you will crash at the first hurdle without the resources to execute your plan.

King safety

The goal of chess is to checkmate the opponent king while protecting your own. Good chess players invest early in sheltering their king before launching attacks. Similarly,the goal of your job or career is your wellbeing and success. On the personal front, safety means investing early in your health, emotional well-being and family support. At work, safety lies in guarding your professional reputation, demonstrating trust and reliability at work, and building positive relationships with team members and stakeholders. These keep you protected from crises that could threaten your well-being.

The endgame in chess requires precise calculations and maneuvering to convert an advantage into victory when there are limited pieces on the board. Since these are deeply researched, well-known sets of tactics, they must be mastered. In your job, this translates to operational or execution mastery over common and recurring situations. Are you investing in skills, experiences and relationships that will help you convert advantages into successes or minimise losses in case of setbacks and transitions..?

Outposts

Outposts in chess are squares that are securely in control of your pieces, which cannot be threatened any more. What are your current strengths and skills..? Where do you need to build expertise and secure a position or role that leverages your advantages..? Look for an area or requirement in job where you can make a unique contribution or add irreplaceable value, thus becoming an indispensable asset for your employer or industry.

Exchange strategy

Exchange strategy in chess is about trading your pieces strategically to improve your position or weaken the opponent. In career, the important choices you make always involve trade-offs. You make an exchange when you accept a new role, pursue higher education, or change your industry or function. While you evaluate the benefits of the exchange, consider what you are giving up and the drawbacks of your choice. Will you reach a better position in your career in the long term as a result..?

Material advantage

In chess, winning extra material gives strong advantage to a player even though it is not the only determinant of victory. In your job and life, consider how you can work towards gaining material advantage. Pursuing education or skilling parallel to your day job, learning to handle finances and personal investments, taking on new projects and responsibilities are potential avenues where you carve out material advantages for your life or professional portfolio. Meanwhile, don’t miss out on non-material advantages like job satisfaction, personal fulfillment and pursuit of values.

Initiative

In chess, active play and initiative compensate for material disadvantage and creates attack opportunities. At work, where you are at a material disadvantage, you can compensate and even win by seizing the initiative. Your willingness to go beyond your role is more valuable than your colleague’s higher qualifications or experience. Proposing solutions to problems, taking ownership for outcomes, volunteering to lead projects are ways you can leapfrog out of a disadvantageous starting position. In the market, a high-initiative startup responds quickly to customer problems, taking away the game from a cash-rich, but slow moving, leader.

Time management

Chess has different formats around the time taken to complete a game or the number of moves. You may be in a winning position, but if your time runs out, you lose. Players learn to balance the time spent in calculations and thinking, with making moves. Taking action without spending time thinking through is a blunder. Equally disastrous is taking too much time in analysis and decision-making, and not taking timely action, thus missing opportunities and deadlines.

TACTICS FOR BUSINESS DOMINANCE

FORK

Are you working on a product or service in a tough competitive market..? Use time-tested chess tactics to gain the upper hand. In a chess fork, one piece attacks two opponent pieces simultaneously. Use a marketing campaign or product variant that targets multiple customer segments or serves multiple market needs.

PIN

A pin in chess is when your piece restricts the movement of an opponent piece by threatening a more valuable piece behind it. Use this principle to figure out how to limit a competitor’s options or flexibility. Consider a barrier to entry with an exclusive partnership or a proprietary technology.

DISCOVERED ATTACK

A discovered attack is when an attack by a piece is uncovered by moving another piece. Use this tactic by creating and then uncovering an innovative product, an untapped market or a strategic partnership that catches your opponent off guard and delays the response substantially.

INTERFERENCE

When you place a piece in opponent’s path to disrupt coordination and communication, it is termed interference. Poaching a key talent or supplier from a competitor, a disruptive ad campaign, taking control of a supply chain link and disrupting alliances are examples of interfering with a competitor’s execution.

DECOY

This means sacrificing a less valuable piece to lure the opponent’s more valuable piece into a trap. Decoy tactics in business include creating a decoy service, or a loss-making price for a limited product release, thus decoying them into focusing on short-term threats while you build on long-term objectives.