The immortal Paul Morphy Opera game

Hi all

If you have not seen the Paul Morphy "Opera game" then you might have a gap in your chess understanding for the principles of the Open game generally. Paul Morphy had a huge contrast in playing ability to his opponents in his era and was able to expertly punish all kinds of opening mistakes. His famous Opera game is a very instructive game example to check out.

https://youtu.be/oy%5FVxd37%5Ftk

(Check my Paul Morphy playlist here: https://kingscrusher.tv/morphy )

Key moments

5.Qxf3 implies some battery opportunities exist with Qb3 and Bc4 for a nice "battery" against f7 - using batteries in chess is a very simple way of getting pieces to coordinate on "killer common squares"

7.Qb3

7.Qb3 - A battery is set up, with two threats now - Qxb7 and Bxf7+

9.Bg5 - Pinning the f6 knight but also preparing to create another casting option - the option to castle queenside

9 ...b5 - An active operation with the King still in the center. Quite often these type of "active operations" backfire in chess. This goes back to the "Art of War" which indicates

"The good fighter puts themselves beyond defeat before going onto the attack" - Art of War

10.Nxb5 - Very logical to create huge pressure on the Black King which has been left too long in the center

12.0-0-0 - Putting more pressure on d7 and making the White king less available for checks

13.Rxd7 - Classic Morphy. This is a clearance of d1 for the other rook to join in and renew the pressure. Whilst White has this little "subscription" to the d7 square, Black is not able to resubscribe that easily given the rook on h8 can't help d7 that easily. A case of "relative subscription power to a square" you could say :)

16.Qb8+WOW! Queen sacrifice! But technically not too risky as it leads to a forced mate!

16...Nxb8 - The Queen is taken

17.Rd8 Checkmate!

Takeaway points

• Paul Morphy is a master of the Open game and the principles of the Open game today have largely been unchanged since those set-out and in Morphy games.
• Yes, I do have a Paul Morphy course here if this game has excited you for more Paul Morphy games: https://kingscrusher.tv/paulmorphy
• A subtle aspect of this game is the concept of having a bishop without a counterpart. Look out for opportunities on that colour - you have an extremely favorable imbalance there to work with
• The game demonstrates active operations such as b5 being quite "punishable" if the King is still in the center. Remember the Art of War principle - "Put yourself beyond defeat before going onto the attack"
• The Opening itself was weak by black - and the Bg4 line in particular, very weak, giving White a great game straight off the bat. Black was essentially weakened on the light squares early on.
• The Black Rook on h8 meant that black could not win the square pressure "subscription renewal" battle for d7 pressure.

Hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses to check out.

Cheers, K