Paul Morphy is the greatest player of all time.

The thing that impresses me, is that Morphy predicted many of today's engine lines in his games. His opponents obviously never played that deep.

It's one of the most interesting and impressive facts about Morphy for me.  How many times modern engines say to make the move he made, and in such strange positions, and odd lines.  It's almost unheard of.  For that amazing reason(and a few others) I think he is easily the most 'legendary' chess player of all time, and maybe the biggest 'freak of chess nature'(or however you wanna say it)

I do think Morphy is undoubtedly the best. Learning how to play chess by watching your dad and uncle play, then playing simultaneous blindfold matches spotting a rook, some of which are used today to show brilliant tactical combinations to even 2000+ rated players according to gm finegold. Playing such accurate moves that engines approve of after 2 mins. All this without any training facilities, I would say he was quite special. Maybe just maybe if he had half the coaching and theory of today's plays he could even be better. But that's just my opinion

Los cojones.

Annoying/amusing.

ballsy.

Also, I remember a few examples that Finegold showed where Morphy had given knight odds, and even after he had made a few more piece sacrifices, a modern engine was saying he was up in points.  That was also pretty impressive, uncanny almost(if you can use that word in chess), definitely kinda spooky(or something like the word spooky, maybe chilling)

morphy is FAR from the best. the player he played at the time are nowehre near as good as todays players. therefore he could play quite aggresively without much to hurt him unlike today

Greco was pretty good too.

Today he would rpobably be an IM very inpressive but far from the best

Not anymore. Magnus is now.

It seems to me the ghost of Morphy owes us an apology because the players of his time were patzers..

except he nnever even once played someone as good as say anand or carlsen or tal or bobby fischer. hek he probably didnt even play someone as good as a average GM today

Yeah, I don't even think that chess was as widespread back in the 19th century as it is today. Most people in the 19th century were too busy plowing their fields or something to have time for chess. Chess back then was really only a pastime of the rich. It just naturally excluded a lot of the population back in the 19th century. I don't think Morphy would have done as good if chess was as universal back then as it is today.

I think Morphy's greatest gift was his sight of the board. He rarely took more than five mins. to find his move, which computers now agree with. I am continuely amazed at the moves he finds. The other thing is, he was a very young man when he retired from chess.

King of the Trolls

You're right, but this is also one reason it was so amazing what Morphy 'figured out'.  He had NO help, no phones, no access to too many databases(if any).  He had no cars, or buses(or medicine).  As it has been said already in this thread, "where did he get his ideas", the answer is he was given them by the chess gods(ha jk).  And yes, he was born into a wealthy family, but was that coincidence?(are there chess gods? ha)  Because, if he hadda been born into poverty, we'da probably never heard his name.

Why are we seeing child prodigies today? A nine year old crushing a top level GM? IS IT BECAUSE THE HUMAN MIND HAS BY AND FAR CROSSED GREAT DIMENSIONS? I'M SORRY, U GOT IT WRONG. Geniuses are not born, they are created. Because of the modern day computers, you see every second city boy excel at chess. And going back to Morphy's time, definitely everyone knows the state of technology. If given all these, its beyond our imagination how strong Morphy could be. And Most Importantly, CARLSEN, ANAND, KASPAROV... EVEN THEY HAVE PLAYED SO CALLED "PATZERS" , BY AND FAR, I AM STILL WAITING TO SEE THEM BEAT THOSE PLAYERS LIKE MORPHY DID THEN, YA? CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS?

I'm sorry, but I do not see "every secod city boy excelling at chess". Unless I'm failing understanding your definition of excellence, that is.