Paul Morphy's Rating>2638

NM Omar, I'm glad you enjoyed this topic of Morphy so much. :D 

Well, when when FIDE calculates someone's rating, it calculates based on their results against other players whose ratings are established, not against other players whose ratings are just about as dubious. Okay, we can discuss Morphy etc but surely you don't claim that the rating you proposed has anything to do with anything.

out of curiosity.. has anyone ever asked modern day supergrandmasters on their opinion on morphy's strength..

And your opinion isn't "pretty random?" Where did you get everyone else's rating from? I'll give you a hint: they're all "guesstimates" at best and hogwash at worst.

I'd think that Morphy, in a first match with a modern super-GM, would get crushed initially.  

But in a second match (or maybe even in the first if it were as long as Karpov-Kasparov 1984), what would happen when he starts steering things into "unclear" territory?  

What a lot of people seem to be saying is that in "unclear" positions or where theory is limited, Morphy would still get crushed by modern GM's, implying that Morphy's genius is no different than Aronian's, Carlsen's, Karjakin's or any top 20 GM, but that Morphy would be too stupid to avoid such lines or figure out where his opponent is least comfortable (in a long match or in a second match).  It also implies that theory trumps genius in chess, kind of like saying a booked up 1300-level chess player will always destroy a 1600-level player who knows minimal theory (having attained the ranking by his own "genius"). 

Do we live in a magical time where every top 20 super-GM is a natural Morphy-like genius that coincidentally also has modern theory at his disposal?  

 Actually yes we do, since the chess playing population increased so much the amount of chess players who have super amounts of talent also increased. 

We all know Morphy's elo is actually 2452.

Losing the first several games of the match purely on theory, Morphy'd have Carlsen's style and worst chessic fears all worked out and steer the games entirely in that direction.  Morphy would then bitch-slap Carlsen with pawn's odds using the BDG as white every single game thereafter. 

Then Carlsen would whine how he didn't have enough time or databases to analyze Morphy's contemporaneous play and how Morphy had an inherent unfair advantage because he had nothing to lose from this match being the underdog and was too looney to understand the associated psychological pressures. 

Carlsen would then withdraw from the rest of the match just before Morphy took the lead.  And Morphy would think to himself "and he does this for a living?"

If I could crush everyone easily in chess, I'd play very inaccurately and "settle" for Morphy's dominance, rather than absolutely annihilating everyone with a perfect score.  Morphy was not way ahead of his time.  He was greater than light years, transcending time, ahead of his time.

Imagine if Kasparov won no less than 70% of his games against all of his opponents including Karpov and Kramnik, and won all of his matches as dominantly.  There'd be no debate. 

Imagine if Bobby Fischer had a 1970-1972 run x 2 and then demanded in 1975 that the only way he'd play for the FIDE championship was if Karpov was given "knight's odds".  There'd be no debate.

Morphy. No debate.  (I like Capablanca better).  

If I was Morphy, I'd enjoy my success at chess and find something else to do.

I am amazed at Greco, his games are fun to watch, and look like they were played yesterday, yes he was still tactical, however he probably had a decent positional understanding, unfortunately his opponents would be rated 14-1500 today and he would have easily been a high rated GM

My respect for Philidor has grown with time: he is often misrepresented as being too dogmatic and simplistic, but had some strategic ideas that seem rather modern. But the defense named after him is not so great.

Yes, his contribution to endgame theory is still important.

He loved The Doors, hence his name. 

Well, maybe just one of them.

According to gm.chesszen.com Morphy's rating is 2335. 

Good reason to avoid gm.chesszen.com.