The best games of Morphy's career.
I can think of no more suitable epithet for Morphy than to call him "the Newton of Chess". – Frederick Edge
When one plays with Morphy the sensation is as queer as the first electric shock, or first love, or chloroform, or any entirely novel experience. – Henry Bird
The man born too soon. – Alexander Alekhine (on Morphy)
The Bobby Fischer of the 19th century. – Larry Parr (on Morphy)
Morphy was an American Caissic F-16 in an era of European hot air chess balloons. – Larry Parr
The magnificent American master had the most extraordinary brain that anybody has ever had for chess. Technique, strategy, tactics, knowledge which is inconceivable for us; all that was possessed by Morphy fifty-four years ago. – Jose R. Capablanca
Morphy’s technique in winning won positions and drawing lost positions has also been praised, but his defining edge over the competition was an understanding of the importance of time in chess. – Larry Parr
When it is so freely asserted that Morphy's style was all genius and inspiration. Morphy possessed the most profound book knowledge of any master of his time, and never introduced a single novelty, whereas since his day the books have had to study the players. – Wilhelm Steinitz
He who plays Morphy must abandon all hope of catching him in a trap, no matter how cunningly laid, but must assume that it is so clear to Morphy that there can be no question of a false step. – Adolf Anderssen
In the handling of open positions, nothing new has been found after Morphy! – Mikhail Botvinnik
Morphy's games served as guiding lights for Steinitz and others who were keen enough to see that Morphy's wins came from more than just flashy tactics and poor defense by his opponents. – Mig Greengard
Alas, Morphy did not bother to explain the superiority of his method. Only the powerful mind of another chess giant, Wilhelm Steinitz, could systematize the profound positional rules that created a new outlook in chess progress. – Garry Kasparov
Morphy in 1886, had he been alive, would have beaten the Morphy of 1859. – Wilhelm Steinitz
The progress of age can no more be disputed than Morphy's extraordinary genius. – Wilhelm Steinitz
I did find that everything of him was correct: he was a gentleman, soft-spoken, kindly, but for some reason felt that chess was no blessing. And who knows, maybe he was right. – Wilhelm Steinitz (on Morphy)
Chess, of course, may have been the cause of Morphy's mental fall; he may have loved it not wisely but too well. A mind saturated with one idea to the exclusion of all others is necessarily predisposed to mania, and if a man allows himself to regard Chess as the one fact of existence, thereby starving his mind, which, like the body, requires a variety of food, then the texture of the strongest brain must become weakened, and the reason sooner or later be overthrown. Whether this was Morphy's case remains to be seen. However, the disaster which has overtaken him may be accounted for in another way. Success came to him too early and was too complete. So far as Chess was concerned he had conquered the world, and henceforth he had no motive in life. – William Norwood Potter
Perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived, he would beat anybody today in a set-match. He had complete sight of the board and seldom blundered even though he moved quite rapidly. I've played over hundreds of his games and am continually surprised and entertained by his ingenuity. – Bobby Fischer (on Morphy)
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
Kibitzing
