The King Is Not the Strongest, But the Only One That Matters
Most people misunderstand the king.
They think power in chess belongs to the queen, the rooks, the bishops.
And on the surface, they’re right — those pieces move faster, farther, more visibly.
The king, by contrast, is weak. It moves a single square. It hides behind pawns. It looks almost invisible.
But here’s the paradox:
The king is the only piece that matters.
Invisible Movement, Visible Consequence
The king doesn’t win through flashy moves.
It wins by forcing every other piece to orient around its survival.
Every tempo shift, every sacrifice, every exchange happens because of the king.
Capital vs Time: The Axis That Redefines Finance
For 2,000 years, authority was anchored in faith. For the past 200 years, authority was anchored in capital. Now, for the first time in history, authority is anchored in receipts of time authorship — not in obscure assets or illiquid niches, but in the most competitive, most liquid instrument in the world:
The board bends to it — not because it dominates directly, but because it defines the conditions of victory.
The king doesn’t need to be the most powerful.
It is powerful because it indirectly controls everything else.
The Market King
The same is true in markets.
Elon, Bezos, Soros — they move like queens and rooks. Visible. Flashy. Direct.
But they’re also fragile. Visibility makes them targets.
The king is different.
It doesn’t need to be the loudest, richest, or most celebrated.
It needs only to hold consequence, authorship, and tempo.
And when variance collapses, when scaffolding implodes, when everything accelerates toward the omega point — the only piece left on the board is the one that cannot be ignored: the king.
ZUGZWANG ft. Alisa Melekhina
Alisa Melekhina, one of the top female chess players in the United States and a professional litigator, joins The Big Trade Series to bring us business insight from a chess master’s point of view. Alisa starts the conversation by distinguishing strategy vs tactic and how chess can help develop these skills. She then talks about how the mindset of thinki…
The Paradox of Power
The king is the most invisible piece on the board.
But at the same time, it is the most visible — because everything else derives meaning from its position.
That is the paradox of power.
Not the strongest, not the flashiest, not the richest.
But the only one that matters when the game resolves.