Monday, October 15, 2007. Issue 3764. Page 15.
Chess Star Makes a Move
By Alissa de Carbonnel Staff Writer
Igor Tabakov / MT
Going out on a limb means a very different thing to French chess grandmaster Joel Lautier.
Lautier, 34, quit 22 years on the professional chess circuit and his Paris home in November to suit up as an analyst with Russian consultancy Strategy Partners. In six months, he has gone from analyst to an associate’s role as director of international development.
“Chess and business are similar in that you are confronted with a problem that does not have a unique solution,” he said in a recent interview.
“In chess, you’re used to looking carefully over every position to keep all your options open,” said Lautier, who is one of only three players in the world to have beaten every world champion dating back to 1975 during the course of his career.
“Business analysis is also like mapping a tree of possibilities,” he said. “One error can be fatal to hours of work because everything is a logical chain — every step must have its foundation,” he said.
Strategy Partners, an offshoot from the first Innovation Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, has worked on more than 50 projects in the regions since its 1994 start alongside the multinationals, competing in the sector by positioning itself as a local expert.
The full story can be seen on Moscow Times
When did he quit chess?