The book got me at its table of contents. I'm reading it to see how this dry & seemingly toffee-nosed subject can be transformed into the exciting world I am enticed to think it is.

I enjoy how David Shenk organized the book. He weaved the account of 1851's Anderssen vs Kieseritzky game in the history + evolution of the chess in a seamless way, resulting in an exciting story about how humans regard chess as the representation of ancient AND modern battles.

Read this book to find out how to make Rudolf Spielmann's advice of "Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and the endgame like a machine" work for you as you navigate your own chess board of life. I, for one, will never look at a chess set the same way again.