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Rook Odds / Not So Strange
Published April 11, 2012 | 
Odds is a term used in chess when things are not ‘even’ – or in this case when the material is not even. This handicap play used to be much more prevalent than it is today – and much has been lost. This used to be the way a ‘lesser’ or beginning player could cross swords with the ‘mighty’ and still have a chance. It was a way to measure progress and avoid the continuous pummeling that is usually the plight of the ‘up and comer’ while still facing good/strong opposition.
Rook Odds is a substantial handicap that would normally be overwhelming. When the Odds are artistically overcome it is a sight to behold. The following three miniatures are cases in point. They are played by the prominent players of their day with the White pieces. Remove White’s Queen Rook, or the Rook on ‘a1’. Enjoy.
London / 1789
Philidor versus Cotter
1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. Nf3 exf4 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qe6+ 6. Kf2 Be7 7. d4 Nf6 8. Bxf4 Ne4+ 9. Nxe4 Qxe4 10. Bxc7 Nc6 11. Bd3 Qe6 12. Re1 Qxa2 13. Bb5 Bd7 14. d5 Qxb2 15. dxc6 bxc6 16. Bxc6 Bxc6 17. Rxe7+ Kxe7 18. Qd6+ Ke8 19. Qxc6+ Ke7 20. Bd6+ Kd8 21. Qc7+ Ke8 22. Qe7# 1-0
New Orleans / 1849
Morphy versus Le Carpentier
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4 Bb4+ 5. c3 dxc3 6. O-O cxb2 7. Bxb2 Bf8 8. e5 d6 9. Re1 dxe5 10. Nxe5 Qxd1 11. Bxf7+ Ke7 12. Ng6+ Kxf7 13. Nxh8# 1-0
London / 1873
Steinitz versus NN
1. e4 e5 2. f4 Nc6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. fxe5 Nxe4 5. d3 Nc5 6. d4 Na6 7. Bc4 Qe7 8. Nc3 h6 9. O-O g5 10. Nd5 Qd8 11. Nf6+ Ke7 12. Nxg5 hxg5 13. Qh5 Rxh5 14. Ng8+Ke8 15. Bxf7# 1-0
All Three PGN Files – See Comments
Posted in Chess variant, Paul Morphy, Wilhelm Steinitz | 
Morphy, Paul Morphy, Wilhelm Steinitz | 
1 CommentA Morphy Masterpiece
Published March 29, 2012 | by National Life Master Loal Davis
Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy and called “The Pride and Sorrow of Chess”; pride because he had a brief and brilliant chess career; sorrow because he retired from the game while still very young.
Many think of Morphy as a dazzling combinative player, who excelled at sacrifices and brilliantly checkmating his opponent, but it was not the basis of his chess style.
Morphy treats chess with the seriousness and conscientiousness of an artist … For him a game of chess is a sacred duty.
- Adolf Anderssen
A popularly held theory about Paul Morphy 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.
- Bobby Fischer
To this day Morphy is an unsurpassed master of the open games. Just how great was his significance is evident from the fact that after Morphy nothing substantially new has been created in this field.
- Mikhail Botvinnik
Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all.
- Bobby Fischer
On September 27, 1858, Morphy gave an 8-board blindfold exhibition, winning 6 games and drawing 2 games. It was held at the Café de la Régence. The owner of the café wanted to charge a spectator fee of 5 francs for the exhibition, but Morphy said he would not give the exhibition unless the café was open to anyone who walked in. So the event was free for anyone who could get inside the establishment. His opponents were Baucher, Bierwith, Borneman, Guibert, Lequesne, Potier, Preti, and Seguin (and 50 other players in the room to give advice to Morphy’s 8 opponents). Morphy was seated in the billiard room of the café, with his back to the chess table in the other room . The blindfold exhibition lasted for 10 hours, without anything to eat or drink for Morphy. When the event was over, it took 30 minutes for Morphy to get outside of the café after being congratulated by everyone inside. However, the crowd outside was greater than the one inside the café, and the shouting was more deafening. French Imperial guards, not knowing what was going on, thought a new revolution in Paris had broken out.
The next morning for over two hours, Paul dictated all the moves (and hundreds of variations) of his 8 blindfold games from the previous night.
The following was the longest game of the exhibition, finishing last. It is a masterpiece and worthy of anyone playing it over the board, much less blindfolded.
For the complete annotated PGN file, please see Comments
John William Schulten-Paul Morphy
Published September 5, 2011 | 
Simply the Best
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 d5 4. exd5 Nf6 5. Nc3 Bd6 6. d4 O-O 7. Nge2 f3 8. gxf3 Nh5 9. h4 Re8 10. Ne4 Bg3+ 11. Kd2 Bd6 12. Kc3 b5 13. Bxb5 c6 14. Nxd6 Qxd6 15. Ba4 Ba6 16. Re1 Nd7 17. b3 Nb6 18. Bxc6 Rac8 19. Kd2 Rxc6 20. dxc6 Bxe2 21. Rxe2 Qxd4+ 22. Ke1 Qg1+ 23. Kd2 Rd8+ 24. Kc3 Qc5+ 25. Kb2 Na4+ 0-1
Morphy – Capt. Kennedy {EVANS GAMBIT}
Published March 1, 2011 | 
One of eight “Blindfold” Games
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Bc5 6. O-O d6 7. d4 e5xd4 8. c3xd4 Bb6 9. d5 Nce7 10. e5 Ng6 11. e6 f7xe6 12. d5xe6 Nge7 13. Nc3 c6 14. Ng5 Ne5 15. Bf4 g6 16. Nf7 O-O 17. Bxe5 Rxf7 18. e6xf7 kf8 19. Bxd6 Bg4 20. Qd2 g5 21. Rae1 1-0
THE CHESS PLAYER
Published July 4, 2010 | “Morphy at the age of thirteen played a strong Chess game without sight of the board.Rising step by step to two games,to three,to four and so on, we find him while still in his teens playing twelve games simultaneously blindfolded and against players to whom the champions of the day could not give more than a pawn and move safety in set match. More surprising even than the number of games which Morphy could thus play blindfolded at one sitting, was the nature of his play under these seemingly difficult conditions. The brilliancy of the combinations was in most cases matched by their soundness and often by their depth-in the sense of the number of moves over which,with lightning rapidity, he carried his analysis. A veteran player told me of these games which he had carefully examined after it was finished because he believed that a certain brilliant stroke could be more successfully met than it had been in actual plays. ‘Along every line’, he said, but one , I found Morphy’s strategy sound , but along the line there seemed to me a safe, though difficult defense, resulting in eventual victory over him. I passed an hour or two every evening for week, analysing the game along this line, and having satisfied myself it was sound, I mentioned the point to Morphy when next I met him. I was setting up the board to show him what I meant, but he would not suffer me. “I remember the game perfectly, ” he said. “Your defense is not sound, though it was best available; you have overlooked a mate in three, following the sacrifice of my King’s Bishop after the fifth move of your defense”. My veteran friend looked over the position the same evening and found the case was as Morphy stated. “Imagine the abnormal brain development in some special though unknown way, which enabled a boy Chess player, ten days after playing a game which was one of the twelve played blindfolded, to correct in an instant and without setting up the position, the result of ten or twelve hours of analysis of the game by a strong veteran player!”
Richard A. Proctor in the Louisville Courier Journal.
{ Novel.. The Chess Players }
McConnell, J vs. Morphy, P New Orleans 1849
Published October 15, 2009 | Paul Charles Morphy
Published August 24, 2009 | Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884), "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess," is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his time, an unofficial World Champion and, quite possibly, the greatest chess player who has ever lived. He was also the first American superstar, 
acknowledged by the entire world as the preeminent figure in a cultural or intellectual field. He was the first American to supersede the achievements of the Old World, whose culture, up until that point, was considered superior to anything produced by the New World. He is also considered the first, modern chess prodigy of Western Chess since the creation of the modern rules of chess in Italy in 1475.
"Morphy will not let me." – former unofficial world champion Adolf Andresen, when asked why he did not play as brilliantly as usual against Paul Morphy
Play games from Paul Morphy
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- Meeting of Dalai Lama the 14th with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
- Olympiad and Congress Invitation
- Meeting with the President of Bulgaria Mr Georgi Parvanov