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May-21-23
 | | LIFE Master AJ: I looked ... on about page 5 is a link that I gave for my analysis. (It no longer works.) It is from like 2005 and my pages on GeoCities were closed over 10 years ago. Here is my analysis of this game:
http://www.ajschess.com/lifemastera.... |
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May-22-23 | | stone free or die: <<AJ> I looked ... on about page 5 is a link that I gave for my analysis. (It no longer works.)> You can still find it on the Wayback:
https://web.archive.org/web/2001103... <It is from like 2005 and my pages on GeoCities were closed over 10 years ago.> The wayback version is from Oct. 2001. |
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Jun-06-23
 | | Joshka: How about 7...Qd4!?? can this save black?? |
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Jun-06-23
 | | Diademas: 8.Qxb7 with the rook on a8 next to go. |
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Jun-06-23
 | | Troller: <Diademas> Then 8..Qxc4 9.Qxa8 Bb4+ is probably good enough if a bit messy. 8..Qxe4+ 9.Qxe4 Nxe4 10.Bd5 is very clear. I am pretty sure that Morphy would have gone 7..Qd4 8.Be3 though, e.g. 8..Qxe4 9.Nc3 is in the style of the game and must be winning. |
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Jul-01-23 | | DouglasGomes: What is the "artist's way" after 9.. Na6 ? |
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Aug-05-23 | | MaczynskiPratten: <generror>; It's only really easy with hindsight. Black throughout is playing sensible-looking moves, not gross errors. But Morphy exploits them neatly, keeping the pressure on throughout. It's hard to see any better alternative to Black's moves after 3..Bg4, without an engine at any rate. That's why this game is so instructive. Certainly agree with you that the chess.com game report is naive and crass; White has an edge from move 3 and gradually exploits it. Presumably their so-called "blunder" is b5, but only because of the sacrifice, and how else does Black develop? |
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Aug-06-23 | | MaczynskiPratten: Or maybe one should say that there are better alternatives to several of Black's moves, but they look plausible at the time unless you look 2-3 moves ahead. Maybe one wonders how hard the pair were concentrating on the game (see the Duke's good game in a comment above), just as Kieseritsky was a much better player than "The Immortal" would suggest as it was an offhand game. Several of Morphy's moves seem to have taken them by surprise; 4 exd5, 7 Qb3, 8 Nc3, 10 Nxb5, and of course 16 Qb8+. But his play throughout is simply so dynamic and logical, exploiting and extending his advantage. |
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Aug-06-23 | | MaczynskiPratten: <DouglasGomes>; Must admit I can't see an artistic alternative to Bxa6, settling for wrecking Black's pawn structure, otherwise Nc5 looks useful for Black. The c6 pawn does a useful job in preventing Nd5. |
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Oct-09-23 | | rmdalodado: Chessbase.com gives the date of this game as November 2, 1858. Is the actual date of this game not yet really fully established as it is still dateless in this game info? |
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Oct-09-23
 | | MissScarlett: See C.N. 6582. |
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Oct-18-23
 | | Troller: <Jul-01-23 DouglasGomes: What is the "artist's way" after 9.. Na6 ?> I am thinking 10.Nd5 but the engine gives the line 10..exd5 11.Bb5+ Kd8 12.Bxa6 bxa6 13.Bxf6 Qxf6 14.Qxd5+ Kc7 and now of course 15.Qxa8 Bb4+ does not work. So instead 15.0-0-0 Qc6 16.Qxf7+ Kb6 17.Qb3+ and a draw. 10.Bxa6 bxa6 11.0-0-0 should be winning of course but not very artistic... |
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Mar-07-24 | | Schwartz: We didn't like 2...d6 as d4 then is powerful. Elephant gambit loses a pawn with prepared play and 2...c6 is difficult to follow, for example 3...f5 is better in a Ruy Lopez. Any of the Nimzowitsch with ...Nf6 [ 1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 e5 3. d5 Ne7 4. Nf3 Nf6 ] French, Tiger Modern and Sicilian are more solid than double King's pawn. 3...Bg4 was interesting, limiting pressure to e-pawn whereupon Count Isourd prepared Nf6 queen trade/displacement, with pressure of f7/b7 to Morphy's direct play. An interesting remaneuver to the King's side is 9. Bg5 Qc7 10. Bxf6 gxf6 11. a4 Bg7/Bh6 12. Ra3 Na6 13. Ne2 Nc5 14. Qh3 Ne6  click for larger viewI would play this interesting defense. After Morphy's Knight sacrifice Duke Karl didn't have time to reposition around his e6 square. |
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Jun-11-24
 | | Joshka: Would 7...Be7 hold white off a bit? I have an online opponent who plays this against me in this line, I still beat him due to other blunders he makes, but I lose my Bishop, so I probably should be losing in this line? any thoughts? |
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Jun-11-24
 | | keypusher: <Joshka: Would 7...Be7 hold white off a bit? I have an online opponent who plays this against me in this line, I still beat him due to other blunders he makes, but I lose my Bishop, so I probably should be losing in this line? any thoughts?> Just 8.Bxf7+ Kf8 9.Qxb7. Though black will probably last longer than the Duke and the Count. |
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Sep-26-24 | | SonOfPetrosian: My favourite game. Morphy was genius and #1. |
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Nov-26-24
 | | LIFE Master AJ: To recommend 9...Na6? as better than 9...b5!? Is a joke. 9....b5 might be thevonly chance. If White tamely retreats ... Black gets a decent game. |
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Mar-19-25 | | FM David H. Levin: Shouldn't this be labeled "casual game" or similar? |
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Mar-19-25 | | FM David H. Levin: <<Schwartz>: [...snip...] An interesting remaneuver to the King's side is 9. Bg5 Qc7 10. Bxf6 gxf6 11. a4 Bg7/Bh6 12. Ra3 Na6 13. Ne2 Nc5 14. Qh3 Ne6> Did you intend a different sequence. 15. Bxe6 seems to win a pawn without compensation. |
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Mar-19-25
 | | gezafan: This may be the most famous game of all time! |
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Mar-19-25 | | FM David H. Levin: <Troller: <Jul-01-23 DouglasGomes: What is the "artist's way" after 9.. Na6 ?> [...snip...] 10.Bxa6 bxa6 11.0-0-0 should be winning of course but not very artistic...> After 9...Na6 10.Bxa6 bxa6 11.O-O-O, 11...Qb4 relieves some of the pressure. Although Black would nonetheless be saddled with four pawn islands after an upcoming Bxf6 gxf6, retaining the queens might give White more opportunity to exploit Black's broken pawns. This suggests [9...Na6 10.Bxa6 bxa6] 11.Qa4 Qb7 12.Bxf6 gxf6 13.Nd5  click for larger view13...Bg7 14.O-O-O <If now 14...O-O, then 15.Qxc6 would win a pawn.> 14...Rc8 15.Kb1, preparing Nd5-e3-f5 without allowing a pin by ...Bh6. |
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Jul-15-25 | | Petrosianic: Stockfish vs. Morphy!:
I perversely ran this game through Stockfish, which gave Morphy a 97.9% accuracy, and estimated rating of 2500. What moves did Stockfish find fault with?
4. dxe5: Stockfish thought this was Third Best, and wanted 4. Nc3. 6. Bc4: Stockfish thought this was Second Best, and wanted an immediate 6. Qb3 8. Nc3: Stockfish thought this was Second Best, and wanted 8. Qxb7 That third one I can kind of go along with. That's the question beginners always ask about this game. Why didn't White play 8. Qxb7? And they usually get some nebulous answer about well, er, he wanted more. So, in other words, White avoided the endgame and <gambled> that Black would give him more opportunities in the middlegame. Okay, but what was the actual best <move> in this position? 8. Qxb7, you say? Yeah, okay. The second one is iffier. On general principle, developing a piece with 6. Bc4 must be better than moving the Queen a second time, right? Yet Stockfish says +1.42 after 6. Qb3, and +1.23 after 6. Bc4. Is there really any way that 6. Qb3 is better than 7. Qb3, even slightly? Well, maybe. Black pretty much has to sacrifice the b pawn after 6. Qb3, because 6...Qc8, and 6...b6 are both bad. Stockfish thinks 6... Nd7 is the best, which I agree with, but how likely was Black to play it? Knowing how cavalier 19th century players were about giving up pawns, maybe very likely. But still, how could 6. Qb3 be objectively better than 6. Bc4? The only thing I can think of is that 6. Bc4 gives Black the opportunity of 6...Qd7 and 7...c6, protecting both b and f pawns. 6. Qb3 puts the question to the b pawn quicker. So, all right, I'll maybe concede that 6. Qb3 is slightly better for a high rated player <who knows when you can get away with violating opening principles, and when you can't>. For most people I'd still recommend 6. Bc4. On the first one, 4. Nc3, no. 3...Bg4 is a bad move that has to be punished. 4. dxe5 forces Black to either give up a pawn or give up Bishop for Knight in a wide open position. This is the move you should be playing. What does Stockfish say? +1.00 after 4. Nc3, +0.98 after 4. Be3, and +0.96 after 4. dxe5. I'm not sure if it means anything to say that Nc3 is 1/25 of a pawn better than dxe5, but even if it does, that's assuming perfect play on both sides, which you can never do in a real game. In a real game if two moves are effectively equal, but Move A gives your opponent 5 chances to go wrong, while Move B gives him 20 chances to go wrong, you should play Move B. So really, the only move in this game that I'm willing to give any flak over is 8. Nc3. And that's not flak against Morphy, who knew what he was doing, but just a warning to the student trying to learn from this game, that this is the one move that he might not be ready for. |
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Jul-16-25
 | | Williebob: Thanks for the excellent post, <Petrosianic>.
This is currently the only complete game that I have committed to memory - not an extremely difficult task of course at 17 moves - but it's been good fun showing this one to friends who are curious about chess, and I appreciate how the machines challenge us to shore up our own logic and intuition (the latter being the thing that is still far from being the "I" in A.I.) |
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Jul-16-25 | | Granny O Doul: I asked Stockfish about 8. Bxf7+. Though it gives the move a clearly lower evaluation than 8. Qxb7, playing against itself it still managed to win in 92 moves after successfully completing the KBN vs. K mate. |
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Jul-26-25 | | plerranov: A really impressive game!! |
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