Batsford has also come out with the odd but entertaining training book THE CHINESE SCHOOL OF CHESS by Liu Wenzhe. He is a strong player of chess (an IM) and expert in several other mind games. The Introduction describes various intellectual and philosophic achievements; it also talks in the briefest possible manner about his political persecution. Liu Wenzhe is also a trainer of the Chinese Olympiad teams that have done so well in recent years.

At the very least one must grant that this book is original: the author fills it with elevated philosophic speculations, non-Western theories of thinking, and other out-of-the-ordinary ideas. On a chart near the beginning of the book he lays out the major schools of chess with their “theory,” “goal,” and “contribution.” We have the Italian School, the Classical School, the Hypermodern School, the Soviet/Russian School, and of course the Chinese School, the latter having the goal of “thought and sensibility” and the contribution of “non-logical domain, strategy of competition.” We learn about “the origin and nature of chess” (from Chinese “precursors,” of course), the defining role of “The Book of Changes” and other exotica. It’s all rather hard to take too seriously, but I think that one can still find some broader insights worth considering.

Anyway, for many chessplayers THE CHINESE SCHOOL OF CHESS will stand or fall based upon the appeal of the games by the new generation of Chinese stars. I enjoyed them and admired the eccentric but also ultra-logical way in which the players and the author annotated the games. The question is whether one might want to get a more conventional games collection instead by, say, Kramnik, Khalifman, or Anand. I’m not sure, and I don’t know whether to recommend this book or not. A traditionalist will probably find it absurd and even irritating, whereas a tolerant reader with some Eastern philosophic leanings would probably love it. The rest of us are very likely somewhere in the middle. I happen to like the games selection and notes and think that THE CHINESE SCHOOL OF CHESS makes good reading. But you might want to try to look this one over first before making a decision.

YOU CAN FIND CHINESE SCHOOL OF CHESS AT