James Thompson vs Paul Morphy (1857)

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James Thompson vs Paul Morphy
Casual game (1857), New York, NY USA
Italian Game: Evans Gambit. Pierce Defense (C52) · 0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Given 89 times; par: 36 [what's this?]

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Dec-11-02		bishop: Morphy is only satisfied with mate. The final stunning move will produce that result shortly.

Feb-19-05		RookFile: Note that Morphy could also play terrific, active defense in open positions.

Feb-19-05		bishopmate: morphy's way of playing is awsome, even in our time period he would be rated probably in the high 2600's... and considering he didn't have any resources to get to his level of play (hardly any books either, even fischer had a lot of books to read from), I would say in today's world with some training, Morphy would dominate anyone he would play

Feb-19-05		MUG: Morphy was undoubtedly one of the greatest natural talents the game has ever seen, but I doubt if he had the right temperament to complete in todays highly competitive chess world.

Feb-19-05		bishopmate: no im not saying he could do it just with his talent, what im trying to say if he way born in this generation with his skill and determination, he probably would be too good

Jul-01-05		Jgamazo: The real question is what would Kasparov or Fischer do in Morphy's time? Without a russian chess school, trainers/teachers, great opponents ( to push you further: Kasparov vs Karpov, Fischer vs Spaskey ), money/sponsers, Informants, chess books, transportation: horses, trains and boats, and computers. He was self taught. The only equivalent would be Capablanca, another natural talent.

Sep-12-05		fgh: Nice end. For example 29. Rxd1 Qe1+ 30. Rxe1 Rxe1#

Apr-06-08		heuristic: Nb4 one move earlier is interesting 17...Nb4 18.Rfc1 (18.Bc4 Rae8 19.a3 Bb6) Nxd3 19.Qxd3 Qg6 21...Re3 is odd. Does BLK want an easy endgame win (22.Rxe3 Nxe3 23.Qxg6 hxg6 24.Rb1 d3). The other piece to e3 seems better 21...Ne3 22.Qxg6 hxg6 23.Bc1 Bb6. and Fritz found that Bb6 now (instead of 24...Bb6) is powerful (21...Bb6 22.a4 a5 23.g4 Ne3) with 22...Rxh3, does BLK want to go to the endgame now? because Bb6 here is powerful (22...Bb6 23.Rxe3 Nxe3 24.Nc1 c6 25.Qc2) and when Morphy finally plays Bb6, he misses 24...d3 and WHT's game is desparate. (25.Be5 Bb6+ 26.Nf2 c6) maybe the "passed pawns must be pushed" exhortation was not common back then, but instead of going after the K with Re8, 23...Rd8 24.Nxh3 d3 25.Nf2 Bb6 seems better. and 26...Qg4 seems (to me) to be another one of the "pressure the K at the expense of a better game" moves. 26...Qd6 is a crushing "quiet" move. nothing stops d3. then again, maybe pushing passed pawns was not dogma back then. on the other hand, the final sequence is sweet! 27...Qe2 is another one of those "attack the K" moves, but this is so crushing. I would have opted for 27...Qxf5 and coast to a safe win. Morphy's persistent pressure against the K is instructive to me.

Apr-25-11		Edwin M: Somebody should seriously take another look at the guess-the-move scoring system. In this game i lost another 3 points on an equally strong move. The move in question is 15...Qh5. Which according to Rybka 4 scores 1.50. My guess was 15...Qg4. Which scores the same. So why lose 3 points?

Jun-12-11		lemonadepawn: or 29.Nxd1 Qe1#

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