If you are new to Sun Tzu then this is a very good place to start. It includes much of the original text and has many helpful insights from a true student of Sun Tzu, Ralph D. Sawyer. Ralph is a former student at Harvard and MIT, and a recognized expert in Military and Strategic Studies. Ralph uses his own well respected translation of Sun Tzu's book as the core for this essential edition. This version is for the modern reader. Such a book may or may not appeal to the purist, to the scholar-though it might, but to the lay reader like me this is definitely my cup of tea. I have a complete translation but somehow I just never have found the time to really dive into it. This essential version is just what I needed. This is not milk, this is meat, the prime cut. Sun Tzu, like Lao Tzu-the writer of the "Tao Te Ching"-The Bible of Taoism, can be quite enigmatic and paradoxical at times, especially for the Western reader such as myself. Sun Tzu was a man of great subtlety, a genius.

The Art of War is the earliest known codification of military and political strategy. It is requirred reading in the United States War College. Generals sleep with it on their nightstand. Business leaders read it. Politicians read it. Wannabe leaders read it. Some quotes:

Warfare is the Tao (Way) of deception.
Attack where they are unprepared.
No country has ever profited from protracted warfare.
Conquer those who are easy to conquer.
Race forth where the enemy does not expect it.
Be tranquil and obscure.
Do not move unless it is advantageous.

Sounds a little like Chess to me.

Sun Tzu's the "Art of War" though written well over two-thousand years ago was the beginning of modern military science. The "essential" core is still pertinent today. I should add that this edition is made to be read; it has a hardcover with high quality paper, is easy to read without my reading glasses, and has a very nice ribbon marker.