Paul Morphy: how good was he really?

by Johannes Fischer
5/24/2017 – Did you ever wonder who was (or is) the best player of all time? Who would win if all 16 World Champions, plus Philidor, Labourdonnais, Anderssen and Morphy could play against each other in a tournament? How would Steinitz, Lasker or Capablanca cope against the best players from today? Such questions have no answer, of course, but are hotly debated.

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The prodigious talent of Morphy

It is difficult to separate skill and talent of a player from the chess knowledge of his time. If you let a computer check the games of the best players from past and present to find out who made the best and most precise moves, modern players will fare much better. Their theoretical knowledge is deeper and their general understanding of the game is better, not least because they had the chance to learn from their predecessors.

TarraschFIDE adopted the Elo-system in 1970, but the statistician Jeff Sonas has tried to quantify the strength of the best players from the past by calculating historical Elo-ratings for Steinitz, Lasker & Co. He published his findings on chessmetrics.com. But Sonas, too, cannot answer the question who was or is the best player of all time. According to Chessmetrics Bobby Fischer has the highest rating of all time but it is Emanuel Lasker who spent more time as the number one in the world than any player before or after him. And some historical ratings are simply surprising: for example, according to Chessmetrics, Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch (pictured at left) in June 1895 had an Elo-rating of 2824, more than players such as Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Euwe, Bronstein or Keres ever had!

If you do not trust the numbers, you might want to rely on intuition. German chess coach and chess historian Gisbert Jacoby does. While he was updating and revising the historical part of the ChessBase Mega Database 2017, Jacoby came across a number of games Paul Morphy had played as a 12-year old. Impressive games which make Jacoby believe that the 12-year old Morphy was already the best player in America and one of the best players in the world.

In 1850 Morphy played a number of casual games against Johann Löwenthal from Hungary — according to Chessmetrics the world's number two from October 1858 to April 1859 and in 1850 definitely one of the world's best players. Morphy won this unofficial match.

In 1858, when Morphy was in Europe to challenge the best European players, the two played again, this time an official match. Morphy won with 6 wins, 3 losses, and 2 draws. But the games from 1850 already show the prodigious talent of Morphy.

 
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1.e4 c5 2.f4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 exd5 5.d4 Bg4 6.Be2 Bxf3 7.Bxf3 Nf6 8.0-0 Be7 9.Be3 cxd4 10.Bxd4 0-0 11.Nc3 Nc6 12.Bxf6 Bxf6 13.Nxd5 Bxb2 14.Rb1 Bd4+ 15.Kh1 Rb8 16.c3 Bc5 17.f5
The opening is over and Morphy seizes the initiative. He pushes the f-pawn to initiate an attack against Black's king. 17...Qh4 18.g3 Qg5 19.f6 Ne5?! It was better to play 19...g6 to keep the pawn shield in front of Black's king intact. After the textmove Black winds up in a worse position. 20.fxg7 Rfd8 After 20...Qxg7 White plays 21.Be4 and after 20...Kxg7 he has 21.Be4 f5 22.Nf4 and in both cases White is clearly better. 21.Be4 Qxg7 22.Qh5 White is clearly better - the 12-year old Morphy needed only a few moves to outplay his experienced opponent. Rd6 23.Bxh7+ Kf8 After 23...Qxh7 White simply plays 24.Qxe5 with devastating threats. 24.Be4?! According to the engines it was more precise to play 24.Nf4 with a clear advantage for White. 24...Rh6 25.Qf5 Qxg3 26.Rb2
26...Re8? Now Black is lost. Löwenthal should have tried to simplify with 26...Qh3 White now is only slightly better. 27.Nf6 Re6 28.Rg2 Qxg2+ This leads to a lost endgame in which Black is an exchange down. But 28...Qh3 is now too late: 29.Nd7+ Ke7 30.Nxc5 and White is a piece up. 29.Bxg2 Rhxf6 30.Qxf6 Rxf6 31.Rxf6 Ng4 32.Rf5 b6 33.Bd5 Nh6 34.Rf6 Kg7 35.Rc6 a5 36.Rc7 Kg6 37.Kg2 f6 38.Kf3 Nf5 39.Be4 Kg5 40.Bxf5 Kxf5 41.h4 Kg6 42.Rc6 Kh5 43.Kg3 f5 44.Rf6 f4+ 45.Kxf4 Bf2 46.Ke4 Bc5 47.Rf5+ Kxh4 48.Rxc5! bxc5 49.Kd5
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Morphy,P-Loewenthal,J-1–01850B21Casuals Morphy-Löwenthal +2-0=13

Paul Morphy (left) and Johann Löwenthal during their match in London 1858

Morphy was also twelve years old when he played his first published game. His opponent was Eugène Rousseau, a French player who lived in America. In 1845 Rousseau played a match for the American Championship against Charles Stanley from England. Rousseau lost the match with +8, -15 und =8 but was definitely one of the top players in America. But this did not stop him from losing quickly against young Morphy!

 
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Having talent is good but it also must have a chance to unfold. Morphy's environment was almost ideal for the development of his chess talent. Morphy was born on June 22nd, 1837, into a wealthy family in New Orleans. Ernest Morphy, the brother of Paul Morphy's father, Alonzo, was one of the best American players, and the Morphy-family often and enthusiastically played chess. Moreover, Alonzo Morphy also had a large library that gave his son Paul access to all important chess literature of his time. According to contemporary sources Morphy also had a photographic memory — he remembered everything he read.

On his twelfth birthday Morphy played the following game against his uncle Ernest. Morphy was playing blindfold — without seeing the board!

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 d6 5.0-0 Nf6 6.d4 exd4 7.cxd4 Bb6 8.h3 h6?! More aggressive and better is 8...Nxe4 which is also the line modern theory recommends. 9.Nc3 0-0 10.Be3 Re8 11.d5 Bxe3 12.dxc6 Bb6 13.e5 dxe5 14.Qb3?! White wants to leave the queens on the board. Objectively better was 14.Qxd8 Rxd8 15.Nxe5 with a clear advantage for White. 14...Re7
15.Bxf7+ Morphy strives for tactical complications. Modern engines, however, think that this violent approach is premature. But when judging this game one should not forget that it is a blindfold game from 1849. Rxf7 16.Nxe5 Qe8 17.cxb7 Bxb7 18.Rae1 Ba6 19.Ng6
The critical position. White's rook on e1 attacks Black's queen and White threatens to play 20.Re7. How should Black defend against these threats? 19...Qd8? Black misses a hidden tactical ressource which modern engines find immediately. Namely 19...Bxf2+! 20.Kxf2 Rb8! The point of Black's 19th move. Now White can take Black's queen with check, but after 21.Rxe8+ Nxe8+ Black has a countercheck after which he regains the queen with interest. After 22.Qxf7+ Kxf7 Black attacks the white knight on g6 and the rook on f1. Black is clearly better. But in the game Black missed this tactical shot and lost immediately. 20.Re7
1–0
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Morphy,P-Morphy,E-1–01849C56Morphy Casual Games

Games like these indicate Morphy's enormous talent. But of course they cannot answer the question whether Morphy would have been able to hold his own against today's top-players.

Gisbert Jacoby and Karsten Müller decided to take a closer look:

Gisbert Jacoby and Karsten Müller on Paul Morphy

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The "Mega" is the database every serious chessplayer needs. The database contains 6.8 million games from 1500 to 2016, in highest quality standard, full of top level analyses and completely classified.


Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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