The year of the Queen’s Gambit – 2020

The year of the Queen’s Gambit – 2020

One of the main life savers of 2020 was Netflix; with many countries going on lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic early in the year, people who could afford it and those who could hook up to another generous giver’s account found succor in the many entertainment options available on the platform. Undoubtedly one of the best received Netflix Originals of the year was The Queens’ Gambit, a 7 – part limited series based on a fictional character – Beth Harmon, an orphaned chess prodigy who rose to the top of the chess world while struggling with deep emotional problems, drug and alcohol addiction (spoiler alert!).

Netflix series inspired what is now called “the queens gambit effect” – massive purchases of chess boards, books and traffic on chess fan sites. For those of you who haven’t caught the bug, chess is a board game played by two people and is widely known for its maneuvering and strategic planning tactics. The aim of the game is to manipulate the pieces on the board in an effort to defeat the pieces of your opponent and eventually take his or her king. The thing is, you need to remember that your opponent has the same strategy in mind, so you will have to strategize your defense while strategizing for your victory. Knowing which of your pieces to sacrifice is also a key part of playing the game and the overall goal is to win!

In the game of chess, the  “queen’s gambit” is an opening strategy which focuses on an attacking play whereby the player using the white chess pieces appears to sacrifice one of its pawns to gain control of the center of the board. When the white starts with this strategy, black can either accept or decline the Queen’s gambit.

However, if black decides to accept, it has to defend correctly; it will have to concede his pawn and focus on counter attacking white’s advances. I’m not a chess player and I’m the last person you’d catch attempting to play the game so I had to do some research after watching the movie to attempt to explain this but feel free to go read up more about the game and even go watch the series if you can to understand it a bit better.

With the rather chaotic way 2020 kicked off and ran its course, we could say it threw us all a queens gambit – movement restrictions, job losses for some, civil disturbances, recessions and loss of loved ones – it kind of left us all reeling from its opening gambit. The question was how would we respond ?

The new year 2021 brings a new opportunity and like a new game of chess the question I have is what if 2021 decides to hit you with another queen’s gambit move? How would you defend your king? Are you prepared to defend your turf and still win the game even when it seems like you are constantly under attack and trying to play defense? Would you accept whatever is thrown at you and remain in a constant state of trying to defend your king or would you decline the gambit and choose to center your pawn focusing on the goal of winning the long run rather than accepting a cramped position?

Whether it’s in preparing yourself mentally and physically on purpose for the long haul or focusing on our relationships and ensuring that we invest quality time in the ones that matter especially with our immediate family and close friends; we need to be embracing a new way of working and building personal and business strategies that have deeper and meaningful purposes in our work.

Seeing from this year’s experience, sometimes when life deals you a queens’ gambit move like 2020 what you need is a pair of hoodies, joggers, enough groceries to last a lockdown no matter how long and the warmth of a loved one to remind you everything will be fine. You look at all the things you thought mattered like the gadgets, clothes and things purchased to ‘show-dem’ and suddenly there was no opportunity to show ‘nuffin’ except a dance routine on tik-tok.

Being more purposeful with the use of your resources, understanding what is really important to you in life and how a life of purpose and meaning is bigger than any other acquisition.

In this outgoing year, factors beyond our control determined how we lived but we had to play recovery against it. We cannot afford to go into a new year with this same helplessness.

As with chess, it’s important to have a clear plan of what to do during the first few moves of every game; do not think that just because covid-19 ‘cancelled’ all the plans we had in 2020 so no need to plan or prepare for the new year. If nothing, 2020 has taught us to be more deliberate with our lives.

Knowing the openings you play not only helps you to avoid falling for cheap opening traps but also helps you to get a good position in the middlegame. That is the purpose of the opening – not to win in 5 moves with a crazy attack but to reach a good position entering the middlegame that you can work from.

Life is a game that will consistently deal every one of us different game plays but we have been given the same grace and choice to decide how we play those cards. Let’s play wisely.