A Google search on the phrase 'like a chess game' returns over 40.000 pages. Let's look at the results on the first few pages and decide, 'Is it like a chess game, or not?'

Yes, it sounds like a chess game...

'Like a chess game, though infinitely more varied, mathematical research offers myriad choices and innumerable paths. Despite whatever help computers can provide in enumerating possibilities and in calculating prodigiously, it is human intuition, inspiration, experience, and knowledge that bring meaning to those endeavors.' • Calculation and the Chess Master

'"It's like a chess game," Balestracci says. "You are moving pieces around to where they can be most effective. One of the biggest parts of success at linebacker or safety is being able to read plays as quickly as possible."' • Dante [Balestracci] the Disruptor

'A rocky economy is no excuse to stop thinking of your financial future. "It's like a chess game where you contemplate how your move affects all the pieces of your chess game. Financial security is a game where you want to conquer all the obstacles that keep you from having more and gaining more."' • Suze Orman on Finding a Healthy Financial Balance

'Like a chess game, success in small business starts with decisive and correct opening moves. And although initial mistakes are not fatal, it takes skill, discipline and hard work to regain the advantage.' • Steps for Starting a Small Business

'A good interview is a little bit like a chess game, you've got to be at least one or two moves ahead.' • Conversation with Josef Joffe: Journalism and Writing

'My job is like a chess game. The spammers and attackers make a move, and I have to make a counter-move.' • IDS: Still head of the class in security education

'The key is to pay attention and be prepared for problems before they happen. [Cycling] is like a chess game - you try to figure out what's coming next, and make sure you know how to react. • OK, but say a dog comes out and bites you. You can't do anything about that!' • Frank 'N Fred : In which Fred learns about man's best friend. • A good chess player would be prepared for the dog as well.

'To Jake, mixed martial arts (MMA) is like a chess game, not a barroom brawl. Each move is calculated and has an appropriate response.' • Jake Hecht knows how to roll with the punches and throw a few of his own

Not sure, maybe it's like a chess game, maybe not...

The chess analogy is often a stretch. Here are a few examples.

'CNN National Correspondent is in Palm Beach County, Florida, where a hand recount is being performed on the ballots from the presidential election. From appearances it may remind you of a big-name chess game, but because of what is at stake it's very hard to try and draw an analogy to anything beyond that.' [18 November 2000] • Martin Savidge: Recount scene 'like a chess game' • Counting chads doesn't sound much like a chess game, but who knows?

'In analyzing how the [Iraq] war was won, there is a fitting metaphor - a chess game between a master and an amateur.' [12 April 2003] • Like a Chess Game • In chess there is almost no possibility to declare the winner too early.

'Worldly affairs are like a chess game, whose final phase arrives early / Working together with common goals, yet great disaster descends' • Deciphering the Last Three Stanzas of the Plum Blossom Poem • Huh?

'The world affairs are like a chess game. / An expert will see that there is no more move necessary.' • Zen of Vegetable Roots • In chess the move is compulsory.

'Rao has confessed: "I am no scholar. I am a creative writer. I love to play with ideas. It is like a chess game with horses, elephants, chamberlains and kings which might fight with one another. The game is not for winning. It is for rasa (delight)."' • Raja Rao • Chess is definitely for winning.

'Two of the largest [mud] sculptures caught my eye right away. I don’t know if it was their size or their stance, or perhaps even the power she embedded in them. But they stood out right away. If her mud was like a chess game these two mud ram men would be the kings.' • Chapter Two: The Meeting • 'If her mud was like a chess game'?

'When hitting a batter with a pitch is done properly, however, it can play out like a chess game. Each move is a form of unspoken language communicated from team to team, manager to manager, player to player.' • Beanball etiquette 101 • Chess isn't known for low blows.

Nope, it's nothing like a chess game...

Let's get cranky!

'Human affairs are like a chess-game: only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players. Life is like an earthen pot: only when it is shattered, does it manifest its emptiness. - Seneca' [Year of Birth: 5 BC; Year of Death: 65 AD; Nationality: Roman] • Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quotes • There is no record of chess before 600 A.D., when the game appeared far from the Italian peninsula. Seneca must have been comparing human affairs to another game.

'Lost Admiral Returns is like a chess game where you don't see the enemy battle pieces until they are upon you ... unlike Chess, there are no books on openings or endplays to give your opponent advantage.' • Lost Admiral Returns - Enjoy playing this naval strategy game • This describes kriegspiel, a chess variant.

'After your move, the enemies all get a turn, and in that way it's much like a chess game - just with machine guns and stun grenades.' • Metal Gear Returns In Two New Flavors • In chess you have only one opponent and there are no machine guns or stun grenades.

'Like a chess game, the piece with the higher rank will win an encounter but there are special pieces that will be more effective against others, even if they are of lower rank.' • Stratego • This is definitely not like a chess game. Pieces of higher rank in chess need to be very careful against pieces of lower rank.

'As old veils slip away, sometimes we create new ones in their place - as the move into conscious awareness is like a chess game - sometimes we move forward - but other times we move sideways or backwards - yet all the while moving across the game board - in search of the opponent's Queen - the return of the feminine energies.' • The Veils of Illusion • Chess is a King hunt.

'As Thomas Huxley said, the universe acts a lot like a chess game in which the player on the other side remains invisible to us. By analyzing the moves, we try to form an image of the intellect behind them.' • Interview w/ Robert Anton Wilson -- Is There Reason For Optimism? • In chess you know who your opponent is, although the comparison might be true for games played over the Internet.

'Salary negotiations are sometimes like a chess game. You need to figure out the other person's intention and limitation without playing all your cards.' • Salary Negotiations • Mixes metaphors; chess isn't played with cards.