Immediately after the release of his chess autobiography In Black and White, Paul van der Sterren describes his spiritual journey as a professional chess player in Mindful Chess. As a boy, Paul 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 discoveredâ ¯vipassanaâ ¯meditation, he met again with joy and suffering â and approached these issues with the same total devotion as he had brought to chessâ thousands and thousands of hours on the cushion and studying Buddhist literature. In Mindful Chess, the reader will follow Paul's journey and get his long and short answer to whether meditation or mindfulness will help one's chess.
