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 WHO? Chess Paul van der Sterren was born in Venlo, Holland on 17 March 1956.
He was taught the game of chess at the age of 13 and immediately started to participate in school competitons. He became a member of the Venlo Chess Club during the same year, 1969, and quickly became infatuated with the game. When he was 18 he took up law at Amsterdam University, but quickly turned himself into a professional chess player, which he remained until his retirement from tournament chess at the age of 45.
FIDE awarded him the title of International Master in 1979 and of International Grandmaster in 1989. Between about 1980 and 2000 he was one of the top players in Holland, representing his country in eight Chess Olympiads, winning several tournaments and becoming Dutch champion in 1985 and 1993. In the latter year he also qualified for the Candidates Matches, the final stage of the World Championship cycle in those days, by coming second in the immensely strong Interzonal Tournament in Biel. He lost in the quarter finals to American GM Gata Kamsky in a match that was held in Wijk aan Zee in 1994. Paul van der Sterren has played for several clubs in the Dutch club league, most notably for Desisco/Watergraafsmeer and HSG, and for Castrop-Rauxel in the German Bundesliga.
From his earliest chess years he has also been writing about chess. He was a regular contributor to the Dutch chess magazines Schakend Nederland and Schaakbulletin and he was one of the founding editors of New in Chess, for whose series of Yearbooks he has contributed over a hundred articles about opening theory. After his retirement in 2001 Paul has found the time to write a number of well-received books of which De wereld van de Schaakopening has been translated in English. It was renamed Fundamental Chess Openings and published by Gambit in 2009. His second English language book Your First Chess Lessons for the absolute beginner was published in October 2016. His groundbreaking autobiography Zwart op Wit was published in 2011 (Reprint 2021) and has recently (December 2023) been translated into English: In Black and White. In this autobiography Paul talks candidly about his chess career. The book was hugely praised throughout the Dutch press. His most recent book is Mindful Chess (January 2024), see below. Buddhism and Non-Duality In 1998 Van der Sterren started practicing Vipassana (Insight) meditation. He attended several intensive retreats. Later he became a meditation teacher himself in the Amsterdam Meditation Centre Buddhavihara. In 2005 he was struck by the discrepancy between the Buddhist concept of "no self" and the practice of improving yourself by meditation. Attending the meetings given by Tony Parsons confirmed him in this view and he then gave up the idea of a "spiritual career" altogether. Since then he has written five books about Non-Duality (Advaita): Verlichting in een lege verpakking (Enlightenment in an Empty Box), Over het brein, non-dualiteit en vrije wil (The Brain, Non-Duality and Free Will), Gedachten over het ondenkbare (Thoughts on the Unthinkable), Ontbijt met non-dualiteit (Breakfast with Non-Duality) and Mystiek zonder schokdempers (Mysticism without Shock Absorbers). His most recent book (in English) is Mindful Chess where he reflects on the connections between chess and mindfulness, sharing a lot of his experiences from his chess career and his practice of Vipassana meditation. |
