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The Bishop's Ledger

Issue 214 · Annotated Classics

Study No. 07 — Paris, 1858

Seventeen moves in a theatre box, and the Opera Game was over.

Paul Morphy plays the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard during a performance of Norma. Every developing move points at one square; every defensive move costs a tempo. Step through the ledger and watch the evaluation rail tilt.

Philidor Defence C41 1–0, 17 moves Annotated by R. Vayle
Duke Karl / Count Isouard consulting —
Paul Morphy white —

Starting position.

Move ledger0 / 34
Annotationstart

The curtain goes up

Morphy has the white pieces and, by all accounts, half his attention on the stage. The board is symmetrical, the clocks do not exist yet, and nothing has gone wrong for Black.

R.V. — annotator's desk

Material
even
Developed
0 v 0
Phase
Opening
Eval
0.0

Long form

A lesson in the arithmetic of tempo

There is a temptation to read this game as a magic trick, and the Duke and the Count as the volunteers pulled from the audience. That reading is generous to Morphy and unfair to the position. Nothing here is conjured. Every piece he moves goes to a square from which it looks at the black king, and every piece he gives away buys him a move that his opponents cannot answer.

Count the developing moves after move nine and the game is already decided: White has four pieces in the attack and a rook waiting to join; Black has a bishop that has been traded for a knight and a queen doing custodial work on e7. The pawn grab on b5 is not greed — it is the only way to open the file that the rook will eventually walk down.

What makes the finish memorable is not its length but its inevitability. From move thirteen onward Black has legal moves and no choices. The rook sacrifice on d7 removes the last defender who could have complained; the queen offer on b8 removes the second. The mate is delivered by the piece that was developed last, which is a very Morphy sort of joke.

Key square

d7. Four white pieces touch it before the rook ever lands there. Black never once contests it with a pawn.

Turning point

9…b5. Understandable, losing, and the move most club players still play in this structure.

Takeaway

Material is a currency for time. Spend it only when the purchase is a forcing move.