Here is a highly engaging book for the chess enthusiast who likes to read about the game as well as play it. The author is one of his century's leading chess masters, and he writes about the game with the same zest, grace, and skill he has always shown in playing it. As a lover of the game for its own stake, Mr. Lasker has incisive comments on such matters as whether chess is a defensible usage of one's time, whether it develops skills that are applicable to life, the importance of understanding basic principles of chess play rather than memorizing sets of moves, chess as a form of art, qualities are indispensable to a good chess player.