Paul Morphy, intestinal flu and leeches

     It's been years since I looked at a Morphy game, but of late I've been playing over a few. Did you know that in a series of articles published in 1885 in Steinitz' International Chess Magazine that Steinitz took exception to the claim that Morphy's games were more error free than those of any player before or after him? 

     Steinitz claimed that in positions that didn't involve tactics there were a lot of games in which Morphy made mistakes. In fact, the story goes that by analyzing those particular games is what lead Steinitz to formulate his principles of positional play. 

     Morphy author Valeri Beim (Paul Morphy, A Modern Perspective) concluded that before Morphy went to Europe, while he was a gifted genius, he was a "runt" who had to enlarge his opening repertoire and strategic understanding and he made note of Morphy's shortcomings: a limited and outdated opening repertoire, difficulty in playing black against closed openings and a failure to grasp the strategy involving certain Pawn structures. Besides that, because he always played the King's Gambit or the Evans Gambit his play was "seriously impoverished." Nevertheless, Beim acknowledged that when it came to dynamic tactical chess he had no superiors among his contemporaries. 

     What have some of the past greats said of Morphy? Capablanca stated, "The magnificent American master had the most extraordinary brain that anybody has ever had for chess. Technique, strategy, tactics, knowledge which is inconceivable for us; all that was possessed by Morphy fifty-four years ago." Mikhail Botvinnik wrote, "In the handling of open positions, nothing new has been found after Morphy!" And, Bobby Fischer wrote, "Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all." On the negative side, I seem to remember Larry Evans writing something to the effect that to the modern master Morphy's games were ugly...something to the effect that they were crude. 

     On the other hand, in Modern Ideas in Chess, Richard Reti wrote, "Anderssen possessed that talent no less than Morphy and in addition more imagination than the latter. The deciding advantage in Morphy’s favor was the fact that he was the first positional player." For a further discussion on Morphy refer to the Chessbase article Rediscovering Morphy HERE. I don't know about all of this, but playing over his games is still entertaining. 

     When he arrived in Paris in 1958, Morphy suffered from a bout of intestinal influenza and in accordance with the medical treatment of the day he was treated with leeches which resulted in losing a significant amount of blood. Even though he was too weak to stand up without help Morphy insisted on going ahead with a match against Adolf Anderssen who was generally considered to be Europe's leading player. 

     Intestinal flu, which is not actually a form of the flu, is highly contagious and involves irritation and inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The hallmark symptoms are nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. 

     Leeches have been used medicinally for thousands of years and were used to treat a wide range of conditions by using them to suck the blood out of patients and it was believed that this form of bloodletting could never be overdone, but today that belief is known to be untrue. 

     Leech use wasn't widespread until the French physician Francois Joseph Victor Broussais (1772-1838) claimed most diseases were a product of local inflammation and could be cured through bloodletting. As a result, bloodletting became the solution for just about every ailment and the leech craze of the 19th century was born. 

     As the leech trade boomed, leeches were shipped from Germany to the US by the tens of thousands. By the mid-1800s England had to start importing them from France because their own leech stocks weren’t large enough to supply its doctors. 

     Leech collectors would wade into ponds, bogs and marshes and attract leeches using two kinds of bait...the legs of old horses that were too worn down to be of much use, or, the second less expensive and more popular bait, their own legs. The collectors had to let the leeches stay attached and suck blood for twenty minutes or longer before they could pull them off because it was easier to dislodge the leech once it was filled with blood. The wound might continue bleeding for several hours and most collectors suffered from serious illnesses they caught from the leeches as well as severe blood loss at the end of their work day!

     Medicinal leeches are still used today to treat certain issues and in 2004, the FDA approved them as "medical devices." Today though they are farmed, not collected in the wild on horse or people's legs. 

     Despite his illness Morphy easily defeated Anderssen, winning seven while losing two, with two draws. When asked about his defeat, Anderssen claimed to be out of practice, but also admitted that Morphy was, in any event, the stronger player and that he was fairly beaten. Anderssen also attested that in his opinion Morphy was the strongest player ever to play the game. The following game was not played in the match, but was an offhand game.

Paul Morphy - Adolf Anderssen

Result: 1-0

Site: Casual game, Paris

Date: 1858

King's Gambit Accepted

[...] 1.e4 The opening of this game is surprisingly modern...for 18 moves it follows a game played over 160 years later! 1...e5 2.f4 exf4 3.♘f3 g5 4.h4 g4 5.♘e5 ♘f6 6.♘xg4

6.♗c4 is usual these days. 6...d5 7.exd5 ♗d6 And now instead of the more popular castling, white should play 8.d4 although black has the makings of a promising attack.

6...♘xe4 7.d3 ♘g3 8.♗xf4 Here black should play 8...Qe7+ and content himself with a slight edge. Instead, he captures the R but in doing so he has wasted a lot of time. 8...♘xh1 The last move this N will ever make! 9.♕e2+ ♕e7 10.♘f6+ ♔d8 The only way for white to assure himself a small advantage is to continue aggressively. 11.♗xc7+

11.♘d5 yields black a slight plus after 11...♕xe2+ 12.♗xe2 ♗e7 13.♘xe7 ♔xe7 14.♘c3 c6 15.O-O-O d5 16.♖xh1 ♗e6

11...♔xc7 12.♘d5+ ♔d8 13.♘xe7 ♗xe7 Black has a R+B+N vs the Q, but the N will disappear sooner or later. Nevertheless, he has sufficient compensation for his Q. 14.♕g4 d6 15.♕f4 ♖g8 16.♕xf7 ♗xh4+ 17.♔d2 ♖e8 Black's pieces has sprung to life and it even looks like the N on h1 will make its escape. 18.♘a3 ♘a6 This hands the advantage over to white. The right way to continue was found in a game between a couple of Czech players in 2019.

18...♗g5+ 19.♔c3 ♗d7 20.♘c4 ♔c7 21.♕d5 ♗f4 22.♕a5+ (Correct was 22.Na5 attacking b7, but after 22...Nc6 the chances would be even) 22...b6 23.♕h5 b5 24.♘a5 Now this accomplishes nothing.

24.g3 ♘xg3 25.♕f3 leaves black better, but it was still white's best chance.

24...b4+ 25.♔b3 ♘a6 26.♕xh1 ♘c5+ 27.♔xb4 ♖ab8+ 28.♔c4 d5+ 29.♔c3 ♘a4+ 30.♔d4 ♗e3+ White resigned because it's mate next move. Kislinsky,A (2429)-Cernousek,L (2438)/Ostrava CZE 2019

19.♕h5 ♗f6 Better was 19...Be7. (19...♗e7 20.♕xh1 ♗g5+ 21.♔c3 ♗e6 with complications.) 20.♕xh1 Morphy slips up with a move that should have forfeited almost all of his advantage.

20.♖e1 should win rather easily after 20...♖xe1 21.♔xe1 ♗d7 22.♕xh1 ♔c7 23.♕xh7

20...♗xb2 This results in total collapse.

20...♗g5+ Similar to the note to black's 19th move. 21.♔c3 ♗e6 22.b3 ♗f6+ 23.d4 ♖c8+ 24.♔b2 ♗xd4+ and black can put up a manly defense.

21.♕h4+ This ends the game. 21...♔d7 22.♖b1 ♗xa3 23.♕a4+ Anderssen resigned.

23.♕a4+ ♔d8 24.♕xa3 ♘c5 25.♗e2 and black's R and N are no match for the Q.

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