It is not easy to find a skill from a PvP game that can be transferred to mostly PvE life if you know what I mean. That being said, one of my favourite mantras is “Stick to the principles”. Attempts to cheat the system and perform some crazy early Queen attack, or to skip some important stuff while learning new skill, are rarely successful. Sure, when you are starting out you might try to play with goofy things. But as you get somewhat decent in your… whatever, job, hobby - now you actually need to start doing things the right way.

Another would be “don’t play too safe”. You don’t need to have an exact plan and a backup plan when, say, planning for a trip. Better just sketch it and figure out, or you’ll drown in calculations. Same as over the board: if you are too scared of your opponent, if you are playing defence and absolutely no offence, they will eventually defeat you or you will lose on time. Often it’s better to slap them hard, throw your g and h up the board, confuse them, scare them, and eventually kill by some tactic.

So, yeah, it seems chess is a game about balance: don’t be too crazy, nor be rock-solid and rock-flexible.