Everyone knows Paul Morphy was one of the greatest chess players of his time, if not of all time. The game below illustrates his aggressive style of play, and his pure brilliance at the chess board. This game was played in a box at the Paris Opera during a performance of “The Barber of Seville”.
[Event "Paris"]
[Site "Paris"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Paul Morphy"]
[Black "Duke Karl / Count Isouard"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C41"]
[PlyCount "33"]
[EventDate "1858.??.??"]
[JsCom "startply 0"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4
{
This is a weak move already.--Fischer Other text suggests 3...Nd7 or 3...Nf6 -- Mongo
}
4. dxe5 Bxf3
{
If black where to 4...dxe5 instead, then black would lose a pawn after 5. Qxd8+ Kxd8 6.Nxe5 -- Mongo
}
5. Qxf3 dxe5 6. Bc4
{
The threat is a Qxf7 mate. Though this is easily prevented, this is a developing move which leads to future badness -- Mongo
}
6... Nf6 7. Qb3
{
Threating to capture the f7 pawn with check, and the b7 pawn -- Mongo
}
7... Qe7 8. Nc3
{
If 8. Qxb7, then black can force a queen trade with Qb4+. The Nc3 prevents this and develops a piece. -- Mongo
}
8... c6
{
Gets ready for the b7, b5 push which won't help black. Also, this moves guards the b7 pawn with the black qeen -- Mongo
}
9. Bg5
{
Black is in what's like a zugzwang position here. He can't develop the Queen's knight because the pawn is hanging, the bishop is blocked because of the Queen.--Fischer Another thing to note here, is that all of white's pieces are developed, and the white king can castle in either direction. This proves to be Blacks downfall in the next few moves. -- Mongo
}
9... b5 10. Nxb5
{
Yes, the pain starts here. The follow moves will show the brilliant play of Morphy. -- Mongo
}
10... cxb5 11. Bxb5+ Nbd7 12. O-O-O
{
Even Morphy's castling moves attack. You have to love his style of play. -- Mongo
}
12... Rd8
{
....And the king is boxed in -- Mongo
}
13. Rxd7
{
It's all over now -- Mongo
}
13... Rxd7 14. Rd1
{
Black has gotta hate that bishiop pin -- Mongo
}
14... Qe6
{
Has to move here to free the Knight on F6, not that it will matter -- Mongo
}
15. Bxd7+
{
Can you see it yet?? -- Mongo
}
15... Nxd7 16. Qb8+ Nxb8
{
No other choice here, game over. -- Mongo
}
17. Rd8#
{
And checkmate. I personally think that Morphy may have seen this position (or was striving for it) way back at move 10 with Nxb5! -- Mongo
}
1-0
I don’t know about you guys, but the first time I went over this, all I could say was Damn!
This was just a quick little game I played on RHP. It shows what badness can happen if you leave your pieces sitting around undefended. This is especially bad when you combine an attack on multiple pieces with the addition to a mate threat.
Granted, my opponents last move was an out right blunder, I’d say he is lost after his eighth move. Feel free to agree or disagree and leave your thoughts in the comments below.
This was one of my earlier encounters with the French Defense. Up to this point, I had only seen it once before, and had never studied it at all. Honestly, I hadn’t really studied anything in any depth. I do recall flipping through the MCO and seeing it and thinking “French Defense huh, wow, that must suck”. I mean, it’s called the French after all, right?
Well, honestly, I couldn’t be more wrong. The French is actually a great defense, and will freak’n crush you if you are not prepared for it, as I have found out a few times the hard way. Regardless, below is a game I played against an opponent who was 250pts higher than me at the time, and somehow, to my amazement, I actually came out on top. There are plenty of errors and WTF’s? through out. Feel free to point and laugh, but I still got my rating points from it.
This game was posted over at TeachMeChess.com. It is a version of the Traxler variation on the two knights defense. Granted, this was a blitz game, but holy crap, it is 11 moves of brutality. I’m posting it below for your enjoyment. Give it a few minutes to sink in….
[Event "5AM blitz game"]
[Site "GameKnot.com"]
[Date "2007.01.05"]
[Round "-"]
[White "mbingham"]
[Black "daj36"]
[Result "0-1"]
[JsCom "startply 0"]
1. e4
{
I thought this was a fantastic blitz game. It was a new line for me --
one I'll have to remember if I want to keep playing with the fried liver.
}
1... e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 Bc5
{
d5 is what I usually see here. Brent Inman and Tom Denton were kind enough to take a minute to show me that 1. This isn't the Fried Liver. Bc5 has negated that. This is the Wilkes-Barre or Traxler variation. and 2. that it's ugly ugly ugly for white. GM Nick DeFirmian states that there's no known refutation for it. Black can ignore the threat to f7 and if white takes f7, he can expect to hurt.
}
5. Nxf7
{
Any computer looks at this position and reagards white as won (unless it uses an openings database by default), yet a positional search on chessgames.com shows black overwhelmingly wins these .
}
5... Bxf2+ 6. Kxf2 Nxe4+ 7. Ke3 Qh4 8. Nxh8 Qf4+ 9. Ke2 Qf2+ 10. Kd3 Nb4+
11. Kxe4 Qf4#
{
No I haven't gone through any new lines, I'm just looking over this with new eyes, trying to let it sink in. The first time I went through this, I rolled my eyes at my inability to see that the time-waster Nxh8 was fatal, but I think what I have learn about this is why time favors black so well in these lines... I can state it pretty clearly for the line I played. Kxf2 allows black to sieze a tempo that brings the queen out of threat and immediately into play. That, in conjunction with the readily-cooperating knights amounts to a powerful attack. Add to that the rook which will be locked behind the king and there appears to be compensation more-or-less immediatetly (because that king really shoudl go to g1 -- rooks be damned.
So, yeah. I'm gonna have to find something besides Ng5 after Nf6.
}
0-1
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