C.J.S. Purdy's Fine Art of Chess Annotation and Other Thoughts Volume 2

Thinkers' Press, 2002. — 253 p. Volume 2 of C.J.S. Purdy's Fine Art of Annotation series continues in the same vein as the first. Purdy is one of the best annotators in chess history, honing his skills by writing "Chess World" for many years. Here are 120 more games for you to absorb, along with 13 articles from Purdy's various publications. Cecil John Seddon Purdy was a bona-fide original thinker, explorer, and discoverer, much like the late physicist Richard Feynman. Besides writing about and playing chess, he thought about chess, its origins, its rules, and its best games by its best players -- and sometimes he would disagree with the results of others. Genius does what it wants, and it often suffers as a result. However, the rewards of his insightful genius are now bearing fruit and a whole new world has discovered the writings of this master teacher and player. In 1953 Purdy became the First Correspondence Chess Champion Of The World -- in a notoriously difficult sport -- while residing in Australia! Concurrently he was also publishing his small, but powerful, chess magazine, aptly named, Chess World. Volume 1 contained 100 annotated master-level, and above, games. Volume 2 offered 120 annotated master-level, and above, games along with 13 separate "how to improve" articles. Volume 3, continuing in the same style, contains 70 annotated games of CJS Purdy as well as an additional 30 annotated games of his tactically gifted son John, also an Australian Champion. In addition, 6 articles and a number of essays add to the flavor of learning. Besides the many diagrams, there is an index of openings, and information on the Purdy Library of Chess. It may be as well to explain that, when we annotate a game, usually we do not write all the notes for players of the same standard.