Great Paul Morphy and his tatic

Games

Paul Morphy was an American chess player who lived in the mid 1800s
and became famous for the ease with which he dispatched every serious
challenger in the world at the time.

Some, like Anderssen played and lost the match before gentlemanly
remarking that he was no match for Morphy.

Others, like Staunton avoided a match like the plague and kept making
excuses.

“Aww I woke up late and ran out to try to make it to the boat to
America. Then! I slipped in the snow and twisted my ankle and missed
the boat. Maybe I’ll play Morphy another
time… ” – Coward Howard Staunton
Although Morphy is more commonly known today for his brilliant
queen sacrifices and combinations, he wasn’t actually a very aggressive
player by 1800s standard.

He won most of his games in less than 30 moves simply because he was
a better positional player than his opponents and most of these
guys defeated themselves with terrible positional play.
There were several players on the same level as Morphy tactically,
but like Capablanca later also enjoyed, Morphy was gifted with
a natural feel for how to correctly play any type of position.
Let’s see a nice example of Morphy’s play.

This game seems very “modern” for a game which was played way back
in 1857.
 Paul Morphy vs Frederick Perrin
In this game from 1857, we see a Sicilian Defence (!) and see Morphy
punish a guy who misplays the opening with positional mistakes
like 7…Ba5?! (7…Be7 and then 8…d6 is a better way to handle white’s
aggression) and 9…Ne5?! (9…d5! is better) and black ends up and
positionally busted in a few moves.
Only then…do we see the trademark Morphy tactical spectacle.
Lessons from this game:
1. Black places his pieces on poor squares (as mentioned above).
2. Attempting to fix the above issue, he loses time.
3. While black is wasting time, Morphy completes his development.
4. Morphy opens the centre and attacks the enemy king before he can
unravel.

The above 4-stage process is how an enormous majority of

Morphy’s games went

Morphy_Perrin

Can you see the overwhelming superiority of Morphy over his

rivals?
Below I’ll be showing you what I think are the most Instructive Games
of Paul Morphy, but first…

Here’s how you’re going to study them for maximum benefit

to your chess.
1. Play through the game and try to understand the notes I wrote in the
paragraph (on the key moments of the game) before posting the game.
Once you feel you understand what I meant, move to the next game.
2. Once you’re at the end of the post, download the PDF of the games,
print it (ideally) and restudy the games over the board.
3. Study, makes notes and annotate the games using methods
from this post.
Studying the games in this manner although a little more time
consuming, will be well worth it in the end.
Don’t make bullshit excuses, be lazy and/or skim through the games.
Do the work and gain the ELO, my friend.
Its time to add 100+ points to your rating…Let’s go!
Game 1: Paul Morphy vs N.N
This game is most notable for the simplicity of Morphy’s play.

It is only 19 moves, but pay special attention to the strength of his light-
squared bishop and his use of the f5 square for his knight.
These are tiny elements in Morphy’s play which Fischer (who once
remarked that Morphy was the greatest ever) must have paid special
attention to as well, since he used them to devastating effect more than
100 years later after studying Morphy’s games.

In the final position Morphy threatens 20.Qxg6+ with mate on g7. It

cannot be stopped.

Morphy_NN

Game 2: Paul Morphy vs James Mac Connel

This game will make an impression on you.

The most instructive part of this game is how Morphy gives his
opponent no time to do anything!
After poor opening play (do not bring your queen out too early without
GOOD reason!) by black he gets caught in a whirlwind of problems and
from move 7 onwards every move is more or less forced!
Morphy uses a powerful strategy (which you should attempt to emulate)
of developing his pieces with a gain of time (piece comes out and hits
the enemy queen, forcing her to move again instead of doing something
productive) and pushes his opponent around until the final checkmate.

Morphy_McConnell
Game 3: Paul Morphy vs Ernest Morphy
This game which was played against Morphy’s uncle (who seems to also
be a quite decent player for the time) featured a treasure trove of themes
for the learning player.

Control of the centre, rapid development, domination of open lines and

the final pinning tactic are all themes in this game showing how Morphy
had mastered quite early how to play open positions more or less
perfectly.

Morphy_Ernest

Game 4: Paul Morphy vs Alonzo Morphy

This time Morphy is taking on his father (!), whom he watched as a child
to learn how to play the game (and was soon already a master by 12!).

Again we see Morphy develop his pieces quickly, castle and get a
decisive advantage right out of the opening.
Moves like 13.d5! are a big lesson to materialistic beginners as it again
shows subtle understanding of the needs of the position.
When the enemy king is uncastled and his pieces undeveloped, open
lines in the centre at all cost!
Forget about pawns, throw them away and get that centre open!
Once the centre is open Morphy’s attack s swift and the final see-saw
checkmate is worth of remembering (I did this exact checkmate against a
Chinese player quite recently actually!

Morphy_Alonzo
Game 5: James Mc Connell vs Paul Morphy
Here we see Morphy playing the black side of an Advanced French and
again punishing mistakes which have since become the building blocks
of modern chess theory.
For example, thanks to games like this from the 1850s, we now know
that in the Advanced French, white cannot afford the luxury
of 5.f4 because blacks counterplay against his d4 pawn will be too swift.
Morphy drives this point home in just a few moves.

Mc Connell_- Morphy