I honestly consider myself to be a good chess amateur and through my experience with chess study & tournaments, I honestly think this book is worth buying in order to inch yourself off the plateau you may be experiencing. It's cheap and you'll learn from this master something new that you didn't already know.
I have to say it does lean toward being pretentious in trying to address life issues in it's overly cursory manner (200 times), but the book's second part is very ground-breaking in that it makes you look at yourself as a chess player and gets you to consider things about yourself that may be getting in your own way as you wonder, "Why haven't I been getting any better at chess"? I've been studying chessbooks for 9 years now, and I've never come across one that made me look at myself as a chess player the way this one does. It really helped me get over the blitz clock hump (see the chapter on Using Time) and here's a bonus from me; to improve your blitz game, constantly look at the clock while you play and make good time management of your clock compared to your opponent's clock (so many players don't look at the clock until it gets down to one and a half to one minute. They're simply waiting for their opponent's clock to run out of time. You have to use the clock along the way constantly).

You have to pay attention to the chapter headings as you make your way through this book. It's evident that Kurzdorfer wanted to make this a short book with very effective short chapters.

As for the writers of the earlier reviews (those who hated this book)... I've noticed that people who consider themselves experts at certain things (and every man will claim himself to be a great expert at chess [a claim that only ranks second to sexual prowess]) tend to act as if they think that basic or intermediate teachings are not worth being taught. Such "experts" just flip through the first half of this book and deem it completely worthless because they already know the basics, but this book's part one does have some upper-level fundamentals. Go ahead. Add this book to your personal chess library. Kurzdorfer is a master. You'll learn some things.
If you're like me, you'll learn a lot. Here's a tip: go through it a second time as a read-through and you'll learn even more!

This is a quick read, being a little over 200 pages, but it is both too short and too long. It is too short on explanations for various principles that are listed inside, and it is too long because of the obvious attempt at reaching the magic number 200 for a nice sub-title to the book. Each principle is given a number and a title, then a brief example of a single Chess position is shown (more often than not a middle-game position); a short synopsis of possible continuations is given, and after all the Chess talk is done for that principle there is a set of symbols in the form of Chess pieces followed by a 'Tao' section usually comprised of one or two sentences describing how the particular Chess principle is analogous to situations we find ourselves in in everyday life. The problem with this 'Tao' part is that it is mostly comprised of philosophical, sanctimonious rubbish in many instances having only a thin connection between the ideas. I actually took to skipping the 'Tao' parts about midway through the book because I got tired of rolling my eyes at all the 'depth' behind the analogies. The principles themselves are frequently threadbare and not very interesting as a result; and the 'Tao' sections are eventually nothing more than annoying filler in an otherwise uninspired text. I am reading a much more detailed Chess book at the moment by Irving Chernev entitled "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played--62 Masterpieces of Chess Strategy." I've only gone through game 5 so far and I have already gained more instruction than in all of "The Tao of Chess," 200 principles combined! "Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors" by Robert M. Snyder is also worth checking out. Do yourself a big financial favor and avoid buying "The Tao of Chess." Thank you.