How's Your Meta-Game?

Most chess moves—at the highest level—are neither correct nor incorrect, says Gary Kasparov. The game is not decided by who plays more logically. Instead, Kasparov claims, the goal of chess is to play to your own strength (what feels good) while playing to your opponent’s weakness—irrespective of the board!

Sometimes, the right move means doing something that feels off for you but will throw your opponent off even more. A move that would be suboptimal against a different opponent is optimal against this one. This means that the game of chess, at least between humans, is a meta-game.

How do you apply this insight to other areas of your life? When do you focus too much on the board and not enough on the other players, as it were—doing what is logically or technically correct, but interpersonally naive?

You might say that the notion of playing the opponent not the board only applies for grandmasters. You first have to learn the board before you can look up. Basic fluency with rules and strategy enables freedom. But this can also be a trap.

When and how do you stop asking what is the correct decision and start realizing that the best one is the one only you can know, by making it?