I wonder if anyone has an observations about whether skill in chess translates into ability to cope with business, legal, and other life challenges?

 

 I find that I am much better with business strategies than with chess games. Sometimes when I see my chess blunders it worries me about how I will function in the "real world." Actually I seem to do above average in my business, which is real estate brokerage: a professional in which strategizing is a basic element.

 

I am not sure why I see to be much better at business strategies than at chess. Perhaps part of it is that chess is entirely oppositional, whereas a major component in business success is to identify, and make a convincing presentation for win-win solutions. Other than perhaps a draw, there is no win-win in chess.

 

 Another idea I have is that maybe the fact that chess is conducted on a finite board with exact rules, limits the type of play, even though within that limitation, an incredible number of variations are possible. But in real life, the elements can never be totally identified and limited. For example, how could anyone compare the effect of a raised eyebrow at a critical moment in a conversation, with a pawn move?  

I think chess gives you mental power and control of emotions cause when u lose

u are forced to control your emotions. It also gives you strategical thinking and helps you get your job done.

 

with some practice on chess you can improve your concentration skills. This can help you on real world situations when you want to focus on something important while there is some noise around you. I find myself in this situation very often when I try to automate some tasks through script programming.

I don't think chess can translate into "real-world" strategy. It can translate in improvement of many real-world skills, perhaps even including strategy but not directly. Napoleon was said to be a poor chess player although he strove to be a good one.

See Napoleon getting totally beaten by the Turk here:

 http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1250610

I wonder if anyone ever starts to see real world interaction as chess moves? For example, someone gets an advantage over you, totally unexpected, and you visualize that they have just hit you with a knight attack?

i also wonder if real-life or real-battles come after Chess-Piece-Moving. Anyway Real-world depend-on individual .

ku8 wrote: i also wonder if real-life or real-battles come after Chess-Piece-Moving. Anyway Real-world depend-on individual .

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 That is a really interesting comment. If I understand it correctly, ku8 is talking about something like voodoo: You stick a pin a the doll which represents a person, and the live person feels a pain. So in chess, if I take the queen, whomever is represented will encounter a terrible loss. Chess is such a rational game, and magical thinking is so irrational. So maybe this represents a conjucture between the rational and the irrational. 

Hasn't Kasparof written a book along the lines discussed here i.e. does chess relate/influence other human endevours.  Personally I doubt it althought i showed off once jokingly to some friends by stating (under the influence of a couple of pints) "life is like playing chess the only thing being that all the pieces are white" Now is that profound or not! haha,

Has anyone read Kaparof's book, and can tell us something about it?