A First Book of Morphy aims to illustrate the teachings of three great chessplayers with games played by the first American chess champion, Paul Morphy. The book presents more than 60 of Morphy's brilliant and instructive games in demonstration of basic chess principles written by grandmasters Reuben Fine and Cecil Purdy.

From Simon & Schuster, Logical Chess: Move By Move: Every Move Explained is Irving Chernev guide to beginners chess and the basic moves for every player to improve. In this much loved classic, Irving Chernev explains 33 complete games in detail, telling the reader the reason for every single move. Playing through these games and explanations gives a real insight into the power of the pieces and how to post them most effectively.

Do you often lose at chess simply because you are not aggressive enough? You can put boldness into your chess game by following the brilliant moves of Paul Morphy, who has been called the greatest chess player of all time. This volume contains 300 of Morphy's best games, carefully annotated by Philip W. Sergeant. While Morphy wrote no books on chess theory and seldom expounded his methods in public, his theories are clearly demonstrated in the games in this volume. You can systematically improve your own game, you can add brilliance to your play by following the technique of quick, forceful development and opening of lines developed by the great 19th-century World Champion. In a new introduction, Fred Reinfeld, well-known American chess authority, states: "By emphasizing the role of systematic, aggressive development, Morphy helped to mold chess into an art form and into the highest phase of intellectual struggle." Included in this completely unabridged volume are 54 classic games against such masters as Anderssen, Harrwitz, Mongredien, Bird, Paulsen, and others. There are also 52 games at odds, 52 blindfold games, plus more than 100 others. These games, with explanatory text, offer a great champion's interpretation of such standard chess openings as the Dutch Defense, Evans Gambit, Giuoco Piano, and Ruy Lopez.

Analysis of the games and positions of the best chess player of the 19th century — his rare blunders, omissions, selected endgames, and openings.

"Paul Morphy: The Pride and Sorrow of Chess" is the only full-length biography of Paul Morphy, the antebellum chess prodigy who launched United States participation in international chess and is still generally acknowledged as the greatest American chess player of all time. But Morphy was more than a player. He was a shy, retiring lawyer who had been taught that such games were no way to make a living. The strain of his fame and the pull of his domineering family led Morphy to set another precedent: chess madness. Morphy's mental descent after retiring from chess became a part of his lore, made all the more magnanimous by a spate of twentieth-century examples. "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess" tells the full known story of the life of Paul Morphy, from his privileged upbrining in New Orleans to his dominance of the chess world, to the later tragedy of his demise. This new edition of David Lawson's seminal work, still the principal source for all Morphy biographical presentations, also includes new biographical material about the biographer himself, telling the story of the author, his opus, and the previously unknown life that brought him to the research.

300 games by the greatest player of all time: 54 against such masters as Anderssen, Harrwitz, Mongredien, Bird, Paulsen, and others; 52 of the best blindfold games; 52 games at odds; and 142 in consultation, informally.