Ready for Action Action Chess: Purdy's 24 Hours Opening Repertoire, by C.J.S. Purdy, with commentary by Ronald J. Wieck, 2000 Thinker's Press, Inc., English Algebraic Notation, 192pp., $22.50 If you ask most chessplayers to list the best known authors of instructional chess books, names such as Chernev, Reinfeld and Pandolfini are bound to be included. The name of one writer, however, may fail to make most lists. Australian journalist (and first correspondence world champion!) Cecil J.S. Purdy must, by anyone's reckoning, be considered at or near the top of any such list. The problem is that Purdy's writing took place, for the most part, not in books, but in the magazines he edited, most notably The Australasian Chess Review and Chess World (actually the same magazine, but with a change in name); and that was at least 35 or 40 years ago. So, unless you happened to have copies of these now hard-to-find magazines, you could not experience his excellent and highly instructional writing. Over the years, several outstanding books have appeared that are in fact collections of Purdy's articles that originally appeared in magazines. Among them are Guide to Good Chess, The Search for Chess Perfection and How Purdy Won. Each may be unhesitatingly recommended. The latest such entry, published by Thinker's Press, is called Action Chess: Purdy's 24 Hours Opening Repertoire. The basic structure and goals of the book are set forth by Ralph J. Tykodi in his Editor's Foreword: Purdy was one of the finest chess journalists of all time, and his writings addressed to the chess student, to the player of less than master strength, are about the best to be had. In a series of articles in Chess World, 1951-1960, with the general title of THE OPENINGS IN 10 HOURS, Purdy sought to develop an opening system that would reliably get the student who didn't have the time nor the inclination for extensive study of opening theory to a playable middlegame. Purdy's aim was to provide the student, with a minimum of book study, with an opening repertoire that would minimize the danger of an opening catastrophe and would get the student to a position where he or she could use all of his or her imagination and skill in an exciting contest with the opponent... For the student who by choice or necessity must limit the time he or she devotes to the study of openings, Purdy recommends an All Purpose System for Black (...d5, ...e6, ...Nf6, ...Be7, ...0-0, in appropriate order) against everything except 1. e4, the Stonewall Attack, or the Colle System. Against 1. e4, he recommends some lines in the French Defense or the Old Dragon variant of the Sicilian Defense... I have taken the articles of the OPENINGS IN 10 HOURS series and restructured them into a more compact form, eliminating repetitions and discussions that Purdy later rejected. The words and ideas are all Purdy's: my role as editor is simply to present the material efficiently. Although Purdy did not have much to say about playing with the White pieces in his 10 HOURS series, we can infer from his other writings that had he done a comparable 5 HOURS series for White it would have been based on the Colle System and transpositions therefrom. So as to give the developing student (the player of less than Expert strength) a complete "starter set" opening repertoire (both for Black and for White) I include in Chapters 13 Purdy's discussions of the Colle. The book is divided into 13 chapters: (1) Opening Problems and Principles; (2) Playing Black in Close Openings: All Purpose System; (3) The 7 Bxf6 Line in The Queen's Gambit; (4) The All Purpose System Against Various Lines; (5) The French Defense; (6) French Defense: The 3...dxe4 Line; (7) French Defense: More On The 3...dxe4 Line; (8) French Defense: The 3 e5 Line; (9) French Defense: The 3 exd5 Line; (10) Sicilian Defense, Old Dragon Variant: Introduction; (11) Sicilian Defense, Old Dragon Variant: Interlude; (12) Sicilian Defense, Old Dragon Variant: Main Line and Commentary; and (13) The Colle System. The book has a curious format. Although a nice 6"x9" size, there is a wide 2.25-inch outer margin on each page. This has to do with the role of Ronald J. Wieck, an American master who supplies "commentary". His comments appear in a smaller type size, footnote style, in this 2.25-inch margin. Unfortunately, in an otherwise very good book, this does not work. Much of what Wieck has to say is nothing more than cheerleading: YES, he agrees with Purdy; YES, Purdy makes a good point. And although we do come across the occasional legitimate correction - a la John Nunn and his various algebraic re-works - it suffers from being a bit too complicated or out of place for the reader. After all, this is intended to be a repertoire book for players who have not yet made the grade to Elo 1800 (USCF Class A). At least that is what Ralph Tykodi says, as quoted above, on page 8. Apparently, Wieck is neither figuratively nor literally on the same page with Tykodi, as on page 12, he states that the book "...isn't truly a repertoire book." Wieck's contribution is based on the unstated and possibly incorrect premise that Purdy's work is dated and needs somehow to be "modernized". Granted we do not have cutting edge opening theory presented, but it is important not to lose sight of the fact that we may not need or even want this kind of content. This is a book intended to give lower rated players with limited time for study enough information so that they may obtain "a playable middlegame" (Tykodi). That's all. The talents of someone like Wieck could have been put to better use in two ways: First, explain how the student could best deal with the dynamic, fluid nature of opening theory. Should the interested student be concerned about developments in the Colle or the so-called All Purpose System for Black? Maybe. Maybe not. But a discussion of the alternatives would have been helpful. Second, and not entirely separate from the first suggestion, is the idea of an annotated bibliography. More than two dozen titles are listed in the bibliography. Why not tell the student which ones might yield the best results in the shortest available time; don't forget - that is supposed to be the goal of this book. Is Baburin's excellent but rather sophisticated tome dealing with the treatment of the isolani really to be recommended to a novice? How about ECO? Both are in the bibliography. The basis of Purdy's repertoire theory for Black is the following core set-up (one hesitates to use the term tabiya at this level) (See Diagram): In other words, this basic set-up, which can arise via the French Defense and several variations of the Queen's Gambit, forms the fundamental foundation upon which Purdy builds his repertoire. Practical and helpful explanation is nicely balanced with theoretical concepts, all reduced in Purdy's inimitable way with a clarity that allows appreciation by all but the weakest players. If, as previously noted, Wieck's comments appear somewhat incongruous, the inclusion of chapters 10, 11 and 12 are perplexing and completely inconsistent. These three chapters discuss the use of the Accelerated Dragon by Black. It is rather baffling why, after taking the time and effort to craft a rather solid and playable "all purpose" defensive scheme, the super-sharp, theory dependent Accelerated Dragon would be then suggested as another alternative. Why? How does a lower-rated player, with limited time for study, master one of the more complicated responses to e4? Finally, the overall readability would also be improved by the addition of more diagrams. From Chapter 3: The 7 Bxf6 Line in the Queen's Gambit [The additional commentary by Wieck is given in brackets; in the book they appear as margin notes.] At White's 7th move, I indicated an important divergence, which we must now discuss. Let us run over the earlier moves briefly. 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 Black should play this even if White has not played Bg5. But as I said, Bg5 is White's most aggressive move and therefore provides the severest test for the defense. 5. Nf3 0-0 [This comment is likely to baffle the student. Although a strong player will understand what Purdy means, it really is beyond our scope for this book. I would prefer to say that 5...h6 is less flexible than castling.] This, too. In fact, Black can play the first five moves in his sleep, as I said. By the way, it is imprudent (though not bad) to play 5... h6 instead of 5... 0-0. 6. e3 h6 Reasons for this were discussed in Ch. 2. There, we dealt at great length with the logical move 7. Bh4!, but mentioned 7. Bxf6 as "tricky" - and so it is. 7. Bxf6 Bxf6 Here I'll digress to remark that whenever you try to deal with any opening in detail, you find some important problem that the books leave unsolved. As the reply ...Bxf6 is not a developing move, since the Bishop was already developed at e7, White has lost no time; consequently, in this case, ...h6 has indeed lost a tempo. Black has the nebulous compensation of "the two Bishops." In the long run, the Bishops are good insurance against trouble; but for the next few moves Black must be especially careful. In general, the earlier you lose a tempo during the opening, the worse it is. For instance, to take an absurd case, for Black to play 1... d6 and then 2... d5 against any two developing moves would be to invite disaster, whereas an interruption in development when it is almost completed, is frequently of no great consequence. If you consult MCO, you will find 7. Bxf6 dealt with, but not very satisfactorily. Having obtained the two Bishops, Black's general idea should be to open lines; and the most energetic way would be by ...c5 as soon as possible. White's most forceful continuation is therefore 8. Qb3, with a direct threat, thus preventing an immediate ...c5. 8. Qb3 c6! Waiting for White to declare his intention about queenside castling. If 9. Bd3 Nd7 10.0-0, then simply 10... dxc4 11. Bxc4 c5!. 9. 0-0-0 Nd7 10. e4 dxc4 [According to Pachman, 10... Nb6 is also good.] 11. Bxc4 b5! [An interesting recommendation ignored by recent theory, which considers only 11 ... e5. 11 ... b5 gave Black the advantage in Kotov-Stahlberg, 1940, after 12. Bd3 e5. White should have tried 12. Be2. Purdy's 12... a5 looks odd and is not mentioned in any of the sources I consulted.] 12. Bd3 a5 Here Black's attacking chances are better than White's. This is another fine collection of Purdy's writings, reasonably organized and presented. We have tried to alert the reader to its shortcomings. The injection of the Accelerated Dragon into the mix was simply not thought through very well, while the additional material sporadically offered by Wieck, though not adding much, does not in fact detract from the book either. The bottom line is that Purdy was and still is one of the great author/teachers, and his brilliant clarity comes through on every page. This is a book that should be seriously considered for players in the 1400-1700 range who are looking for direction in the formation and understanding of a basic opening repertoire.