In Podcast Episode 253, I have the pleasure of conversing with National Expert Steve Hrop, Executive Coach. Steve has his Ph.D. in Industrial & Organizational Psychology from The University of Akron. For many years, he has trained executives at Fortune 500 companies, including Prudential Financial, ADP and Asbury Automative Group, and smaller companies.
He wrote the book Defending Under Pressure: Managing Emotions at the Chess Board, in which he uses critical moments from his own tournament games (most of them against players rated above 2200) to describe the difficulties of thinking straight when the enemy is at the gates, and then outlines methods and techniques to clear your head, evaluate the position, and find your way to the best move.
We speak about the influence of the 1972 Fischer- Spassky match, discipline, the reasons he has never played an online game, the danger of addiction in chess, teambuilding, emotional self management, prophylactic thinking, consistency against lower rated players, peak performance and more.