Would Paul Morphy had been the first world champion if he didn't get sick?

he wasn't that overrated, did you see his win over Anderssen and the Consultents?

NNaa33,

I fear he has been quite over-rated. I am assuming Fischer tried to bring Morphy into the spotlight, at a time that western chess was ignorant of the game's history. I assume that many players of my rank, between the casual player and the intermediate player, understand Morphy's games almost immediately, and are prone to over ranking him as well. Hou Yifan is a wonderful chessplayer, with an attacking style and combinative expertise that would have embarrassed Paul Morphy. She is just developing as a formidable chessplayer. Morphy would have been just as dazzled by her as we are of him. Morphy would not only have been unable to compete with the chess geniuses that proceeded him, but he would not have cared to compete. Potential unrealized, is but a dream.

than you should really check out his game against the Consultants which he played blindfolded while watching an opera

It's a quite famous game. I have seen it many times

He's not blindfolded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_game

Morphy's value to the game is immense. His clear attacking style convinced many dabblers to become chess players. But world champion, I don't know?

For me, more reasonable "what if he didn't die" candidates would be Pillsbury, Chigorin, and maybe even Junge and Breyer.

Lasker: (about Pillsbury) I fear I shall have to defend my title against this young man someday..

i think yes

Chigorin had his shot during WC matches.

Pillsbury-Lasker is intriguing. They had a lifetime even score (+4 -4 =4 according to Golombek, as I recall).

Oddly, at the same time Pillsbury was keeping up with Lasker, he was having great difficulty with an old Steinitz.

 blind fold means he just played it not looking at the board and just playing it in his mind

Kasparov is the best player ever, did you see his game against David Letterman?

 Of course you have a source for that?

Thanks, NNaa33. But Morphy could look at the board if he wished. When I get executed by a firing squad, I'm going to tell them before they shoot that I thought they had already shot me. Then leave.

 then if you please, search it up, its in this book by Kasparov on My Great Predecessors and... my instuctor told me that too and hes an IM

Yes he did. I was just wondering if you had a source.

I looked up the game at ten different sites. Noone claims morphy was blindfold, or, I'm sorry, played in his mind without looking at the board. Look it up.

A strong player in my club recently played 4 games blindfold, and he did all so without missing any tactical opportunities and tricks that showed up. It´s really not a basis for claiming that he´s one of the best of all times, especially not backed up by a game played against an amateur.

It's actually sort of offensive to hear such idiotic things said about Paul Morphy -- The original question, Morphy vs. Steinitz, is of course unanswerable, both were great geniuses of chess, there's no way to know what sort of "non-sick" player Morphy would have become.

But when it comes to discussing Morphy's achievement and legacy, I tend to trust the opinions of World Champions over the opinions of lesser players. There are a few chess players that other very strong chess players seem, almost universally, to admire. Morphy is one of these.

Max Euwe: If the distinguishing feature of a genius is that he is far ahead compared with his epoch, then Morphy was a chess genius in the complete sense of the word.'

Alekine: ...at that time (when Anderssen was alive, and all Europe had studied 'combinative chess') with brilliance alone it was hardly possible to surprise anyone. The strength the invincible strength of Morphy -- this was the reason for his success and the guarantee of his immortality! ("Morphy's strength, according to Alekhine, was his 'deeply considered postional play, primarily of an aggressive character'" -- Kasparov)

Botvinnik: To this day Morphy is an unsurpassed master of the open games. Just how great was his significance is evident from the fact that after Morphy nothing substantially new has been created in this field. Every player -- from beginner to master -- shoud in his praxis return again and again to the games of the American genius."

Fischer: 'A popularly held theory about Paul Morphy is that if he returned to the chess world today and played our best contemporary players, he would come out the loser. Nothing is further from the truth. In a set match, Morphy would beat anybody alive today... Morphy was perhaps the most accurate chess player who ever lived....

Smyslov: There is no doubt that for Morphy chess was an art and for chess Morphy was a great artist. His play was captivated by freshness of thought and inexhaustible energy. He played with inspiration, without striving to penetrate into the psychology of the opponent; he played, if one can express it so, "pure chess." His harmonious postional understanding and deep intuition would have made Morphy a highly dangerous opponent even for any player of our times.

But hey, what do those guys know compared to Tryst?

Some what-if-he-didn't-die-names that have been thrown out are Pillsbury (definitely WC material IMO.) Chigorin, Junge, & Breyer ... those last three are problematic IMO. Chigorin didn't die all that young and had his chances... Junge was strong and died young but he simply hadn't put together enough of a record to justify world champion conjecture, Breyer is interesting... he was immensely talented and original and had some strong results very young, but his heart problems kept him from competing as he might have... was he WC caliber? Very hard to say. Some other super strong players who went mad, died, or left chess before their peak: Akiba Rubinstein, Richard Reti, Reuben Fine. Of these, many people believe Rubinstein was the strongest player in the world when WWI got in the way of international chess. Reti and Fine were absolutely top flight players but neither I think had the true WC stuff.

The Opera Game has been anthologized so many times so I looked in my bookshelf. It's noted as a blindfold game in Reinfeld's Prodigies book. Not so in 500 Master Games, but it's included as a game in the notes so less than full headers are expected.

Sometimes the legend gets told instead of the truth though, so I'd like a surer source if possible.

A quick look at  http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/morphy.html and nothing about "blindfold" play.

‘The Duke of Brunswick, with whom Morphy first dined on 19 September, was a confirmed chessplayer, hardly to be seen otherwise than at chess. Edge says they were frequent visitors to the Duke’s box at the Italian Opera and even there the Duke played chess. On their first visit in October they played chess throughout the entire performance of Norma. Edge mentions Morphy’s discomfiture when he was the Duke’s guest, since he was obliged to sit with his back to the stage, while facing the Duke and Count Isouard consulting against him.

On 2 November they heard The Barber of Seville, during which Morphy played his most famous game, the Duke again consulting with Count Isouard.’

Morphy is described as facing the board on an earlier night (his back to the stage), and no mention of a change in the arrangement for the night in question.

I looked in my copy of Marache's Manual of Chess (1866) but no mention of the game as I skimmed through it.

Toss out the Fischer quote, and I don't think you have shown a contradiction to what I stated, JG27Pyth. Oh, I did I say toss out Fischer's ridiculous quote? Good.

batgirl?