The ChEx Bookshelf
Each issue in this column , Chief Executive Andrew Farthing introduces a noteworthy book of interest to the average player
THE BUSINESS OF CHESS What is the secret of success ? How can I emulate the performance of those at the top ? What are those magic shortcuts to improvement ?
Chess publishing exists because there are enough of us asking these questions and – more importantly – willing to feed our hunger for answers by buying books . Deep down , I know that my standard of chess is very unlikely to improve significantly , yet I continue to buy chess books in considerable quantities . In this , I am clearly not alone .
Is this a folly unique to chess ? Reassuringly , the answer is a resounding “ No !” The world of business and management is also full of punters desperate to uncover the secrets of success and the bookshops are full of offerings to meet that need . No matter how many sceptics question their value , the books fly off the shelves in order to sit – often unread – on the desk of business people the world over .
Occasionally , there is crossover between the fields of business and chess . In 2008 , the American chess publisher Bob Long produced The Chess Assassin ’ s Business Manual ( Thinkers ’ Press ), an account of his life in the “ business ” of chess . Anecdotal in style , this is essentially autobiographical in nature with a few chess games thrown in for good measure . I rather enjoyed it , but then as a reader of both chess and business books I may well be the book ’ s ideal reader . The educational value for business people is , I suspect , marginal at best , but chess players may find it interesting provided that they don ’ t expect it to improve their game .
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Better known is How Life Imitates Chess by Garry Kasparov and Mig Greengard ( William Heinemann ; 2007 ). In this book , according to the front-cover blurb , “ The most successful chess player of all time shares his insights into life as a game of strategy .” Sadly , the book falls between two stools . As a business textbook ( or life manual ), it fails to convince , and the promised “ insights ” come across as rather bland generalisations . The most interesting sections are the specific anecdotes from Kasparov ’ s chess life , but the nature of the book means that these are diluted by the more “ universal ” content . The authors work hard to persuade the reader that the chess / life or chess / business metaphor is valid but prove unable to move beyond this to show that the metaphor in turn generates insights unavailable without it .
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So much for ventures into business literature from within the chess world ; what about attempts to use lessons from business to learn about chess ?
The book that I want to focus on tries to do precisely that : Foundations of Chess Strategy by Lars Bo Hansen ( Gambit ; 2005 ). Hansen is a Danish grandmaster who has made the career shift into business , where “ he teaches and lectures on business studies , with a particular focus on marketing , organisation and strategy .” A number of strong players have moved into other professions , of course , but Hansen is unusual in that he continues to write about chess and , moreover , actively seeks to import models and frameworks from business thinking and apply them to chess .
The business models in question are not particularly complex . At the risk of over-simplifying , they can be summarised as follows :
( 1 ) Outside-in or Inside-out – This refers to the notion of whether strategy should be determined by the external environment (“ Outside-in ”) or the internal qualities of the organisation (“ Inside-out ”). As so often in this area , there is no right answer , but Hansen makes the point that if strategy is driven only by the external conditions , there is a risk that everyone ends up with the same strategy and , therefore , no competitive advantage . Success , he argues , comes from a focus on what the individual ( or organisation ) does particularly well , i . e . the “ inside ”.
( 2 ) The Five Forces – In business strategy , this is a famous framework devised by Michael Porter . Here , Hansen adapts the model to chess , replacing the four external forces identified by Porter with chess terms ( Material ; Initiative ; Positional Factors and Environmental Factors ) and the internal “ force ” with the Human Factor .
( 3 ) Personal Style matrix – A classic ‘ four-box grid ’ so beloved of management consultants the world over . Here , it is applied to the definition of four broad groupings of chess styles . The Personal Style matrix brings us to the heart of Hansen ’ s book , perhaps best summarised in the following table taken from Chapter 3 : Space prohibits a detailed explanation of this model ,