Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Morphy’s Secret

Paul Charles Morphy (1837 – 1884) was a genius American chess player. Despite his short chess career, his contemporaries considered Morphy as the world’s greatest chess master.

In Morphy’s time, chess theory was poorly developed. The main motive driving games was the chance of executing combinations, especially featuring piece sacrifices. Because the principle of development was unknown, if players had no chances for a combination, they played either an attacking or defensive move. In that sense, Morphy was ahead of his contemporaries.

Morphy’s most important principle was that every move in the opening has to advance on development.
A second important perception in Morphy’s games is that superior development increases in value as the game is more open.
The third element observed in his games is the pawn sacrifice in order to open lines. That is the logical step in his approach to the game. Because of his principle of development, he brings bishops and rooks quickly in play before his opponent castles. Those pieces require open lines. A pawn sacrifice is the necessary element to open lines for his pieces.

It’s worth mentioning that Morphy’s opening moves are driven by positional purposes (open lines) without any exact calculation or having any clear combination in mind.
Morphy, as all his best contemporary masters, had a great talent for combinations. However, he looked for combinations only when he developed his pieces. That was Morphy’s advantage over his contemporaries.

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