Morphy meets Anderssen

When Harrwitz resigned the match against Morphy, claiming ill health, Morphy didn't want to accept the stakes. But because by not accepting them, there would be a question about what the result of of the match really was, affecting those who had side-bets, Morphy finally accepted the £295, but put the money in escrow. This money he sent to Anderssen to defray his expenses traveling to Paris. The Morphy- Anderssen match was played without stakes.

When Anderssen arrived on Wednesday, Paul was still confined to bed and as a result, Anderssen wanted to postpone, even cancel, the match. But Morphy wouldn't hear of it and the match was set to commence on the following Monday with the first person to win seven games declared the winner.

Since Anderssen had never been to Paris, Edge showed him around and, while they visited some sites such as the Louvre, Anderssen gravitated toward to Café de la Régence where he met his old nemesis, Harrwitz, who was also originally from Breslau.  They got into a friendly argument over who had won the most games between them in the past and decided to settle it over the board. The result of their six games was Anderssen 3, Harrwitz 1 and 2 draws.

The match was to begin on Monday at 12:00 noon in a special room at Morphy's hotel, the Breteuil at 1 Rue du Dauphin. A few blocks away the crowd was so large that  three boards were set up at the Café de la Régence so everyone could see and the moves were carried by messenger every half hour. The only ones present in the room itself were Eugène Lequesne, Saint Amant, Jules Arnous De Rivière, Jean Prèti, Paul Journoud (1821-1882, edited La Régence, La Nouvelle Régence, Le Palemède and Le Sphinx), Carlini, Frederick Edge, Jas. Mortimer and Dr. Johnson (New York Times correspondent).

Anderssen arrived on time but Morphy was late:

Prof. Anderssen arrived precisely 12 o'clock, in the company of messrs. Prèti and Carlini. Mr. Morphy who had not yet risen from bed after his late disposition, did not appear for a half an hour and when he did join the party, looked so pale and feeble that, it seemed he was risking too much in undertaking the task he had before him. However, he declared his head was alright, and rapidly shaking hands with his adversary and the party present, he stepped at once to the board, seized a black and white pawn, changed them under the table, and held out his hand for the Professor to make a choice. Morphy won the move, and the game commenced at once with the Evan's Gambit. - Dr. Johnson

Dr. Johnson also observed the two contestants and gave the following description:

...Nothing could be more unlike than than the physique of the two players. Mr. Morphy is a frail, small boy, with a fine face and head, and a modest, almost timid, air. Prof. Anderssen, on the contrary, is a tall man, slim, about fifty years of age, with a small, bald head, a slight stoop in the shoulders, lively black eyes, a clean-shaven face, and a decidedly German cast of features. He is a quiet, gentlemanly man, with a sympathetic expression of the face, which immediately predisposes in his favor...

The match began  Dec. 20 and ended on Dec. 28.

Morphy won  with 7 wins, 2 losses, and 2 draws.

After each game, Anderssen would walk over the the Café de la Régence and telegraph the game score to Berlin and Leipzig for the benefit of the German chess fans.

After Morphy lost the first game offering the Evan's Gambit, he remarked to Edge that the game "proved to him that the Evans is indubitably a lost game for the first player, if the defense be carefully played; inasmuch as the former can never recover the gambit pawn, and the position supposed to be acquired at the outset, cannot be maintained."

(yet, of about 80+  Evan's Gambits he played, Morphy only lost 2 playing even and a just a few at Rook and Knight odds)

As good an impression that Morphy made on Anderssen, Anderssen in turn made an equally good impression on all those he met.
According to Edge:

"I have never seen a nobler-hearted gentleman than Herr Anderssen. He would sit at the board, examining the frightful positions into which Morphy had forced him until his whole face was radiant with admiration of his antagonist's strategy, and, positively laughing outright, he would commence resetting the pieces for another game, without a remark. I never heard him make a single observation to Morphy complimentary of his skill; but, to others, he was loud in his admiration of the young American. He said to me - 'I win my games in seventy moves, but Mr. Morphy wins his in twenty, but it is only natural..."

Anderssen's own observations about Morphy according to Edge:

"On the morning previous to his departure he (Anderssen) said in my hearing: - "I consider Mr. Morphy the finest chess player who ever existed. He is far superior to any now living, and would doubtless have beaten Labourdonnais himself. In all his games with me, he has not only played, in every instance, the exact move, but the most exact. He never makes a mistake (Morphy, present, here quietly smiled); but, if his adversary commits the slightest error, he is lost."

You can find the game #9 here:

http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/1858morphy-vs-anderssen

from Shara's Journal Archive

Prof. Anderssen was truly a class act! Too bad Staunton didn't have his values.

thanks for sharing, really enjoyed it

nice

Another Morphy's game:

great game by my idol (morphy), anderssen is a good player. yet his skills didn't match. 7-2?