No other team sport places such an emphasis on harmony between players as football. As in chess, every movement or action affects everything else around it. One badly positioned piece or player can be ruinous. Consequently, a group of superior footballers will often lose to technically weaker players who are interacting more harmoniously. In the same way, as every serious chess player knows, having more powerful pieces left on the board does not guarantee a win. It is the power of the interactions between the pieces which is decisive.
Perhaps it is no surprise that both Rafael Benitez and Karel Bruckner (longstanding coach of the Czech Republic national team) are both avid chess players, and know only too well how much greater the whole can be than the sum of the parts. Both are famous for their ability to create exceptional teams without exceptional players. Indeed, according to his agent, Benitez has no particular aptitude for noticing good players, such is his preoccupation with watching the team as a whole.
As a result of the endless possibilities of harmony and interaction, both games are limitless: infinitely complicated, infinitely interesting, forever elusive and mysterious, and always open to new interpretation. This makes them very exciting to play and watch.
- Adam Wells, Football and Chess: Tactics; Strategy; Beauty
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