Checkmate - when a partnership gets out of hand!

Photo: Unsplash/Randy Fath

Checkmate!

When a partnership gets out of hand.

Chess is a fascinating game and is probably played in every corner of the world and is recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee. It is essentially a game of strategy and can be completed in a few moves or can take several hours. The longest World Championship game lasted a whopping eight hours! Chess is one of the most complex board games, as the number of possible positions is estimated at 10 to the power of 43 and the number of possible courses of play after 40 moves is still 10 to the power of 115. There is a lot more numerical data to report, but I will concentrate on the following. Statistically speaking, the starting player with the white pieces wins more points on average than the player with the black pieces (54 to 46 percent), which of course also depends on the strength (eye level) of the two players and the stronger both players are, the more likely it is that there will be a draw (in 30 percent of games), which would actually be quite likeable (win-win). It is very interesting how the complexity of the game as a whole shrinks to a few simple key figures that can be classified statistically. It certainly makes sense that it would be fatal to rely on the statistics for the next game of chess and, because you start with the white pieces, consider yourself a safe bet.

Analogy to everyday life?
Every partnership begins on an equal footing and aims to end in a win-win situation. However, if one partner's interest suddenly shifts disproportionately in order to gain an advantage, what was originally a partnership becomes a strategic trial of strength with a suddenly open outcome. The previous cooperation now becomes a game of strategy. Now you have to defend your own intentions and recognize your opponent's intentions in good time or be able to adapt them on an ongoing basis. It is important not to overestimate yourself and to take your opponent seriously. The best thing to do is to listen to your counterpart, observe their activities or, even better, reflect on the initial situation when the partnership still worked. If you want to use strategic intelligence to bring the game back into balance - and I assume that this is what you wanted from the outset - you define activities that help to show your opponent that you are perfectly capable of holding your own on an equal footing. As in chess, you can sometimes afford to make a few moves that make your "opponent" think he is on course to win in order to make up ground elsewhere. But always remain fair and decent, because you are still aiming for a draw (win-win). If all these activities do not lead to the desired result, it is time to adjust your own strategy.