Turning checkmate into a business winner

Maxim Doroshenko, a Simon Fraser University student who is as strategic in making career moves as he is in playing chess, tied for first-place in the 2011 B.C. Active Chess Championship. The B.C. Chess Federation hosts the annual competition — one of the top provincial chess showdowns — in Vancouver in January.

Ending a 15-year hiatus from the world of bishops, knights and rooks, Doroshenko, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) student, won six games and got three draws in the latest tournament. The Moldova-born Ukrainian beat three former B.C. chess champions and tied for the top billing with another competitor.

Before moving to Vancouver with his wife and enrolling at SFU this fall, Doroshenko had already established himself as a “king” in the Royal Game in his home country. An obsessive chess player since the age of five, he had played the game all through elementary and high school, competed in four world championships and clinched the title of National Chess Master.

An aspiring mover and shaker in the business world, Doroshenko launched his first business — a grocery store in Balti, Moldova — when he was 18. Having checkmated himself out of time, he had to put chess on the back burner. He subsequently pursued undergraduate studies at Moldova State University and started up a technology company in Siberia.

But Doroshenko’s keen pursuit of his studies in business strategy, marketing and management information systems as an SFU MBA student has rekindled his passion for chess.

“I believe chess can play a big strategic role in helping me achieve my business career goals in Canada. When I moved here, nobody knew me,” says Doroshenko. “But since resuming competitive chess playing, I now get lots of emails from chess amateurs and many invites to events. Chess is one of the best ways I can connect with people and build my business network.”

Not one to shy away from playing the game of business or chess under pressure, Doroshenko believes that trying to maintain his winning streak in chess will boost business communities’ respect for him.

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