Amazon.com description: Product Description: Purdy fills you in on the details, explains the whys, and makes it easier for you to improve—to be a very good player without large amounts of memorization. Even the elementary principles which begin this book have points not seen in other works of this type. His language is a bit unusual, making it easier to remember such things as "biffing the Bishop." He covers all three phases of a game: the opening, the middlegame, and the endgame. Lastly, a complete game is dissected for the purpose of showing how Purdy's Rules are used effectively. The best beginner's book on chess you will ever read.