Paul Morphy - Chess Writer (NY Ledger)

Morphy's NY Ledger Column

Edited by Hanon W. Russell

Many chessplayers are unaware that Paul Morphy wrote a chess column. From

August 6, 1859 until August 4, 1860, Morphy "conducted the Chess

decided that it is time to share the writings of the nineteenth-century American

genius with our readers.

Please note that the original column used the antiquated form of English

descriptive notation. Thus, the eighth move of the game below was rendered by

Morphy as:

that an attempt to fill up the void might be received with some little degree of

favor. Our attention, then in the conduct of this department of the Ledger will

be steadily directed to the plan here indicated. Excluding mere speculation we

shall aim at laying before our readers none but purely practical matter. A good

problem, remarkable for the ingenuity or nice accuracy which unravels its

mazy intricacies - one or two standard games, contested by the acknowledged

masters of the chequered field, and accompanied by elaborate notes, critical

and analytical, will form the staple of our weekly contribution.

we daily receive, in our privatecharacter

epistle would be an impossibility. Besides, "correspondents" must allow us to

suggest that any leading treatise on the game contains all the information

generally sought by them.

We present our readers in the present number with the first of the long series of

games contested between Labourdonnais and McDonnell. True, they have been

published before; but no satisfactory analysis has, to our knowledge, ever been

appended to them. We purpose giving one or two a week, in the order in which

they were played, with careful annotations. It is hoped that this attempt to

furnish the American public with a clue to the intelligence of these beautiful

models of chess strategy, will not prove unacceptable.

At the request of numerous friends, we will occasionally publish some of the

games played by us in Europe and in this country.

This move constitutes the opening, known as the "Centre Gambit." Although

not as powerful as the classical move of 2 Nf3, it may occasionally be adopted

for variety’s sake.

3...Bb4+ is here recommended by most authors as the best play at Black's

command. Without being disposed to combat this opinion, we think that they

have unjustly condemned the move in the text, which, with the best after play

on both sides, leads to a game where the first player's advantage is by no means

as marked as would be inferred from their criticisms.

White may also move here 4 c3. In that case Black's reply would be 4...d5, a

move strangely enough overlooked by the leading authorities, who make the

second player commit the obvious error of capturing pawn with pawn.

McDonnell manifested great partiality for this sortie of the queen in the Scotch

gambit. In the above position, it is probably the best play on the board.

The objection to this course is that it enables Black to retain his pawn, whereas

by 8 Bb5 White would immediately have regained it, and remained with a

somewhat superior position.

Black, relying upon his surplus pawn, plays thus in order to compel an

exchange of queens; but, as the progress of the game sufficiently proves, the

result is an amelioration of his adversary’s position, and, ultimately, a drawn

battle. Had he instead first captured knight with knight and then played his

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