Umm...no.
Queen's pawn opening & Morphy
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not really. Morphy was not strong enough to completely understand the King Pawn opening theory. If he played today he would be squashed in that opening by probably thousands of players.
[chess is far more complicated than you think]
Robert_New_Alekhine wrote:
Umm...no.
No to what?... and why?
ponz111 wrote:
not really. Morphy was not strong enough to completely understand the King Pawn opening theory. If he played today he would be squashed in that opening by probably thousands of players.
[chess is far more complicated than you think]
Why do you say that Morphy was not strong enough to completely understand the King Pawn opening theory? Morphy was quite successful with that opening on both black & white.After his championship, Steinitz seem to have started working on the queen's pawn opening. That shows Morphy's absolute dominance that other players start thinking about changing their opening. Queen's opening was considered novelty before Steinitz. The theory thats followed today was developed by Steinitz and Tarrasch. If Morphy had played them, then this theory would have been busted just like he had busted the King's pawn opening theory.
Ashvapathi wrote:
... From 1890s, high level players started exploring queen's pawn opening on and off in tournaments. Finally, in 1900s, queen's pawn(queen's gambit) became more and more popular. So, it seems to me that it was Morphy's influence which forced the high level players to move away from King's pawn opening. ...
Ashvapathi wrote:
... Queen's opening was considered novelty before Steinitz. The theory thats followed today was developed by Steinitz and Tarrasch. If Morphy had played them, then this theory would have been busted just like he had busted the King's pawn opening theory.
Interest in 1 e4 continued for quite some time after Morphy's 1858 activity, including growing interest in 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5. Compare the number of pre-1859 examples of 3 ... a6 4 Ba4 Nf3 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 0-0 9 h3 with the number of post-1858 examples. In the 1866 Anderssen-Steinitz match, all of the games started with 1 e4. Why should one suppose that 1890s (and after) behavior was "forced" by what happened in 1858 (and earlier)?
Ashvapathi wrote:
ponz111 wrote:
not really. Morphy was not strong enough to completely understand the King Pawn opening theory. If he played today he would be squashed in that opening by probably thousands of players.
[chess is far more complicated than you think]
Why do you say that Morphy was not strong enough to completely understand the King Pawn opening theory? Morphy was quite successful with that opening on both black & white.After his championship, Steinitz seem to have started working on the queen's pawn opening. That shows Morphy's absolute dominance that other players start thinking about changing their opening. Queen's opening was considered novelty before Steinitz. The theory thats followed today was developed by Steinitz and Tarrasch. If Morphy had played them, then this theory would have been busted just like he had busted the King's pawn opening theory.
For one thing, Morphy rarely had to play against the Sicilian Defense. He would be in trouble in today's world against that Defense. Also, other defenses such as the French Defense have now developed far above what Morphy experienced in his day.
Morphy was dominate vs the poor players of his day. In today's world he would be out classed.
I was thinking about something the other day:
It seems that King's pawn opening was popular for a long time. And most probably it was considered safe and faster to develop and castle. Then Morphy happened. He completely destroyed opponents in that opening.
After that, I think Steinitz started working on Queen's pawn opening theory. But, people continued playing King's pawn opening and most probably the King's pawn opening games had become theory laden.
From 1890s, high level players started exploring queen's pawn opening on and off in tournaments. Finally, in 1900s, queen's pawn(queen's gambit) became more and more popular. So, it seems to me that it was Morphy's influence which forced the high level players to move away from King's pawn opening. Till now, Queen's opening continues to be popular at high level because there seems to have been no second Morphy. If there is another Morphy who can completely squash Queen's pawn opening, then perhaps another new opening will be explored.