Some think life is a game of checkers while others think it is a game of chess but isn't more like paper, rock, scissors with you trying to

Let's ask the master:

'Tis all a chequerboard of nights and days
Where destiny with men for pieces plays;
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, 
And one by one back in the closet lays.
-- Omar Khayyam.

Since you get mated in chess but not checkers I guess life is a chess game. Of course, you can also, to use a euphemism, be mated by circumstances too, so there's an element of roshambo as well. 

It's a game of chess but your knights must fight off the constant barrage of negative influences, so there are breaks in the game.  Once the battles are concluded, the game resumes.