Chess-Set Grand Strategy Map
Map a power system as king, queen, attack vectors, and expendable pawns.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 98%
The Chess-Set Grand Strategy Map represents a power system using four classes of chess pieces. The king is the political or organizational system whose survival is paramount. The queen is the grand strategy that explains how the system intends to preserve or expand its position. Rooks, bishops, and knights are attack vectors: technologies, financing, distribution, intelligence, narratives, or other mechanisms that implement the strategy. Pawns are people, allies, products, territories, or resources the system is prepared to sacrifice. After mapping one actor, the analyst repeats the process for competitors and places the models side by side. Conflicts, dependencies, vulnerabilities, and likely moves then become easier to see and communicate.
Origin
Extracted from The Diary of a CEO, where Professor Dianne used physical chess pieces to compare the systems and grand strategies of major geopolitical actors.
Core principles
- 01The king represents the system that must survive.
- 02The queen represents the overarching strategy.
- 03Major pieces represent the mechanisms used to project power.
- 04Pawns represent assets the system is willing to risk.
- 05Every system has structural strengths and weaknesses.
How to run it
- 1
Identify the king
Define the political, governance, or operating system the actor must preserve. Record its central strength and its most dangerous structural weakness.
Pro tip Ask what failure would cause the entire system to break down.
Watch out Do not equate a visible leader with the deeper system automatically.
- 2
Define the queen
State the actor's grand strategy: the overarching approach used to maintain control, security, or growth.
Pro tip Write the strategy as a mechanism connecting actions to a desired end state.
Watch out A collection of tactical actions is not yet a grand strategy.
- 3
Map the major pieces
Assign the system's strongest implementation mechanisms to the rook, bishop, and knight roles. These may include technology, money, distribution, intelligence, military power, or narrative control.
Pro tip Choose mechanisms that repeatedly create leverage across situations.
Watch out Avoid listing every capability; prioritize the few that materially execute the strategy.
- 4
Identify the pawns
List assets the actor can deploy, trade, expose, or sacrifice in pursuit of the grand strategy.
Pro tip Include allies or business units whose interests may be subordinate to the central system.
Watch out Calling something a pawn describes its strategic role, not its human worth.
- 5
Build competing boards
Repeat the mapping for each major rival or partner. Compare where their strategies, attack vectors, and vulnerabilities collide.
Pro tip Use the same definitions across boards to make comparisons consistent.
Watch out Do not describe one side in greater detail merely because it is more familiar.
- 6
Read the position
Assess which moves are enabled by the current configuration and which piece each actor is most likely to protect, deploy, or sacrifice next.
Pro tip Create scenarios for the loss of one critical piece.
Watch out The chess analogy simplifies reality and should be checked against evidence.
In the wild
An analyst maps each company's governance model as its king, ecosystem strategy as its queen, capital, technology, and distribution as major pieces, and subsidized products as pawns. Comparing the boards reveals that one company can sacrifice short-term product margin to weaken the other's distribution advantage.
→ The team anticipates a cross-subsidy strategy and adjusts its channel partnerships before the move occurs.
The episode maps the United States, Russia, Israel, and Iran by political system, grand strategy, attack vectors, and pawns. The resulting boards are used to explain where their strategic visions conflict and how each may act.
→ A dense geopolitical argument becomes a visual, repeatable comparison of strategic systems.
Common mistakes
Confusing the king with the leader
A leader can change while the underlying political or organizational system remains. Define what the actor must preserve at the systemic level.
Promoting every asset to a major piece
The model loses clarity when every capability is treated as strategically decisive. Limit major pieces to recurring sources of leverage.
Forgetting that pawns have agency
Allies, employees, and subordinate units can resist or defect. Model their incentives even when the central actor treats them as expendable.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for visual thinkers comparing countries, companies, political movements, or institutions with distinct systems and strategic assets.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for decentralized environments where no durable system, strategy, or allocation of assets can be identified.
From the transcript
“The queen is what I refer to as the grand strategy of the United States.”
“The attack vectors are the work, the bishop and the knight, all right?”
“The pawns are weapons that they can sacrifice in order to achieve the grand strategy.”
From the episode
WW3 Expert: This Could Trigger Global Starvation