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Paul Morphy vs George Webb Medley
Casual game (1858), London ENG, Aug-23
King's Gambit: Accepted. Kieseritsky Gambit Anderssen Defense (C39)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Dec-02-03  InspiredByMorphy: This game is a fine example of Morphys positional insight.
Jul-15-04  sneaky pete: <InspiredByMorphy> Are you serious? It's all tactics, but the combination initiated at move 11 may fail against the best defence. Black of course should have played 13... Qg7 after which 14.0-0 Ng3 might follow. Now Sergeant, probably using other sources, gives two lines full of holes. First 15.Rxf5 Nxf5 16.Qxg4 Ne7?? (more than adequate, according to Sergeant) 17.Bb5+ and wins. After 16... Bxe5 17.Re1 0-0 however, it's not clear to me that white has sufficient compensation. Second 15.Bb5+ Kf8 16.Rxf5 Nxf5 17.Qxg4 Ne7?? when 18.Bxe7+ .. wins on the spot. In this line, it looks like after 17... Bxe5 18.dxe5 Qxe5 black has the best chances. Can you give, from a source unknown to me, any convincing analyses to prove that M.'s intuition, when he embarked on the sacrifice, didn't fail him?
Jul-15-04  Calli: Maybe 13...Qg7 14.0-0 Ng3 15.Bb5+ Kf8 16.Nxg4 Bxg4 17.Qxg4 Kg8 or 16...Qg6 17.Qe1 f6 18.Bxf6 Rg8 19.Rf4 keep the attack going.
Jul-16-04  sneaky pete: <Calli> Thanks, an interesting alternative, but 16... h6! still seems to give black the better chances. Both 17.Bf6 Qxg4 18.Qxg4 Bxg4 19.Bxh8 Nxf1 and 17.Rxf5 hxg5 18.Rxg5 Qxg5 19.hxg5 Rh1+ 20.Kf2 Ne4+ 20.K.. Rxd1 give white some, but probably not enough compensation for the piece.
Aug-01-09  birthtimes: Howz about 13...Qg7 14. O-O Ng3 15. Rxf5 Nxf5 16. Qxg4 Bxe5 17. dxe5 Qxe5 18. Bf4 Qd4+ 19. Kh2 Nd7 20. Re1+ Kd8 21. Qxf5 Qxc4 22. Bg5+ Kc8 23. Re7 b6 24. Rxd7 with White looking pretty darn good.

BTW, this is a wonderful example of Morphy's brilliant positional insight, for without it, these tactics and combinations would not stand a chance to succeed.

Also, it is important to remember that Morphy did not play this game so that it could be criticized years later for his opponent not playing the best moves; Morphy was well aware that his opponent would not make the best moves, so Morphy's intuition did not fail him at all, indeed, it was one of his greatest assets...

Dec-13-13  ProjectF: Morphy just improve his position before make the kil..that is positional game
Feb-01-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  fredthebear: How many of the all-time greats would have moved White's queen knight four consecutive times to the edge of the board to give itself away? It certainly did serve a purpose.

Then White castles w/an obvious f6 pawn fork starring at his knight and bishop, only to sacrifice the rook next move!?! Not everybody would have played 18.Re1 or 19.Qf3 either with the other choices available.

Morphy does all this while leaving Black's dark-squared bishop en prise for 9 moves? He shows just how irrelevant the Bishop is.

It's all tactically logical after one has proceeded through the game and seen the end result; much of it is simply reacting very accurately to Black's move while increasing development and pressure. Still, one is left to believe that very few GMs would have found the same path that the one and only Paul Morphy did.

May-10-20  talhal20: I read, long back, may be in Time magazine, that Morphy played intuitively. Does any kibitzer know any other player play chess intuitively?
Aug-15-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: I found 12.Nh5 a simply amazing move!

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