The Tao of Chess: 200 Principles to Transform Your Game and Your Life

Rating:
Summary: Chess and Life Philosophy
Review: A pithy and poignant look at the greatest game ever invented and how and what it can say about life lessons. Anyone who has played chess (regardless of skill level), who has at least half an introspective brain (which nearly all chess lovers do) has long recognized the parallels between the principles of chess strategy and the applicability to life strategy. What author and Chess Master Peter Kurzdorfer has done is actually do what many others I suspect have wanted to do for many score years....actually capture some of those principles in writing.

Its not an overly deep read, on either the chess or philosophy, but it is a very satisfying read on both topics. Don't look for in depth middlegame strategies or 1400 opening strategems, but expect a solid treatment of fundamentally sound chess as well as fundamentally sound 'know thyself' type tips.

Warning: While this book is very applicable to novice and amateur chessplayers, reasonable knowledge of elementary chess and of notation is required to enjoy it. Never fear, learning chess notation takes minimal effort. One drawback, however, is that I do not recall seeing an explanation of algebraic chess notation in the Tao of Chess, and it could benefit from that.

Overall, if you like to play chess, even just periodically, this is a good 'take on vacation' type book or one to spend time with across 4-5 weeks in evenings at home after work.

Rating:
Summary: Too ambitious for a little book.
Review: Besides a couples of well-known and less-known principles, the rest is just like Collins' Maxims of Chess. Even older, Maxims has better analysis. There are not much Taos or life in this book. I couldn't find Taos. With many times reading, I found some Well-hidden applications for life. I got Mammoth World Greatest Chess Games the same time for 12.95 USD; comparing the quality, Tao of Chess is worth about 2.25 USD.
Good luck to all, if you find more Tao and Life then I do.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: When I saw that a book called, "The Tao of Poker" had been released simultaneous to this one, it confirmed my impression that this is a hack book, put out for profit and not for love of chess. There is really very little "Tao" in the book. Basic chess principles, other than perhaps the idea of developing one's pieces harmoniously, do not really lend themselves to a Tao study, or, if they do, this study is certianly not it. The book is little more than a listing of chess principles, with an example each to back them up. This type of thing hardly ever works, simply because there is no rhyme or reason to the format. It didn't work with GAMBIT's 101 Winning Chess Ideas (or whatever it was called), and it doesn't work here. This is one of the few chess books I have ever bought and then returned. It is nicely enough made and produced, it is just fairly useless and unnecessary compared to the plentiful quality chess works that are available. Get Stean's Simple Chess or Evan's New Ideas in Chess instead. Those classics will point you in the right direction to more advanced works.