The nature of Strategy

I have written on the nature of strategy before. See here. Now strategy is a devilish word to define for it can change. To understand why, we have to understand that information is not perfect at the onset of determining any strategy. You first have the known unknowns which means that you have things you know you do not know but the devilish part is the unknown unknowns ie. yes, there are things you do not even know you do not know, but will only begin to realise as you travel the road.

The above section is very big and takes a little time to understand. I hope you will reflect on it.

My main point in this article is to say that, once you have formed an interim strategy it takes courage to stay the course. Fear and anxiety shuts down the mind (like public speaking). It can also cause you to subvert, abandon the strategy.

An example is when you have a group of soldiers and you tell them not to shoot till they see the eye of the enemy. It takes discipline to hold that when the enemy is charging down the ranks.

Another point about fear is it causes alot of chatter in the mind, historical wrongly formed conclusions, disrupting concentration.

And if you combine all of the above with the nature of opportunity, which is you can only strike when opportunity opens its doors and only in that little time frame and not before, I hope you'll see why, our thinking system ergo mental strength is an important prerequisite to getting the GM. Do you see the examples applied in chess?

See you guys after the weekend, First GM Chess Academy is opening its doors this Sunday and IM Yee Weng is coming down today to meet our trainers. If you are in the neighbourhood, please come over. See here for more info on the itinerary.