Using Chess for Succes in Web Design.

Here's a great news for chess players and fans who are thinking of starting a chess blog or site of their own. These days, it is very difficult to do almost about everything without having a personal online sites like blogs, social networking etc, as we are dependent on it as a major form of communication, either to meet new friends and followers or by earning some money. Well, fortunately for us who loves chess and know its principles, you can now use this knowledge to your advantage for creating and designing a website. You don't need to be a master in chess, though surely it will help, to established a website and gain a wide audience.

I remember GM Eugene Torre on how he keeps reminding the young kids to use their understanding of chess to enhance and improve their life. Well, this blogger is a believer that chess is just a tool more than an obsession for the game. Chess is more than a sport. Learning to incorporate your knowledge of the game to real life and established yourself into a better person and produced success makes you a grandmaster as well.

Excerpts from smashingmagazines.com. Very good article. Two thumbs up. I gave it ten out of ten stars.

The business of building websites is one of constant change, adaptation and strategy. The way designers and developers build websites is often informed by the methods of others and their own trial and error. In light of this, we can draw a number of parallels — some philosophical, to a certain extent — between Web professionals and one of the oldest and most popular board games of all time (counting traditional and digital games). This game is chess.

So many useful lessons can be learned from chess. If you haven’t played it before, visualizing what we’ve gone over might be hard, but the fundamental principles of the game — how the pieces interact and the role of strategy in the big picture — should not be ignored. The game actively promotes logical thinking and strategy — both useful skills.

Always Move Forward

Pawns can only move forward. They can get a quick start; players have the option of moving the pawns up to two spaces on their first move and subsequently moving them one space at a time. When you work on projects in a business environment, the principle of moving forward without back-tracking is an inspirational perspective. If you cease to constantly drive your ideas forward, they can become stagnant; progress is critical to a website’s development.

Here are some tips you can use to adopt this mindset:

* Don’t get stuck using deprecated practices when structuring website code.
* Examine your community to determine needed features for future upgrades.
* Change a website’s interface only if it would benefit the user experience.

Be Willing to Sacrifice

The ideal of giving something up in exchange for a greater good is realized by pawns, which, though limited in function, are plentiful and can protect others. In design, shielding the end user from issues that can damage the usability of the website is a worthwhile sacrifice. Having to let go of something that took time and energy is always unfortunate, but knowing when to say goodbye could mean the difference between success and failure.

Here are some tips for internalizing this attitude:

* Ensure that your Web layouts are flexible enough to meet the needs of various devices.
* Weigh the benefits of features against their pitfalls before eliminating them.
* Content is more valuable than design; never dilute its quality for eye candy.