Chess and Jiu Jitsu

yeah just bust them boots on 😆

BJJ black belt here, but beginner chess player. I think someone like Josh Waitzkin might be the only person who can answer this question accurately. Josh does a lot of comparison between chess and BJJ in his book The Art of Learning. There are certainly similarities. Even how modern chess focuses on memorized opening sequences is similar to BJJ. Even at the highest levels, having knowledge of how a certain set of movements and techniques will almost always lead to desired outcomes will lead to victory. But the best in chess and BJJ also seem to possess remarkable creativity, so don't become dependent on memorization alone.

So far, none of my BJJ skill has translated to improving my chess, but I agree with the person who commented that chess has helped their BJJ. However, I don't "see" the board and pieces in the same familiar and intuitive way I see the human body and my position relative to theirs. After some time, I expect that I will indeed begin to think intuitively and strategically in chess like I do in BJJ.

I can say that my teaching and learning experience in BJJ does seem to have tremendous carryover. I instruct beginning and intermediate students with the same wisdom:

1. Learn concepts over rigid and specific techniques
2. Understand the importance of defending your centerline
3. Learn to play from defensive positions first so you can learn to respect a good offense and get a feel for what kind of attacks exist
4. The world of BJJ is vast, so pick a path that suits your level of athleticism, build, and personality, then stick to that path until it becomes boring, then add two branches along that path that work well together, then drill those new branches until they are boring, rinse and repeat
5. Related to #4, try to pick a path that lets you easily practice, meaning it's a position that's easy to get into no matter what your opponent does (think King's Indian Defense)
6. Resist the temptation to hop around trying to learn the latest trends or some cool move you saw on Youtube. 
7. Train consistently
8. Have specific goals, no more than two at a time until you get better
9. Don't measure you progress against a master, measure it against someone of similar experience
10. After each training session, take a moment to deep breathe and allow your mind to play back your training so you can try to understand mistakes and advances
11. Bonus, get a coach involved if you really want to grow

There are also concepts I'm working to translate to chess, but I am too much of a novice to know how these would play out. For anyone familiar with BJJ you'll know where I'm headed with these:

- Position before submission
- Learn basic tactics such as framing, using your weight, grip fighting etc.
- Stay calm, play a lot, and try to get the same position as often as possible
- Learn excellent defense, learn when you are truly in danger
- Try to understand why something works, don't just memorize techniques, learn what problems certain techniques solve or what problems they create for your opponent
- There is no losing, only learning
- Understand the stages of passing the guard

I do BJJ also. I have never really thought about chess and Jiu-Jitsu being connected in any way but I definitely will check out that book.

I found an interesting article on one of the sites that made comparisons between these two things.
I found an interesting article on one of the sites that made comparisons between these two things.
checkmat.net Chess as a martial art: parallels with jiu jitsu