A man is sitting at his table, concentrating hard on his game. Typical tournament sounds surround him: clocks ticking, coughs, the clacking of pieces hitting a wooden board, mutters of dismay. An Exchange up in an endgame, the man is feeling pretty good. He's going to win! Nothing will stop him from scoring a nice victory.

Suddenly the triumphant man clutches his chest and collapses to the floor. Having suffered a major heart attack, the unfortunate chap has only moments left. His brother, who's also playing in this event, rushes to his side.

At this point, what would your final words be? Perhaps, "My money is stashed in my mattress!" or how about, "Don't let my ex-wife get a dime!"

Without a doubt, a normal person would want his final sentence to carry some impact, and, most likely, to send a message to loved ones. The man in our story, though, is not a normal man. He's a chess player, a chess teacher, and the one-time World Postal Champion. His final words were, "I have a win, but it will take time." And then the life of Cecil Purdy came to an end.

Originally titled, C.J.S. Purdy His Life, His Games and His Writings, this book was recommended to me by several "B" class players who loved Purdy's instructive writings. Feeling compelled to take a look at something that was given so many glowing raves, I dropped a quick e-mail to Bob Long (the publisher), he teleported a copy of the book to me and...well, it's pretty damn good!

Though I was uninterested in Purdy's games (which cover the final 90 pages), this doesn't mean that you won't tuck them under your pillow every night. However, if I'm going to look at games, names like Karpov, Kasparov, Fischer, etc., etc., come to mind more readily than Purdy's.

Being a lover of chess history (real or imagined!), I found his life story much more to my taste. Described as an athletic, A-grade tennis player who also loved to run, Purdy didn't smoke, drink or overeat. He also avoided stress, refusing to worry about what could befall him in the future. You would think that these things, a modern-day menu for longevity, would guarantee Purdy a Methuselah-like life span. However, we are brought back to his heart attack at the tender age of 40...oh...wait...he lived to be 72. Not as long a life as it could have been, but it does blow my dietary argument (and my upcoming recommendation for chocolate and fine wine) out of the water.

Always interested in what a player makes at a certain date and place, Purdy's income of 5 pounds a week (he paid 1 pound a week for rent! His place was described as a two bedroom, modern flat close to the beach) in 1934 drove home how different that time period was from our own reality.

All of this wasn't of much interest to the people who told me to read this book, though. They were mesmerized by Purdy's clear-cut instructional style. They felt his voice talked to them (sounds a bit spooky, doesn't it?), and they all felt that their game had improved by pondering Purdy's words.

This instructional part of the book fills almost 190 pages (which is good news for the low-rated student). I found that Purdy had a real feel for the trails and tribulations of the beginning tournament player, and he also had the patience to explain the most basic concepts in a clear, easy to understand manner.

Purdy looks at a lot of useful stuff: exchanging, combinations, how to reduce errors (he gives a lot on this subject!), general endgame strategy, play with the pieces, the play for position after the opening, planning, a method of thinking in chess, the isolated d-pawn, compensation for a pawn, transposition from the opening to the middlegame, when attack is the best defense, when counterattack is wrong, those two Bishops, Rook against two minor pieces, weak pawns and weak squares, how to avoid traps, the true elements of chess, why a pawn center?, what is position play?, and...well, my typing hand's getting tired, but the list goes on and on and on.

Special attention should be given to his own System, a step by step guide on how to figure out a position. This can be found on page 79.

Most tournament players reside in the Class D through Class A range. Just about all of them would love to improve his or her game, and so they slog through modern books by Schiller, Pandolfini, Silman, Nunn, Dvoretsky and endless other authors. The truth is, many of these writers are so much stronger than the average D-A student that they can't really address their problems, simply because they can no longer relate to them. Other writers give you lots of useless opening information. And most of the remaining authors aren't able to pass on information in a lucid, interesting way.

It seems to me that Purdy has been forgotten, but this book offers more key advice and instructional punch than a dozen other books sitting on a bookstore's shelf. Purdy's ability to communicate with the average player (a rare skill!) puts him at the forefront of chess teachers. If you're in that D-A grouping, you will be delighted with Purdy's Search For Chess Perfection.

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