Football is not like chess

You sound like a nerd and football isn't for nerds

Good morning! I want to talk about how the comparison of chess to football made by football analysts, commentators and fans is stupid.

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Neat Reads

Neat Reads is a segment where I share an article or podcast that interests me and relates to our weekly theme.

Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one who thinks this comparison is stupid. So, here’s some articles I found of football people saying football is like chess.

"It’s like chess - I calculate it all.” - Sergio Busquets for The Guardian

“You wouldn't attack in the same way from a mountain top as you would from the wide-open countryside,' Kasparov told him.” - The Daily Mail

Chess and soccer are very similar except they’re not

Right. I’m a very active chess player and used to be a very active amateur chess player in Canada. I used to play chess to earn extra money - I’m pretty good at it.

Some of the ideas taken from chess and applied to soccer are:

1. Control the center

2. Calculating ahead for the best moves

3. Putting pieces (players) in the right spots

Here’s why these make no sense:

1. Control the center:

Controlling the center in chess is an objective advantage that the best AI’s and computers recommend as being the best place to put your pieces. By controlling the center you control more forward squares than your opponent and win territory.

This idea doesn’t work in football because many teams have thrived (and currently thrive) by not controlling the center of the pitch. Overlapping/underlapping full-backs in the wide areas working in combination with wingers are example of that. See Manchester City 18/19 and Liverpool from 2018-2020. Very little importance placed on the middle of the pitch.

2. Calculating ahead for the best moves

There is no calculating in soccer because there is no objective best move to be played - soccer is more theory than chess. The “theory” is that a coach does something because they THINK the other team will do something where as in chess players make decisions on objective calculations.

Go on lichess.org and play around with the computer engine and look at how much the evaluation changes as the game goes on. The closest thing football has is xG charts and game state charts.

3. Putting pieces (players) in the right spots

First of all, players are more than just pieces. Second, players and chess pieces being in good spots is entirely dependent on the context of the game. Having said that, openings in chess are so overly thought about nowadays that the “right spots” are basically determined for the first 15 moves, meaning that there’s less subjectivity and area for idiots to mess up.

Meanwhile, player positioning and “right spot” is mostly subjective with the exclusion of a few outliers.

Stop comparing chess to football. It just tells the person you’re talking to that you know very little about either.

Coach’s Corner

Coach’s Corner is a segment where I ramble about training this week and answer some questions I get from Substack or Twitter.

Ramblings

The idea that football is the mega-theoretical game bothers me. Yes, there is some theory that we can all subscribe to in football because that theory has been proven to be useful.

The issue is that we over complicate football so much that our original ideas are lost in the malarkey.

Football is simple. As coaches, if we overcomplicate it our players tune out. It is as simple as improving the weaknesses, leaning on the strengths and putting players in the areas they usually succeed in. Round pegs in round holes.

Simple.

Q&A 

Have you found any correlation between your chess ability and coaching ability?

No.

I got this question three months ago and have been waiting to answer this.

Did I choose a newsletter topic, write about it, call people who disagree with me stupid, all to just find a reason to answer this question?

Yes I did.

Ask me some better questions next week!

Exercise of the Week

This is one of my new favorite exercises. I try to do it in 3-4 minute rounds so that the resting team doesn’t get bored, however if you let them serve it however they like it they end up entertaining themselves!

For the players in the middle zone it’s a great chance to experience defending in a realistic environment and practice their principles for when in and out of possession.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this week! If you ever hear someone say that chess and football you can zone out for the rest of that conversation!

I’m always interested to hear your thoughts and ideas so please feel free to send me a message on Twitter or leave a comment above in the Q&A section.

Share this newsletter with a friend or every single person you have ever met.

See you next week! 

Where to find me:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CamH___

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameron-herbert-football-coach/