Genius of Paul Morphy

by Chris Ward

Paul Charles Morphy (1837-84) was an extraordinary and precocious a child prodigy who quickly rose to become the best player in America, and then the world, before he effectively retired from serious play at the age of 21. Morphy's prowess created masterpieces of attacking chess so beautiful that they endure to the present day. In textbooks all over the world, Morphy's name is synonymous with the romantic era, a time of dazzling sacrifices and spectacular king hunts. In this book Chris Ward critically examines Morphy's style, strengths and weaknesses- the first time that a contemporary Grandmaster has so systematically appraised Morphy's games in the context of the modern understanding of chess. Ward recounts many curiosities (such Blindfold Exhibitions, for which Morphy was famous), and there is a special chapter devoted to Morphy's most dramatic miniatures. Morphy's contributions to opening theory (in variations such as the Evans Gambit and the King's Gambit are also covered, and it is interesting that these swashbuckling gambit variations are currently seeing something of a resurgence. Chris Ward is one of Britain's leading professional players and trainers. He gained his Grandmaster title by winning the British Championship in 1996 in Nottingham, and was captain and coach to the English Women's team in Moscow 1994, Erevan 1996, and Pula 1997.

Genres: Chess

Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[Ettore Pasquini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not good. The cool parts of this book are the first 30 pages, where we see some details about Morphy's life and we are introduced to some great King's gambit play. Many of the initial games come also with a preamble detailing the context in which the game took place. That's a nice touch.

But this stops quickly and the book becomes uninteresting and hard to follow. The whole 2nd half of the book is a catalog of all Murphy's games with no comments at all. And what's the point of discussing so many games with total amateurs?