Chess Assassin's Business Manual by Bob Long

      A book combining chess and business! According to Long the book is “peppered with stories, business trips and chess information.”  After 35 years running four of his own businesses and 40 years of playing chess, the author explains how these two activities complement each other.  To be successful at both requires disciplines such as patience, awareness, and perseverance. The book is a collection of games, stories, advice and complaints by the owner of Thinker’s Press.

      Long is an interesting character.  He doesn’t like, and has strong opinions about, a lot of things. Long opines that having an MBA or being a business school grad does not prepare someone to be a business owner.  Of course the same is true of any professional because things in the “real world” are seldom like they teach you in school.  It seems we live in an imperfect world and quite often things go wrong or just aren’t done by the book.  When things do go wrong they situations that are never covered in school and businesses frequently don’t operate by the book.

      There isn’t a lot of games in the book and it mostly is about Long’s career in the chess publishing and chess sales business. One reason for Long’s success is apparently that, at least to my knowledge, everybody who has done business with him has never had a bad experience…these days it seems take the money and run is the norm and customer service is often lacking but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Long.

      This book offers valuable advice if you are thinking about getting into any business on your own.  Even if you aren’t, it’s an interesting read…at least I thought so, but then I’ll read a biography of just about anybody. Although it isn’t a bio as such, it’s pretty close.

      If you are interested in purchasing the book, don’t buy it from Amazon, buy it direct from Thinker’s press.  In fact while you are there take a look at all Long’s material; it’s good stuff.  Thinker’s Press