Revealed: Maresca's 'football and chess' thesis that fuels everything he does'

If your knowledge of chess is limited to cheating accusations involving vibrating beads and the Netflix drama The Queen’s Gambit, then Enzo Maresca’s 42-page thesis may not be the most riveting read you could pick up while waiting in the dentist’s office.

But in between talk of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and the Nimzo-Indian defence and other complicated comparisons which might make a few folks long for their filling, it provides a glimpse into the psyche of the coach hoping to strategise his first trophy with Chelsea tonight.

It is entitled Calcio & Scacchi, or Football and Chess in English, and he wrote it while studying at Coverciano, the Italian Football Federation’s famed coaching school in Florence, before he ever became a manager.

‘I believe that chess can train a coach’s mind,’ he writes, with the last page carrying a picture of Manuel Pellegrini. Maresca describes the 71-year-old Chilean as his ‘football dad’. He assisted him at West Ham. They still phone one another regularly.

Yet Pellegrini is now the opponent he wants to overcome more than any other, as the boss of Real Betis who he will face in the Conference League final in Wroclaw, Poland.

As well as Pellegrini, there are images in Maresca’s thesis from the 2014 film Pawn Sacrifice, starring Tobey Maguire and Liev Schreiber. That biopic told the story of the troubled Bobby Fischer facing Boris Spassky at the 1972 World Chess Championship, also known as the ‘Match of the Century’.

It was a loser at the box office, but Maresca liked it. A line relating to Fischer in his write-up reads: ‘Complete master of openings, expert tactician in the middle, sharpness in the finish.’

We have seen this in action in Chelsea’s Conference League games en route to this final, with Maresca not only concocting openings but also endgames over the 90 minutes.

For example, they were leading 2-0 at half-time in their semi-final first leg at Djurgarden when he introduced Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, Moises Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah for the second half. It was a premeditated plan for that first leg, and they wound up winning 4-1 to turn the second leg into a trivial affair. It was checkmate before they had even flown out of Stockholm.

The Italian term for checkmate is scacco matto. The word matto also means ‘crazy’, and Maresca can drive himself mad in trying to decipher his opponents’ strategies. Before facing Djurgarden – a side sitting 11th in their Swedish division – he watched reruns of six of their matches.

You could argue that was overkill when Chelsea have been the Conference League’s Death Star destroying opponents for fun, but then Maresca never stops considering the what if. ‘Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement when you see something good and trains you to think objectively when you see yourself in danger,’ he writes.

Maresca says the 'surprise factor’ is key, mentioning how a chess game in 1991 saw Viktor Korchnoi take 80 minutes to make a move after something unexpected from his opponent Anatoly Karpov.

‘Karpov’s move was not checkmate but the time advantage he gained by surprising his rival was definitely decisive,’ he writes. ‘Korchnoi needed to reorganise and revise his strategy and tactics.’

Translating that to football, Maresca cites the Champions League last 16 second leg between Juventus and Atletico Madrid in March 2019. Juve were losing 2-0 from the first leg, but won 3-0 in the return, Max Allegri changing his system and proving crucial. While Diego Simeone was scrambling to respond to what he was seeing, Cristiano Ronaldo was scoring a hat-trick.

‘The simple fact of creating doubts means the opponent must first quickly understand what new situation he finds himself in and find counter-measures,’ Maresca writes. ‘In the meantime this happens, we can benefit from it. How can we surprise? We can surprise by changing the system or maintaining the same structure by moving different players.’

It is a warning for Pellegrini as he prepares for this evening, especially after Maresca ripped up his regular approach in Sunday’s Premier League finale with Nottingham Forest as Chelsea sat deep in a defensive shape, delivering a 1-0 win which secured Champions League qualification.

That surprised Nuno Espirito Santo, whose side will compete in next season’s Conference League instead. It's worth noting that Maresca writes in his thesis he is an admirer of defensive football and would rather win 1-0 than 3-2 any day, though passing from the back is a non-negotiable for the 45-year-old.

‘While we command, we will keep the initiative,’ he states. ‘Whoever defends must run to cover the gaps left. That is impossible if you are subjected to continuous pressure.’

Control in the middle of the pitch is equally as crucial. ‘To have control of a chess game, it is important to have control of the centre of the board,’ he writes. ‘It gives us more options to develop our tactics.’

He adds: ‘We cannot fail to have control of the centre of the pitch. If we give the opponents the centre of the pitch, we are giving them a good chance of winning.’

Maresca immediately moved Palmer to No 10 after arriving at Chelsea, whereas Mauricio Pochettino had him on the right wing. ‘The idea is to pass through the centre of the pitch, therefore it is always better to put the best ones there,’ he insists.

We might make the mistake of thinking Palmer is Chelsea’s king, but actually, he is Maresca's queen, ‘the player who determines the victory’.

In fact, the Italian sees his king as his goalkeeper, explaining he is limited in space and vital in kickstarting attacks from the back.

‘His value like the king lies in the transcendence of his position: at the slightest mistake the game is lost,’ he adds.

No 1 Robert Sanchez has made a few too many of those for Chelsea this term, but tonight, Filip Jorgensen will be in goal, Maresca feeling it is only fair after his No 2 appeared in every other round of this European competition.

Meanwhile, Caicedo can be seen as his bishop, as Maresca says such players ‘represent the guardian angels, let’s say those who protect’, and Enzo Fernandez as his rook, or ‘those pieces that help in both phases… defending and attacking’.

Maresca notes how Guardiola had Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and more at Barcelona to gain central control. Caicedo and Fernandez are £221.8million worth of talent for Chelsea, but then there are other pieces on the move.

Maresca has used Romeo Lavia and Fernandez in the middle, and Caicedo as an inverted right back, almost like a knight moving two steps forward and then one inside.

The issue tonight is Lavia is not available so another solution is needed, with Reece James expected to start his second match in four days, despite Maresca previously telling us his captain cannot handle more than a game a week. Maybe we in the media are the pawns peddling narratives on his behalf.

Nobody has played more for Chelsea in the Conference League this season than Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who has more appearances in that competition (14) than the Premier League (13) this season and Maresca says you need ‘altruistic’ players.

‘They must accept to sacrifice themselves to benefit a team-mate who is in a better position,' he writes, and it was Dewsbury-Hall’s run away from the ball which left Jadon Sancho unmarked to open the scoring in the semi-final with Djurgarden, to take them towards tonight's showdown in Wroclaw.

Maresca will tell you he is not the best at chess despite arranging lessons for himself while writing his thesis.

He would much rather become a grand master of the beautiful game, and we are now set to discover whether he can vindicate Chelsea owners' choice of him as their manager by delivering BlueCo their first sliver of silverware by outsmarting Pellegrini and Betis.

Anyway, enough of all that. Anyone fancy a game of checkers before tonight’s Conference League final?