by National Life Master Loal Davis
Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy and called “The Pride and Sorrow of Chess”; pride because he had a brief and brilliant chess career; sorrow because he retired from the game while still very young.
Many think of Morphy as a dazzling combinative player, who excelled at sacrifices and brilliantly checkmating his opponent, but it was not the basis of his chess style.
Morphy treats chess with the seriousness and conscientiousness of an artist … For him a game of chess is a sacred duty.
– Adolf Anderssen
A popularly held theory about Paul Morphy is that if he returned to the chess world today and played our best contemporary players, he would come out the loser. Nothing is further from the truth. In a set match, Morphy would beat anybody alive today.
– Bobby Fischer
To this day Morphy is an unsurpassed master of the open games. Just how great was his significance is evident from the fact that after Morphy nothing substantially new has been created in this field.
– Mikhail Botvinnik
Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all.
– Bobby Fischer
On September 27, 1858, Morphy gave an 8-board blindfold exhibition, winning 6 games and drawing 2 games. It was held at the Café de la Régence. The owner of the café wanted to charge a spectator fee of 5 francs for the exhibition, but Morphy said he would not give the exhibition unless the café was open to anyone who walked in. So the event was free for anyone who could get inside the establishment. His opponents were Baucher, Bierwith, Borneman, Guibert, Lequesne, Potier, Preti, and Seguin (and 50 other players in the room to give advice to Morphy’s 8 opponents). Morphy was seated in the billiard room of the café, with his back to the chess table in the other room . The blindfold exhibition lasted for 10 hours, without anything to eat or drink for Morphy. When the event was over, it took 30 minutes for Morphy to get outside of the café after being congratulated by everyone inside. However, the crowd outside was greater than the one inside the café, and the shouting was more deafening. French Imperial guards, not knowing what was going on, thought a new revolution in Paris had broken out.
The next morning for over two hours, Paul dictated all the moves (and hundreds of variations) of his 8 blindfold games from the previous night.
The following was the longest game of the exhibition, finishing last. It is a masterpiece and worthy of anyone playing it over the board, much less blindfolded.
For the complete annotated PGN file, please see Comments
[Event “Paris sim”]
[Site “Paris”]
[Date “1858.??.??”]
[White “Morphy, Paul”]
[Black “Seguin, M.”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C41”]
[Annotator “Loal Davis”]
[PlyCount “93”]
[EventDate “1858.??.??”]
[EventCountry “FRA”]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Be7 6. Bd3 O-O 7. f4 c5 8. Nf3 Nc6 9. O-O Bg4 10. Be3 {Notice how Morphy watches his central squares. Black pins the Knight, White reinforces ‘d4’.} a6 11. a4 {Thou shalt not expand.} h6 12. h3 Bxf3 13. Qxf3 Nb4 14. Rad1 Qc7 15. b3 {Restraint of the Queenside.} Nxd3 16. cxd3 Rfe8 17. d4 {Everything mobilized; time to open the position.} Qc6 18. dxc5 dxc5 19. e5 { With Black’s Queenside held back, Morphy utilizes his Kingside Pawn majority and penetrates to the 7th rank.} Qxf3 20. Rxf3 Nh7 21. Rd7 Rab8 22. Nd5 Bf8 23. Bf2 {The other Rook is to participate.} Rbd8 24. Nb6 Rxd7 25. Nxd7 Rc8 26. Rc3 {Beautifully done. The previously restrained Queenside is now static, an excellent object of attack and Black must lose a Pawn.} Rc7 27. Nxf8 Nxf8 28. Rxc5 Rxc5 29. Bxc5 Ne6 30. Be3 g6 31. g4 {The Kingside majority is kept mobile.} Nd8 32. Kf2 {Yes – advancing Pawns would be premature and likely overextend them. In the endgame, the King is a fighting piece.} Nc6 33. Ke2 b5 34. axb5 {Keeping it simple and exposing a future Pawn target closer to his King rather than farther away on the ‘a’ file should Black exchange.} axb5 35. Kd3 Kf8 36. Bc5+ Ke8 37. Ke4 {Central support; the Pawn majority is soon rolling.} Kd7 38. Kd5 Nd8 39. f5 gxf5 40. gxf5 h5 41. Bb6 Nb7 42. e6+ fxe6+ 43. fxe6+ Ke7 44. Kc6 {Notice the activity and harmony of the King and Bishop. Black is driven back on all lines.} Nd8+ 45. Bxd8+ Kxd8 46. Kd6 {Capturing on ‘b5’ would win easily, but despite the late hour, Morphy sees a way to promote his advanced Pawn while avoiding stalemate.} Ke8 47. e7 { Black can waste one move with one of his Pawns; Morphy will do likewise with the remaining Pawn. This leaves Black forced to abandon the Queening square with his King. White will support the square with his King and promote. A smooth, steady, and forceful execution. Superb !} 1-0
Not what we’re used to seeing from Morphy, but certainly a sure win…