Paul Morphy: the pride and sorrow of chess

"Paul Morphy, from New Orleans, was the 'The Pride and Sorrow of Chess' for his sensational, but all too brief, chess career. Considered the unofficial chess champion of the world from 1857 to 1859, he was decades ahead of his time in playing the open game. Over 160 years later, chess enthusiasts play through and admire his games. Morphy may have been the greatest chess genius who ever lived."

The above is a brief excerpt from my first chess book Learning Chess Middle-Game Attacking with the Classic Masters: Volume 1, which I wrote, edited, proofread, formatted, and marketed. I also designed its cover. I am an independent publisher and beginning chess author.

I am writing my second chess book. I am pleased with the way the chapter on the selected games of La Bourdonnais is coming along. The analysis feature here on chess.com has been very helpful with that.

Here are videos which I made of selected Paul Morphy games, including his famous Opera Game and one of his unforgettable games against Louis Paulsen in a tournament equivalent to the U.S. championship. I have chosen 33 of my favorite Morphy games to write about in future books in my series Learning Chess Middle-Game Attacking Chess with the Classic Masters.

For the videos below, I created the music, too, on the still-functional JamStudio application. I provide analysis, annotations, and commentary on each of these games in my first chess book.