A Night at the Opera

In late October 1858 Paul Morphy was in Paris on a brief stop during his European tour. He went to the Théâtre des Italiens to see The Barber of Seville. The Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard, his hosts in the private box, proposed a game between the acts. Morphy played and won what is now the most famous instructional game in the history of chess.

What makes the game eternal is its economy. Morphy uses only three minor pieces, his queen, and two rook moves to construct a forced mate in seventeen. Every move develops. Every move attacks. The opening is the Philidor Defense — a passive choice by Black that puts the king in immediate danger — and Morphy punishes it with a sequence that has been taught to every chess student for 165 years.

The most-quoted moment is the queen sacrifice on move 16: 16.Qb8+!! Nxb8 17.Rd8#. The queen lures the only defender (the knight on d7) to b8, leaving the rook on d1 with a clear path to mate on d8.

The pedagogical value

Morphy’s game has been used in opening textbooks for generations because every move can be justified by classical principles: develop pieces, control the centre, attack the king. The Duke and the Count did not develop. They moved pawns. They obstructed their own pieces. Morphy did the opposite, and the position rewarded the difference within seventeen moves.

Modern engines confirm what every nineteenth-century textbook taught: Black’s position is lost after move 9, and Morphy’s combination is correct to the final mate. The game is short, the moves are intuitive, and the lesson is permanent.

Game record

This game between Paul Morphy and Duke Karl of Brunswick & Count Isouard was played at the Casual game in Paris, Théâtre des Italiens in 1858. The opening was the Philidor Defense (ECO C41). The game lasted 17 moves, ending with White winning. It is part of the nineteenth-century chess record.