How to study and improve in chess according to C. J. S. Purdy
At first, who is C. J. S. Purdy just in case you do not know. Cecil John Seddon Purdy AM (1906 - 1979), often called "C. J. S. Purdy", was an Australian chess player and writer.
He wrote several chess books, of which I have Purdy's Fine Art of Chess Annotation: Volume Two in my library. And in it, I found an interesting method of practicing chess in the style I currently want or need to improve.
What is the base of the method?
All of us know that re-playing games of chess masters (and grandmasters) is a good way to learn more about chess. But much better way is consulting games with chess masters!
But...
How many times does an average chess player this chance in his/her lifetime? I do not count on those lucky of us who have chess master learning them in a chess club or online for example.
What Purdy suggests in his method is this. Chose a game between two strong players. Play the first 7 moves of the game and then play instead of the player who won the game (in case the game was a draw, you can chose any player to play instead of him). Hide all the next moves of the game (by a card for example) and start to play from the side of the winner.
Think out of all your moves as you would be the real player of the game. Be precise in creating your plan and calculating all variants. Just like in your own tournament games.
Play your moves without looking at “real” moves of your side from the game. Once you made your move on the board then slide the card over till the game move is exposed. If the move is different from your one, try to find why. Did you make a blunder? Did you select another or wrong plan?
But NEVER look at an annotation beforehand – it would destroy the learning purpose!
Look at the opponent’s reply immediately. It could help you to find where could be a problem with your move.
Repeat this until you “win” the game. And repeat it with many many games.
Of course, you can use clocks like in a real game. It would move your experience and training closer to reality.
You can adopt this method also in cases when you want to learn more about specific style. Personally, I am going to play Smyslov's games according Purdy’s method as I need to improve in my positional play. And Vasily Smyslov is one of the best positional players of all times.
Have you ever studied games by this method? What is your experience with it? Or will you try it?
Chess Tactics for your solution
White to move and win. Will you find the right way?
Acknowledgements
I would like to say big “Thank you!” to Martin B. Justesen, who writes the great Substack Say Chess, for mentioning my site in one of his last posts. It made me happy and I'm glad that the chess community on Substack is sticking together!
That’s all for this week. Have a great weekend and enjoy your chess games!
If you consider telling your chess friends about The Queen's Pawn Newsletter, I would be really happy!