The 'pride and sorrow of chess', Morphy was a great player but his true status when compared with other champions remains an enigma even today, nearly lOO years after his death. Among all those
recognized as best in the world for their time he had the shortest active career and he never met an opponent who threatened to beat him. His fame rests on fewer than 75 serious games plus a larger number of brilliant offhand victories.
Morphy was hailed as a prodigy at the age of 12 when he defeated the master Lowenthal, who was visiting Morphy's home city of New Orleans, in a series of friendly matches.
Then, in 1857, an event occurred which substantially advanced Morphy's name and career. This was the first American chess congress held in New York, and by good fortune it took place at a time when Morphy was. technically ready for it.
Similar strokes of fortune occurred in the careers of some later players, notably Lasker and Fischer.
The congress was staged as a series of
knock-out matches, and Morphy out classed his first three opponents before
defeating Louis Paulsen 6-2 in the fin�l. Paulsen later proved himself an e:x:ceHent
match player and a deep strategist, many of whose ideas in the openings were
taken up by grandmasters a century later. . That Morphy could defeat this master of defence may be a better indica tion of his strength than his more highly praised victory over Anderssen.
Morphy's successes rested on his un derstanding of open positions,· the need to develop pieces rapidly in. the classical king's side openings and to take the initiative in an economical way without wasting moves. Generally, Morphy's con temporaries either attacked without the support of a sound development or played manoeuvre chess with wasted and irrelevant moves slowing down their plans. Morphy's economy of effort and
nw ,m '> gi \l''> h i s hest games an i mpressi on
1 1 ! '> i m p l i �.· i t y a nd fl ow as he found the
1 11 1 1 .\ 1 ,h' �.· u ra t c move a t every s tage .
\1 1 1 1· p h ,. · ., m o '>t l a m o u s v i c to ry w a s ch: r t ng thL· t n t cr \· a l o f an o p.e ra
p
e r f o r flLJ lh l' d f!, ,J t n -> t ! W l l c o n s u l t i ng d i gn i t a n es l t : " l fw rll l l \ 1 l L· k b ra t cd a n d t n '> t r u l t i \'C ! r t L· n d l \ ga me ( ) I a l l time \\' h i t c : P . . \l o r p h y B l a ck : D u k e o f B r u n sw i c k a n d Cou n t I so u a rd P h i l i d o r D e fe n ce ( Pa r i s . 1 8 5 8 ) I . e4 e5 2. N f'J d 6 3. d 4 B g 4 '? f h t '> ptn on t h e k n i g h t . i n d i re c t l y c o n t n J I ! t n g the c e n t re , i s goo d i n ma n y < l f'C n t n g'> h u t h e re a l l o w s \.Y h i te a fo r ced '>L'Lj U L'Il l l' gat n i ng t he adv a n t a ge 4 . d x c ) H x l3 -I d :-: l' ) ) () x d K + a n d b N x e ') w i n s a t•l· I l L' r ) . () x f 3 h . Bc4 I . () h ) ! d x c 5 :\ I 6 ? \1 ( 1 \ t n .� ,1 p t l'l.· c . a n d pa r t t c u l a r l y the cj ll l'l' n l \\ l c l' 111 t h e u pc n t ng I S u s ua l l y l i l l l t r a t\ I l l -,o u n d p l a y . h u t grea t c h a m f' t u ns k n 1 1 \\ \.\ h e n to b r e a k g e n e ra l r u l e s . H L· rc \\'httc t h r ea t e n s both 8 Bx fl + l ( t l l � � \\ l'li h \· lJ C)eb mate a n d a l so 8 Q x h7 7 . . . . ()c 7 8 . :\ d \ l l i l ll f!,LT t h a n K () x h7 Q h4 + e x chan g- 8 . c 6 Y. Bg 5 b5 '? fi g I O 'i N o te t h at \V h 1 te h a s been bri n g i ng h i s p i c�.· cs i n to a c t i o n as q u i c k l y as poss i b l e, \\: h i l c Bl a ck has made q u een a nd p a w n moves a n d exchanged o fT h i s d e v e l opedh 1 s h o p N mv W h i te is a l ready set up for a
d cva s t a t tng sa c r i f'i ce - Black s h o u l d have
pia vcd Y Q c 7
1 0 . N x b 5 ! c x b 5
1 1 . B x b 5 + N b d7 1 2 . 0-0-0 R d 8
Paul Morph v. t he 'pride and sorrow o f chess', beat all corners i n a career of only three years.
1 3 . Rxd7 ! 1 4 . R d 1 N o w W h i te could B x f6, but Morphy artistic finish . Rxd7 Qe6 win simply by 1 5 . chooses the most
1 5 . Bxd7 + ! Nxd7
1 6 . Qb8 + Nxb8
1 7 . Rd8 mate
Morphy travelled to Europe in 1 8 58 and defeated all corners including an 8 - 3 margin over Anderssen, who had
won the first i nternational tournam'ent at London 1 8 5 1 . The English champion, S ta u n ton, d u cked Morphy's attempts to a rr a n ge a match - wisely, for Staunton's best successes were in the 1 840s and there i s no doubt Morphy would have w o n . But after proving his supremacy o v er h i s contemporaries Morphy quickly l o st i n terest in c hess and his later life was
marred by mental illness which left him a reel use, shunning the ga'llile f0r the
1 5 yea rs before his death.
How would Morphy have perfl!Jrlil'led against champions of later generations ? Knowledge of opening play around 1 860 was still rudimentary aad Morphy would need an intens-ive course of N"ie>derl'l
theory to have any chance of competil1lg
with present-day masters. He would certainly have been able to ab.se>rb S'\'.H�h
information quickly, for he knew tM.e theory of his time and one of his victe>r-ies over Anderssen came through a prepared variation of the Ruy Lopez.
In his authoritative book The Rating of
Chessplayers Past and Present (Batsford)
which includes comparative performances of modern grandmasters and their prede cessors, Professor Arpad Elo assesses
Morphy with a rating of 2690, sufficient In present-day terms to make him stronger than any player except the world cham pion and his challenger. I doubt this verd ict. which depends on a small number of games and does not allow for Morph y' s illness wh ich would have affected his results in later life as it did with Rubin stein.
But the assessment makes it worth while examining the games of Morphy's match with Anderssen, another confirmed great player. Anderssen had not com peted si nce 1 8 5 1 and handi capped him self with inferior openi ngs such as l . a 3
and the Centre Coun ter which prov ided Morphy's best win of the match.
White : P . M orphy . Black : A .
Anderssen
Centre Counter ( 7th match game
1 858) I . e4
2.
exdS 3 . N c 3 4 . d4 5. dxe5 6. Be2 7. Nf3 dS QxdS QaS e5 Qxe S + Bb4Typical of Morphy's style - he has an advantage and sacrifices a pawn to in
crease his lead in development. 7 . Bxc 3 + 8 . bxc3 QxcJ + 9 . Bd
2
QcS lO. R b l N c6 1 1 . 0-0 N f6 12. Bf4rega ining the pawn but allow ing simplifi cations. 1 2. RbS Qd6 1 3 . Re i 0-0 14. Qc l ,
. keeping u p the pressure, was recommen
ded later, and is more what would have been ex pected from Morphy .
1 2 . 0-0 1 3 . Bxc7 N d4 1 4 . Qxd4 Qxc7 15 . Bd3 1 5 . . . . B g4? fig. 1 06
This cannot be good since the bishop has to return miserably to c8 twG> moves later. 1 5 . . h6 ! (stopping White's next) 16.
Qb4 b6 and if 1 7. Rfe 1 Be6 would have
solved most of Black's problems.
1 6. N g5 1
Now Black's game is difficult because White threatens N or Bxh7 and also pressurizes the two Q-side pawns.
1 6. . . . Rfd8
If 1 6 . . . . BhS 1 7 . Ne4 Ng4 1 8. NgJ b6 19. RbS wins, while moving the other rook to d8, which is positionally natural, loses a pawn to 1 7 . Qxa7.
17. Qb4 Bc8 18. Rfe 1 a S
If 1 8 . . . . h 6 19. Re7 R d 7 20. B h 7 + , but as played all Black's pawns are weak and are easy endgame victims to White's active rooks and minor pieces.
1 9. Qe7 Qxe7 20 . Rxe7 Nd5 2 1 . Bxh7 + K h8
22.
Rx£7 NcJ 23. Re i Nxa2 24. Rf4 Ra6 2 5 . BdJ ResignsAnderssen's wry comment after his match defeat was, 'It is impossible to keep one's excellence in a little glass casket, like a jewel, to take it out when ever wanted. On the contrary, it can only be conserved by continuous and good practice . ' In his later matches against Kolisch and Steinitz, Anderssen eschewed both 1 . a3 and the Centre Counter and did much better.
As for Morphy, his last act before quitting tournament chess was to offer pawn and move odds to anyone in the world. There were no takers - an . incon ceivable event if any similar offer was made by an established grandmaster today. The nearest modem parallel was Fischer's offer to give knight odds to any woman player in the world, a proposal which he quickly abandoned when the Soviet chess authorities showed eager ness to match the women's world cham pion, Nona Gaprindashvili, against him for a substantial stake.