Anatomy of a Classic Chess Game - Paul Morphy's Night at the Opera

(on the left)

The chess legend, Paul Morphy, is known as perhaps the most "ahead of his time" chess master ever. He dominated the chess world as only a young man in the mid to late 1800's. Most of you probably know Bobby Fischer, probably the most commonly known chess master. He said of Paul Morphy, whom he listed in his top ten players of all time:

"perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived"

To pull a few facts out of Wikipedia:

"Morphy was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to a wealthy and distinguished family. He learned to play chess by simply watching games between his father and uncle. His family soon recognised the boy's talent and encouraged him to play at family gatherings, and by the age of nine he was considered to be one of the best players in New Orleans. At just twelve years of age, Morphy defeated visiting Hungarian master Johann Löwenthal in a match of three games.

After receiving his degree in 1857(20 years old), Morphy was not yet of legal age to practice law, and found himself with free time. Morphy was hailed as the chess champion of the United States and stayed in New York playing chess through 1857, winning the vast majority of his games. Morphy played almost every strong player in Europe, usually winning easily. Morphy was hailed by almost everyone in Europe as the world's best player."

Funny thing was he didn't even care about chess that much and gave it up fairly young to focus on law.

In modern chess, the game has been so studied that chess players including grand masters, have had a leg up by being able to study hundreds of past games. Opening move combinations have been studied and memorized; opening theory is well understood. In Morphy's time it wasn't, and what makes him so amazing is he seemed to have an innate understanding of this theory without having the benefit of studied that knowledge. Accuracy and positional play came naturally to him. Although his games are not the most intense battles like most famous games, they are appreciated for his raw talent and the beauty of his play.

Ok, enough history. I wanted to do a post about chess because I love the game, and I think most people don't understand it past how the pieces move. It is a precise battle of will and focus, a test of choices, strategy, and execution where luck is almost entirely removed from the equation.

Morphy's most famous game was a casual game against two players(they were Dukes, not of Hazard) simultaneously who challenged him at an opera house in 1858, and is actually named the Night at the Opera game, known as one of the most beautiful examples of attacking in history. I will try to analyze this game below, hopefully inspiring some people to try chess out.

Chess games have an opening, middle, and end game. Modern chess players know the value of putting pieces in strong positions before setting up attacks; Morphy knew this innately, most players at the time didn't and would try to attack immediately. That's why he usually won easily. Here we go, if you're a gamer, try not to fall asleep. It's only 18 moves, some go as high as 70.

Morphy was white, he moves out a pawn in the center. The most common start to a game is to gain center control. Pieces in the center generally have more flexibility than on the sides. However, you always have to keep in mind that in chess, you have to break the rules frequently.

The Dukes counter in the center, fine move.

Morphy moves out a knight(along with the bishop, is called one of the "minor pieces"). Moving out this piece is a smart positional move, also claiming ground in the center.

The Dukes move out a pawn, not the best move. Moving a pawn is a commital move because you can't move it back, and now Morphy has a minor piece out, theirs are still on the back rank, not active.

Morphy attacks the center pawn, he wanted to clear out the center right away, knew he wanted freedom to move his bishops, rooks, and queen around for attack possibilities.

The Dukes pin the knight to the queen(if the knight moves, the Duke's bishop will take Morphy's queen) If you lose a queen you're in big trouble, it's your most powerful piece. Pinning the knight there is a common move. no problem.

Morphy ignores the pin and continues opening up the center by taking the pawn.

The Dukes go ahead and take the knight. A bit hasty but not terrible. except against Morphy yes terrible.

Morphy takes the bishop with his queen, now queen is active.

The Duke's take a center pawn. nothing unusual.

Morphy gets the bishop onto a good square. Notice that white's pieces are active and out on the board, while black's are mostly in the starting positions. This is called positional play, rather than specific tactics that target pieces.

The dukes finally move out their knight.

This is a nice move by Morphy, backing up his bishop so that the bishop can threaten the king without being taken. A king can not move into check. If the bishop moves up to check the king, the king can't take it without moving into the path of the queen, so the bishop would be safe. This isn't an attack Morphy intends to use really, but it distracts black and let's Morphy further execute his real plan.

exactly. Black has to react to Morphy's feigned attack, playing defense. Morphy has the initiative.

Morphy brings out his other knight. This clears the back rank for his king to move to safety behind some pawns, and for his powerful rooks to move to open files for attacks. Great idea that Morphy understood that most of his contemporaries did not.

The dukes attack the bishop with a pawn. The pawn is protected by another pawn so this appears to be a good move. However, Morphy is seing 10 moves ahead so... here comes the pain.

Sacrifices the knight! starting the attack combination.

The dukes are all like hell yeah we'll take a free knight!

Morphy takes the pawn with the bishop(knight was worth more so still seems smart by the dukes) This puts the black king in check.

Black says no problem, block that bs with the knight.

Boom Morphy castles queenside(you can do this once per game if your king and rook haven't made other moves, basically protecting the king) however this castle adds the rook as an attacker to black's knight which is protecting the king. nice.

Black adds another attacker to the Knight's square. good. except... Morphy.

Morphy sacrifices his rook, the second most powerful piece. Although he knew he'd get the rook back, this is probably where the dukes started crapping their pants knowing something was up. but too late.

The dukes take the rook.

Bam Morphy throws another rook in there, instead of taking with the bishop, he knows exactly what he's doing.

Panic mode. The dukes try to get the queens off the board, thinking it will simplify the game and give them a better chance. The only advantage their getting is nope.

Morphy checks the king with the bishop. forcing move, black has to defend.!

()
Black blocks with the knight.

White checks with the queen on the back rank. Giving up the queen which can be taken with black's knight! So far he's sacrificed a knight and the queen. NBD.

Done. He check mates with the rook and bishop, odd checkmate.

With that he wins with a brilliant, creative, and super smooth 10 move attack.

So, hope you enjoyed that. I'll end with a link to a video by my favorite chess lecturer, grandmaster Ben Finegold from the St Louis Chess Club. His videos are so informative and hilarious it's inspired me to learn more chess. This is his lecture about Morphy.

Pass this along to your bored(board?) friends.

The end.