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Opera Game Introduction  

Opera Game Board  

Two Analyses of Opera Game  

Paul Morphy – His Life, Times, and Chess Playing
 
Paul Morphy, perhaps the first great American player and a child prodigy, lived in the 19th century and died at the young age of 47. Arguably, he was the greatest tactical and strategic player of all time. The debate rages on that point; however, " 'A popularly held theory about Paul Morphy,' wrote Fischer, '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.' Debatable, yes. But the true measure of Morphy's greatness is that this master, who was born the better part of two centuries ago, can still excite a chess mind of Fischer's level - not to mention the chess mind of Mikhail Tal, who listed Morphy as one of his three favorite players along with Lasker and Alexander Alekhine."
 
As "a 12-year-old boy, without experience against master competition, defeating a leading European grandmaster (Jacob Löewenthal [sic: Löwenthal], by +2 -0 =1); imagine this same boy entering his first and only tournament, which happens to be the 1857 U. S. Championship, winning it easily; imagine further that this boy...sails for Europe, effortlessly defeating the leading masters of England and France, offering odds of pawn and move in some cases; imagine that this boy, a mere year after playing his first formal games, defeats world champion Adolf Anderssen, scoring 75 percent in a series of match and training games; and imagine, finally, that a former world champion, Saint-Amant, states publicly that Morphy could successfully offer a group of great masters pawn and move and that a triumvirate of strong American players announces in 1886 that the late Morphy could have given Wilhelm Steinitz pawn and move."
 
His official chess playing "career lasted a mere 16 months – from late 1857 to early 1859...Still worse for the prestige of Morphy's successors, subsequent chess results conspired in favor of the Morphy legend. Anderssen slaughtered the field at London 1862, losing only to John Owen, who finished third well ahead of Steinitz, whom he also beat. The point here is that everyone knew that a few years earlier Morphy had dismantled Anderssen and discombobulated Owen, +5 -0 =2, while giving odds of pawn and move!! In 1914, Jose Capablanca luxuriated in a compliment from Amos Burn that he played like Morphy. 'The style of Morphy, they say,' wrote Capablanca, 'and if it is true that the goddess of fortune has endowed me with his talent, the result [of a match with Emanuel Lasker] will not be in doubt. 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.'
 
"Alexander Alekhine praised Morphy's deep positional understanding, and Mikhail Botvinnik averred that Morphy's mastery of open positions was so vast that little new has later been learned about such positions. 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. Morphy seldom wasted a tempo, developing his pieces amazingly quickly. As with Anderssen, Morphy's most famous game was unofficial, a friendly affair played in a box at the Paris Opera that demonstrated the young American's facility for quick development and slashing sacrificial attacks in open positions.
 
"After the Opera Game which Morphy played while awaiting the arrival of Anderssen to play in a match, he became ill with an intestinal flu, but as was typical of Morphy-he did not want to be "inconsiderate" and forego playing Anderssen despite being ill. After defeating Anderssen while playing from his bed in a French hotel room, Anderssen (who was in his own right one of the great chess players whose combative style earned him a storied place in chess history) graciously stated without equivocation that Morphy was superior to him. The Morphy legend had taken root in his own time, despite his own misgivings that he was but an amateur (Anderssen also considered himself to be an amateur and not a professional!)."
 
[Source credit: "The Kings of Chess, 21-Player Salute" by Larry Paar
www.105.gotochess.com/English/chessHistory/salute/kings/morphy.php]
 
Some recommended readings on Paul Morphy – His Life, Times, and Chess Playing:
 
Paul Morphy, the Pride and Sorrow of Chess, David Lawson (David McKay, 1976)
Morphy's Games of Chess, Philip Sergeant (Dover, 1957)
The Chess Genius of Paul Morphy, Chris Ward (Simon & Schuster, 1997), containing all 415 known games of Morphy
The Chess Players, Frances Parkinson Keyes (Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1960), a well-known novel.
  
The Opera Game – Introduction
 
"In 1858 the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard invited the American master Paul Morphy to the Paris Opera, then asked their guest to play chess with them. Morphy was more interested in watching the opera, but could not courteously refuse." It was played in the Duke of Brunswick's opera box.
 
"Morphy played white, while Brunswick and Isouard consulted on black. He took his opponents apart in 17 moves, enabling him to watch the rest of the show without distraction, and incidentally proving that teaming two mediocre players does not double their talents."
 
"This game is one of the best known in chess, exemplifying as it does the advantages of quick development over the pursuit of minor advantages. The game features a queen sacrifice that leads directly to mate.
 
"The game was played as Philidor's Defense, and Morphy's superior tactical and strategic prowess simply overpowered the two royal opponents, who according to some texts argued repeatedly over Black's moves. Perhaps this contributed to Morphy's ability to annihilate them in 17 moves! The Count and Duke were not amateurs, and played fairly well. However, their combined play in the game giving considerably charity to them, is best described as amatuerish. Then again, almost everyone who played against Morphy succumbed to his masterful tactical and strategic vision and chess playing. Such was his enduring contribution to chess, and his fame."
 
[Sources credit: "The Chess Page" by Tom Eagan www.stmoroky.com/games/chess/morphy.htm
"Paul Morphy, the reluctant chessplayer. Games 6 - 10" by Ignacio Marin cmgm.stanford.edu/~marin/MASTERS4.html]
 
After the game board and notation below, there follows two analyses of the game. Being perhaps Morphy's most "famous" game, but far from his best because of the inadequacies in playing by the Duke and Count, many have analyzed the game. These two are just two in that long line, but are interesting in their different approaches.