The Dutch Grandmaster Paul van der Sterren was a professional chess player for over twenty
years. At the peak of his career he qualified for the Candidate Matches for the World
Championship - and was only four victories away from the World Title. In Mindful Chess you
will get his long and short answer to whether meditation or mindfulness will help your chess.
As a boy Van der Sterren became fascinated by chess and became a gladiator at the chess board.
To quote Theodore Roosevelt he met with both victory and defeat much joy and suffering. When
later in life he discovered vipassana meditation he met again with joy and suffering - and
approached these issues with the same total devotion as he had brought to chess?thousands and
thousands of hours on the cushion and studying Buddhist literature. The reader will follow the
two journeys through chess and meditation. And find answers to questions such as: What is
chess? What is meditation? Who am I? What is I? Or will the answer elude you is too much
inexplainable and unknowable?
