Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Two Schools
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.
Morphy was born in New Orleans to a prominent wealthy family and learned to play chess simply from watching games played between his father and his uncle. By 1846, Morphy, at the age of 9, was one of the best players in New Orleans.
Morphy’s first big breakthrough came in 1857 by convincingly winning the American Chess Congress in New York. After his victory, American players immediately hailed Morphy as the US chess champion.
Players in Europe knew little about Morphy. He dominated the American chess but his opponents’ strength was relatively low compared to Europe. Beginning of 1858, the New Orleans Chess Club started negotiations for a direct challenge to European champion Howard Staunton and Morphy traveled to Europe.
Morphy made some attempts at setting up a match with Staunton, but without success. Charles de Maurian stated in the newspaper of New Orleans that Staunton “first accepted, then postponed, then clearly sought to evade and finally peremptorily declined the match”.
In Europe, Morphy played several matches. Perhaps the most important of them was the one against the German star Adolf Anderssen.
Adolf Anderssen was the highest exponent of the Romantic Era of chess. He excelled in working out quick combinations from the early beginning of the game. For him, combinations were the most valuable factors in the game.
Morphy also had a wonderful talent for combinations. But he additionally had the advantage of a fine positional talent as well.
Today’s game is the fourth played by those two extraordinary players in their match held in Paris, 1858. Richard Reti’s accompanying comments explain the important moves showing the different conceptions of both players.
In 1859, Morphy returned to the United States, eventually abandoning competitive chess and receding from public view. His chess career effectively lasted less than two years: from the American Chess Congress in October 1857 to his return from Europe in May 1859.
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