Thinking Sideways: How to Think Like a Chess Player and Win at Life - Jennifer Shahade

PRE-ORDER: DUE FEBRUARY 2026

Thinking Sideways by Jennifer Shahade
How to Think Like a Chess Player and Win at Life 

In chess, there are more possible games than atoms in the universe. To deal with this multitude of possibilities, chess players develop skills and strategies that chess and poker champion Jennifer Shahade calls ‘thinking sideways’. This is a mindset that merges creative thinking with analysis to find more possibilities. Whether we are chess players or not, thinking sideways can help us all consider all our options as we move through the game of life.

In Thinking Sideways, Shahade shows you don't have to be a chess player to think more like a chess player. From building mind palaces to crafting decision trees, she reveals the most useful strategies from the ancient game that we can use in our daily lives. Drawing on examples from business, sports and psychology, as well as her own experiences touring the world as a chess and poker champion, Thinking Sideways offers a practical toolkit for smarter thinking and transforms our understanding of what success looks like, and how to achieve it for ourselves.

Here are some of the key lessons we can all use:

• Use ‘Decision Trees’ to help you make choices.
  
• When You See a Good Move, Look for a Better One.
  
• Make an Intermezzo.
  
• Allow your regrets to inspire you.
  
• Chess is a canvas for honing our time management skills.
  
• Think of the phases of life like a chess game.
  
• Don’t let a perfect move be the enemy of a good move.
  
• Give yourself more chances to win.
  
• If you want to improve your memory, use SOFA (Sleep, Organise, Focus and Activate)
  
• Measure your mistakes and add a “pre-mortem” to your decision-making routine.
• Use the Principle of Chessboxing to become your own world champion.
• Just like chess pieces, each individual person has unique strengths.
  
• Trade-offs are part of life.
  

This book is not about playing chess - it's about how thinking sideways can propel you to success and happiness. Essential life lessons from the world of chess, from making smarter choices to building focus and confidence.

About the Author
Jennifer Shahade is a two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, author, speaker and ambassador for PokerStars and Poker Power. The first female to win the US Junior Open, Jennifer is passionate about empowerment and creative work around the games she loves most, chess and poker. She is the author of Chess Queens: The True Story of a Chess Champion and the Greatest Female Players of All Time, a blend of memoir, interview and analysis, which both celebrates women in chess, while criticizing the game's sexist and traditional attitudes.

ISBN: ‏9781399701327, Hardback, 272 pages, Hodder & Stoughton