Researchers have studied chess for centuries. Some of the earliest investigations into memory and problem-solving took place in this domain, and many of the greatest chess players in history have been the subjects of investigation and intrigue.

Scientists focus on chess for several reasons, not least of which is how easily these experts can be identified and measured. The top chess players in the world are ranked, and the skills of one chess player can easily be tested against the skills of another. No aspiring player can pretend they are better than they truly are for long. Furthermore, test environments are easily created.

Of course, chess is mostly a mental exercise. Competition does not favor a player’s size, age, gender, race, education, language, or nationality. The eight-by-eight grid and thirty-two pieces are understood by millions of people but mastered by very few. A young child can learn the game in a few minutes, yet the masters remain obsessed for decades. Chess, it seems, is a researcher’s playground.

Entire books have been written about the lessons that experts can derive from the game of chess. Some educators recommend chess as a mandatory subject of study in public K–12 education. Space does not permit an exhaustive list of the game’s merits for SMEs, but here are three that experts should think about.

First, contrary to popular belief, master chess players do not think many moves ahead of their competitors. Instead, they see the relative strengths and weaknesses of groups, or chunks, of moves that can be choreographed together. This process of “chunking” allows masters to see patterns in player positions and have mental templates or representations to guide effective moves.

Second, victory favors those with the more effective memory. Experts can look at a board and quickly remember, based on experience and study, what strategies will be effective given a certain configuration. The deeper the memory of comparable chess configurations, the greater the advantage.

Third, individual players can change the balance of power. Master chess players not only can see the strengths and weaknesses of board configurations, but they can also see how individual players can change the dynamics of the entire board through strategic adjustments. Unlike junior competitors, chess masters can see how repositioning one or two simple resources can change the entire balance of the match.

All SMEs benefit when they see strategy in terms of patterns rather than individual moves and when they remember what worked in the past and how those experiences map to the present. And they all increase their effectiveness when they isolate and reposition individual assets that turn the tables and convert weak positions into strong ones.