A valid question.

No even strength game against Schrüfer, or any NN player, is on the complete list of even strength games played by Morphy in Europe, published in the <Chess Monthly>, v3, June 1859, p198; nor is there any mention of Morphy attending a dinner party given by Ehrmann in the reports published in the <Chess Monthly>.

(I think you mean 10. Neg5 which has a game dated 1862. Kolisch vs S Urusov, 1862)

Go through it again remembering on every move Black is not a strong player. You can detect their one move deep reactions quite easily and it was most likely played quite quickly. (they never even had time to take down Black's name. 😊)

Your question about odds is interesting. This game could have been played at Queen Rook odds. The a1 Rook was a spectator in this game, remove it and go through the game again. It may explain why Morphy was taking risks. He had too!

Of course it could have been concocted as a forgotten Morphy game but in that case why not embellish it even further as a Rook odds game and tart it up even further by saying it was played blindfold. In fact I'd not be at all surprised if it was.

There is some additional information on page 165, same issue, but I don't have a ready translation; it appears to credit Ehrmann as the <Schachzeitung>'s correspondent in this matter.

Morphy did say soon after the match the Morphy - Harrwitz (1858) match he would not play anybody again unless it was at odds except Harrwitz who Morphy wanted to drag back to the board because of the excuses Harrwitz was coming out with for losing their match.

That came from 'The Exploits and Triumphs, in Europe, of Paul Morphy' by Edge; https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epu... (page 180) So was this game Rook odds...if not why not?

Ehrmann is not mentioned in that piece by Edge as he had left Paris by then. (did Edge mention him in later updated editions?)

But Ehrmann is mentioned in 'Pride and Sorrow' by Lawson, edited by Thomas Aiello (pub 2010) which recently fell into my lap.

<17. (Nachrichten aus Paris.) Der neueste bedeutendere Schachkampf in Paris fand zu Ende Februar und Anfang März im Hotel du Louvre zwischen dem transatlantischen Meister und dem rühmlich bekannten Präsidenten des London Club, Mr. Mongredien, Statt, welcher eigends zu diesem Zwecke nach Paris gekommen war. Der sieggewohnte jüngere Meister gewann sämmtliche sieben Partien der Wette und gestattete dem Gegner nur eine Remise. Nach den neuesten Nachrichten scheint dieser Wettkampf der letzte gewesen zu sein, welchen für jetzt der Amerikaner in Europa, öder wenigstens in Paris, auskämpfen sollte. Während die amerikanischen Blätter (namentlich die Schachmonatsschrift und Frank Leslie’s Paper vom 19. März) sich mit der Vermuthung tragen, dassgegenwärtig Paul Morphy mit den Berliner Meistern kämpfen werde, befindet er sich nach einer direeten Mittheilung bereits auf der Rückreise. Ein geschätzter Correspondent (Herr A.Ehrmann aus Strassburg) schreibt uns in einem Briefe von Anfang April aus Paris folgende Mittheilung: „—— Das lebhafte Interesse, welches Sie für Herrn Morphy und seine Spiele bethätigt haben, lässt mich annehmen, dass die letzte Partie, so er hier gespielt haben wird, Ihnen nicht unwillkommen sein dürfte. Von seinem Bruder genötbigt und abgeholt verlässt er über morgen Paris, um über London seine Rückreise anzutreten, Er hatte die Gefälligkeit, eine einzelne Partie mit mir zu machen, und als ich ihm über meine Unfähigkeit, dieselbe aus dem Gedächtniss aufzuzeichnen, mein Bedauern ausdrückte, bat er sogleich den anwesenden Herrn Lequesne (der Ihnen vielleicht als geschickter Bildhauer und Problemmacher bekannt ist) ein Blatt Papier zu nehmen und dictirte ihm nun, ohne ein Schachbrett zu verlangen, die beifolgende im Original von der Hand des Herrn Lequesne aufgezeichnete Partie mit einer solchen Schnelligkeit, dass der Schreiber die grösste Mühe hatte, mit der Feder zu folgen, und dass es den Eindruck machte, wie wenn Jemand eine auswendig gelernte Fabel recitirt. Bei der mit NB. bezeichneten Stelle (im 42. und 43. Zuge) machte er nebenbei die Bemerkung, dass hier die Weissen hätten besser spielen und die Partie vielleicht gewinnen können. — Ueber Herrn Morphy's hiesiges Auftreten und ganzes Benehmen herrscht hier nur eine allgemeine und lobende Stimme. — Herr Lequesne hat seine sehr gelungene und ähnliche Büste verfertigt ete.“>

Perhaps one of our German friends can proofread the OCR text for errors.

The above text seems to indicate that Ehrmann couldn't remember the game to record it and asked Morphy about it during the April 4th banquet held before Morphy's departure from Paris with Lequesne acting as scribe. Ehrmann sent in this "last game Morphy played in Paris" (if the translation I'm reading is accurate) which seems to be another strike against the "Schrüfer" game as no mention is made of Morphy playing any games after the Ehrmann game, and there is no mention of a dinner party the evening of 31-March-1859, which appears to be damning evidence against the provenance of this game.

Now the <Chess Monthly>, v3, June 1859, p199, does indicate that a large number of games were played at knight and rook odds including about thirty games at knight odds against Delannoy and four games at knight odds with Maude.

True, but a plausible explanation if one is trying to "save the game" as being played by Morphy. Otherwise someone needs to explain why Morphy played an even strength game against an unidentified opponent which does not appear on any list of even strength opponents given by Edge/Morphy in Paris.

It is also highly possible that the game was accidentally attributed to Morphy or is completely spurious as you suspect.

Removing a Morphy game from his canon is exceedingly difficult:

<Calli: Correction - the Schrüfer game is not in Max Lange 3rd. So much for that theory. Now, I don't where it was first published.>

Yes the claim 'possibly Rook odds' is to answer why Morphy played a normal game when he declared he would only give odds. Bit of a grab at a passing straw to endorse it is a Morphy game but the ocean of chess is full of gnats, elephants and passing straws.

What ever conclusion is reach about this game the damage has been done. Look on the net, it's everywhere including in a few cases v the composer Franz Schrüfer at the dinner hosted by August Ehrmann. https://dailychessmusings.com/2024/...

In another example from 2009 the poster mentions here and gets our pun wrong, they call it 'The Smother of Invention.' It is looking like this could be rather apt. Here is the link to it but before you go be warned that who ever did it thought it would be a good idea to use white font on a bright blue and white background. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/v...

< Erst in seinem 45. Lebensjahre, also zu einer Zeit, in der andere meist den Kulminationspunkt ihres Schaffens lange schon überschritten haben, begann er sich ernster mit dem Schach zu befassen. >

At the age of< 45 >, at a time when others have usually long since passed the culmination of their creative work,< he began to take a more serious interest in chess.>