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ANNOTATED GAME
Don't neglect the centre especially against Morphy!
Paul Morphy vs. Dr. Samuel Lewis
Annotated by: tomwhufc (1200)
Chess opening: Guatemala defence (B00)
Paul Morphy vs. Dr. Samuel Lewis
Annotated by: tomwhufc (1200)
Chess opening: Guatemala defence (B00)
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1. e4 |
This is Morphy's rock solid opening move that he never doubted, not once did he stray as others did from 1.e4 even Bobby Fischer who was a devout !.e4 player played 1.d4 once. | ||||
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1... b6 |
?!Haven't we seen this before? Oh yes I have annotated one of Greco's games where he pulverized the Owens defence. This is wrong for one main reason and that is it lets Morphy monopolize the centre with his pawns, so that Black's pieces will be unable to find a foothold in the centre later on. | ||||
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2. d4 |
Morphy does the smart thing and aims for a tight grip on the centre. | ||||
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2... Bb7 3. Bd3 |
White saves time he defends the e4 pawn with a developing move which also prepares him for castling. | ||||
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3... e6 4. Nh3 |
! Oh my god! Has Morphy gone mad? No he hasn't! Blacks neglect of the centre does him a lot of harm. Whites neglect of the centre here (4.Nh3!?) does him no harm at all here! Why? By playing 4.Nh3! he leaves the path open for the advance of his f-pawn. The subsequent f2-f4-f5 move opens up the f-file for white's attacking forces later on. This move just proves Morphy's genius. However I wouldn't advise any people below Morphy's level of expertise to try one of these kind of moves as they will probably fall flat on their face. | ||||
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4... d5 |
This position now resembles the French defence with the light squared Bishop aslo known as the 'Bad Bishop' fianchettoed. I suppose the Doc thought that this would be a bright move as it gets away blacks problem piece. Or does it? You'll see that this doesn't because the Pawns in the centre become locked a the fianchettoed Bishop is deemed useless because of it. | ||||
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5. e5 |
As I said Morphy knows that the fianchettoed bishop could hurt him if he opened up the centre however he decides to lock the centre pawns so that the Bishop has almost no effect on the game because of the pawn on d5 which is choking it; on the other hand whites d3 bishop looks menacing with bright prospects. Also because of Morphys central Pawn advance he gains a greater space advantage and prohibits blacks kingside development. Blacks late bid for a share of centre will be unsatisfactory for him. | ||||
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5... Ne7 |
The knight is totally ineefective here. Having neglected the control of the centre early on , Black is already feeling the consequences in the form of constricted and inadequate development. | ||||
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6. O-O Ng6 |
Black has taken two moves to develop his knight, 'not good!' and by doing this he can't really say he's achieved a grat lot in doing this. However this knight move givesway to the development of the darksquared bishop., which by the way isn't very immpressive when it comes to pass. You will see that Black's neglect of the centre is brought home to him after everymove. | ||||
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7. f4 |
!White intends to use the f-file for attacking purposes. This is accomplished by advancing the pawn twice to f5, leading to the opening of the file. | ||||
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7... Be7 |
Oh wow, simply stunning move, that was really worth the wait, definately worth moving the knight twice! Black really has the advantage because of that now. Lol! Only joking. | ||||
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8. f5 |
! Now from looking at the board you can see that an exchange of pawns is going to take place now one way or another. Pawn captures in chess are the most frequent cause of line opening in chess, and everybody knows or atleast will know now is that line opening leads to attacking possibilities. The play that follows gives a masterclass of how to build up an attack on an open file. Looking back for a moment on the early opening play, we see how accurately Morphy appraised chances of openingthe f-file 4.Nh3!. You will start to see now why 4.Nh3! deserves an exclamation mark if not more than just the one! | ||||
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8... exf5 9. Bxf5 Bc8 10. Bxc8 Qxc8 11. Nc3 |
Morphyb agaqin attacks with gain of time by also attacking the d5 pawn. Note how White develops with free-and-easy moveswhich are most effective.Black, on the otherhand, has to resort to tortuous maneuvers which really accomplish almost nothing. In one sense Black has already lost because of his lack of development and because he will not be able to make up for this later on. | ||||
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11... c6 12. Bg5 O-O 13. Bxe7 Nxe7 14. Qh5 |
! Morphy plays his queen to its most aggressive post, with a direct menace to Black's castled position. The more I study this position the more dangerous the more and more threatening White's formation appears. | ||||
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14... h6 |
This is played to preven 15.Ng5. he does not have much choice. Any other moveputs him an even worse postion than he stands now and that is pretty bad! | ||||
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15. Rf3 |
! Morphy prepares to increase the pressure on the open f-file by doubling his rooks on it. | ||||
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15... Ng6 |
This move takes some pressure of the f-pawn as it blocks the attack on it by the white Quee. | ||||
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16. Raf1 |
! Doubling his rooks getting ready to go for the kill. | ||||
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16... Qe6 |
Both sides have assembled in force on the King-side. White has a distinct advantagebecause both of his Rooks are in the attack, whereas Black has the services of only one of his Rooks for defencive purposes. However Black is just about safe for the moment, in other words White's attack needs new power. But where can Morphy conjure this power nearly all his pieces are involved in the attack. Most players would probably play 17.Nf4 here. But Morphy's method is much more magical:n to carry out his logical exchange he transfers his currently inactive Knight on c3 to the King-side. remarkable logical play! | ||||
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17. Ne2 |
! This is the start of the Knight's journey. | ||||
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