Chess is a great game for learning strategical thinking, but I don't think it's really useful to try and reduce real life / business strategies into chess terms

Chess is a great game for learning strategical thinking, but I don't think it's really useful to try and reduce real life / business strategies into chess terms. Real life is fundamentally different and more complex than the rigid rules of chess. Chess is also not really special here other than it being a very old, culturally important game. You could swap it out for go and nothing would really change except some strategy metaphors/comparisons. With all strategy games there are general, high-level strategies that players employ. But is it useful to anyone to make empty comparisons like "forward thinking"? Actually rather than chess, I think it's better to learn strategy through more modern fighting games like Street Fighter III: Third Strike or Super Smash Bros. Melee. These kinds of games are much more reactive; one can see and intuitively understand their mistakes much more easily than through chess position analysis. These games still have very complex strategies going on, but they combine it with mechanical execution skills. No matter what strategy game it is, I think everyone should experience that in their life; particularly business people. It really is incredible how much these games can teach us.