The Most Famous Chess Game Of All Time

welcome back everybody to another historical deep  dive here on the gotham chess youtube channel   today we are covering arguably one of the  most famous chess games ever played now   whether or not you've seen it this game is used in  countless classrooms it's got a lot of incredible   themes and the protagonist of this game is none  other than american superstar paul morphy the year   is 1858 paul morphy is 21 years of age and the  game is being played in paris as paul morphy was   invited as a guest of duke carl and his count as  part of an opera i believe they were seeing norma   but i wasn't there and there are no text messages  that i can send to the afterlife to confirm this   but there are many reports on many websites about  this game now this game is actually uh it's it's   quite breathtaking it's quite interesting if  you're a beginner you'll learn something if you've   already seen the game well hopefully i'll kind of  re-uh refresh your memory and maybe give you some   some kind of inspiration from this game all  the same so paul morphy begins the game with e4   we have e5 knight to f3 very normal stuff  thus far developing knight comes out into   the center and attacks this pawn nowadays  it is far more common in this position   than the move played in the game to play the  move knight to c6 defending this pawn uh or you   can respond with knight to f6 counter-attacking  the pawn in the center but back in the day they   like to play d6 now this is obviously not a  bad move this is known as the philidor defense   but it has a drawback and the drawback is  that the dark squared bishop is now blocked in   white at this point can continue developing  pieces to the middle but as one of the main   ways of playing a king's pawn with a king's knight  opening if you can put two pawns in the center you   should and paul morphy plays the move d2 to d4  all the while he's looking behind him to continue   to watch the opera rather than play the game the  story legend goes that do carl and count uh isward   wanted to play during the opera which kind of  seems like degenerate behavior frankly because why   wouldn't you just play before or why wouldn't you  just play after but that's neither here nor there   but if my friends invited me to a movie and tried  to play chess i'd probably smack them but bishop   g4 now played by uh played by the two um bishop g4  is developing a piece and pinning that's known as   a pin uh the knight cannot move without the queen  being lost and that kind of alleviates a little   bit of pressure here uh to the e5 square but it is  far more practical to take on d4 and again that is   the modern move but these players didn't know this  158 years ago or whatever 100 and i tried to do   mental math on the fly there and that absolutely  failed uh it's definitely not 150 863 anyway this   is why i make chess videos and uh don't make  math videos so pawn takes d4 is significantly   uh more common nowadays but bishop g4 was played  and here paul morphy took on e5 why did he take on   e5 well this move forces duke carl and his count  to play bishop takes here because if they did not   then you can take the queen you see and when you  take the queen a couple of things happen first   of all black surrenders the right to castle but  furthermore uh the knight can now take the free   pawn in the center simultaneously attacking two  things now if the bishop goes back and protects   that pawn okay you at least don't lose this but  you've lost the pawn you've lost the right to   castle and most likely you will lose precious  watch time of this opera that you're sitting   uh and viewing so bishop takes f3 was played  first and paul morphy took back and now pawn   takes e5 and you know the the prompt that i've  given to my students all my scholastic students   who have seen i've shown this game at this point  i start asking little questions and if you'd like   to pause the video feel free to kind of go along  i'm not just going to show the game we'll also   have a mini lesson um white to move create uh the  most fatal threat possible okay so feel free to   pause and go ahead um you know you can create a  lot of threats in this position you can look at   things that are unguarded and find ways to attack  them like queen to g3 queen to b3 for example um   but there's a move here that i said most fatal  and that move would be bishop to c4 this move   very naturally develops a bishop and continues to  mobilize development now white has two pieces out   versus black's zero pieces and you are threatening  queen takes pawn which would be checkmate   um there's a few ways to defend this mate but do  carl and his count play the move knight to f6 this   is known as interposing defense because now the  queen can obviously not jump over the knight uh   the knight is blocking the path of the queen and  it is sufficiently protected away from this queen   however here rather than just lazily castling  or developing something or going like this   paul morphy breaks standard opening protocol he  moves a piece for a second time despite not having   all of his development completed because he finds  a nice geometric way to sync up both of his pieces   he finds something that's not guarded and he finds  the f7 pawn and he plays queen to b3 which is   very strange move for probably people below about  11 1200 um if i had to give an arbitrary number   because it's it's just so non-standard to rotate  the queen and and see in both directions many   people here would just kind of finish their  development but we're talking about you know   greatest player of that generation so he plays  queen to b3 now if i asked you which of these two   pawns is more important to defend you would say  correct you would say obviously the pawn you're   the king right because that other pawn okay  there's a rook over there but my king is more   important and you know if you block this i'm gonna  take you and then i'm gonna bring in my queen   and it's mate that is not how the opera game ended  that would be far less dramatic so you know they   guarded their pawn like this they guarded this  pawn with the queen and their logic was that if he   takes my my b7 pawn if paul morphy takes this pawn  and goes for my rook i have a very nice move here   and this is a concept known as danger levels my  longtime viewers will know i love this term what's   worth more than a rook a queen a king and you  you're worth more than a rook and in this case the   black uh queen and bishop would go here this move  disallows white from taking the rook because the   queen simultaneously hits the two most valuable  pieces in white's position and is defended that   would force a queen trade and even though  paul morphy would would kind of end up a pawn   uh that's not good enough and paul morphy was not  a scientist he was an artist he was not a you know   uh he he was not looking for one pawn strategic  advantage he wanted to knock out these two dudes   immediately so he could go back to watching the  performance that he traveled thousands of miles   to sea okay so he was not in the mood for a long  strategic game he played the move knight to c3   this blocks the check and now queen takes b7  is re-threatened and black plays the move c6   defending the pawn with the queen uh at this  point uh you need to continue your development   and rather than castling morphy decides  that the best move is bishop to g5   why because we have another pin this bat this  queen and bishop combo is called the battery   and he's also maintaining flexibility  of which way he wants the castle   bishop g5 is a little bit more challenging than  short castle because even though castling is good   the move bishop g5 actually legitimately  applies pressure to the black position   and here blacks made a black black makes a  fatal error black is already actually very   restricted because the queen is being is is  blocking the bishop the knight cannot move   probably what black should do here is move out of  the pin and try to develop the dark square bishop   but of course white has an overwhelming lead  in development instead black tries to fight   and when when the move b5 occurs it attacks the  bishop and you know some of us would go well   i can't go there i can't go there because i get  taken so i'm just going to retreat and that is why   you are you and paul morpheus paul morphy because  in this position paul morphy says hey i have four   attacking pieces and after the move b5 all i  need to do is castle i will have a fifth one   and they don't have a lot they  can't they haven't moved anything so   what if i take what if instead of retreating  i sacrifice and his idea is that after c   takes b5 bishop takes b5 check it is not easy to  stop this attack your options move this knight   lose your queen move your king into the  middle and absorb a belligerent attack or   block like this so cocooning now you are dealing  with two pins one is absolute one is not absolute   this is an absolute pin you cannot move the knight  at all this is not absolute because you can lose   your queen i mean it's you're allowed to lose  your queens a bad move but you know some people   have made a career on it and it's they've got  a you know gambit named after them for it so   knight d7 is played and now if i ask you which  way should you cancel you would of course say   very good of course long castle because now you at  least have a rook laser beaming this night right   and even though paul morphy is down one  point of material if you actually count   the utility of the position which of his pieces  are out in about four bishop bishop rook queen   black is cocooning i mean nothing can move here  right as evidenced by this next move defending   the knight from further pressure like literally  i mean this is turtling you're and you're looking   out to see if anything can happen black needs  at least two or three moves here to kind of   uncor you know untangle and and try to get back  into the game and well paul morphy just doesn't   let you wait if i asked you in this position what  should you do like what should you do if you're   playing with white maybe you look around you go  my god i got this and i got this and you know   if i'm looking at this position this knight's  not actually guarding that knight because right   pin okay so maybe a little queen a4 action let me  get a little bit of pride maybe double my rooks   double my rooks is what that's called up over no  you have to look at the most forcing moves first   and in chess the most forcing moves are the  ones that make your opponent react i'll give   you an example this move is not forcing it  doesn't make your opponent react but checks   and captures in that order make your  opponent react for example bishop takes   i have to react because it's check rook takes  i don't have to react but i probably should   because the bishop is still lingering and well  that's exactly what paul morphy did he took   he took this way he did not take this way because  while it is nice to remove the guard it's not the   right guard to remove he just goes directly to the  epicenter of the action and here's the problem if   black takes like this you lose a queen if black  takes like this you lose a queen if black takes   like this it's illegal and you smack your opponent  don't actually do that i don't condone violence   rook takes rook is the only move the problem is  you've lost a coating of defense for your king   and i still haven't moved one of my most  important pieces and what piece is that   yes like this don't cash out of the casino  just yet this bishop is worth far more than   this rook this bishop is powerful this rook  can't move okay like it's just standing there   waiting to be obliterated and now we have a  very serious problem the problem is that paul   morphe's threatening to take you cannot take  with the king the queen or the knight you will   suffer devastating losses of material no matter  what you take with so while they were like well   paul's most powerful attacking piece is his queen  so of course we should play queen e6 because   now you can trade the queen for example if he  were to take take and then say hey this rook   is guarded by this knight take take okay and  now i'm gonna take you know the funny thing is   he's still completely winning i mean it's rook and  bishop it's rook and bishop versus rook and bishop   but he's dominant i mean he's just absolutely  dominant position here right even that would have   been good for paul morphy but paul morphy was not  a scientist he was an artist and after queen to e6   he realized that it wasn't his queen that  was his most powerful weapon in this position   it was his rook and feel free to pause here and  find the uh the best move for white the best   combination it's one of the most iconic knockout  combinations in chess starting with the most   forcing move in chess which is a check and i will  now show it to you bishop takes d7 the idea of   playing queen to e6 is that now by moving the pin  a queen out of this pin you can take with an eye   and it seems you've solved your problems your  next move is pawn to f6 repelling the bishop maybe   you're gonna trade queens and then play pawn two  of six i should say otherwise you lose the queen   uh and then you're very happy but here do carl and  his count despite focusing fully on this game and   completely not on the spectacular performance  that was going on behind them because they were   in a private booth completely negated to analyze  the move queen to b8 which just looks completely   illegal but that's why paul morpheus paul  morphine and these two bozos are these two bozos   queen to be a check the beautiful knockout  punch because now the king cannot move anywhere   the knight has to take and remember i told you  the most powerful attacking piece was actually   the rook well you can argue it was the bishop  i mean who doesn't need a supporting cast right   but rook to d8 a beautiful  mate absolutely beautiful mate   um and uh the conclusion of the historic 1858  opera game a game with a lot of interesting   principles actually if you if you really  go through this game it's not just about   the the flashiness and you know paul morphy  and the whole story it's a lot of you know   interesting layers of this game i'll just recap  them for you taking the center and two pawns   bishop g4 being inaccurate in fact in general you  should probably take in the center early and then   commit your pieces one more thing is don't get  the bishops out and trade them off so quickly   because the thing is as the board opens up you've  been presented with the light squared bishop so   early and now your light square bishop comes alive  it has no counterpart you cannot give away bishops   so early in the game unless you keep the position  closed so it's better to develop your knights   early than bishops and for white it's immediately  important to counterbalance the desire to just   naturally develop your pieces with actually  posing your opponents serious dangers in the   opening right and that's what paul morphy did not  taking material in view of wanting to keep more   pieces on the board and potentially long lasting  attacking effects right and then ultimately   not over extending not opening the board to such  an extent when your king is still in the middle   even at the cost of material and if you're  ever looking to sacrifice a piece for two pawns   make sure you have a concrete follow-up if it's  very easy for your opponent to get their king out   of danger for example it's probably not good but  in this case it was not easy and there were many   many more layers to the attack that ultimately  culminated in a beautiful sacrifice and another   beautiful sacrifice and checkmate so i wanted to  show this game there's many videos of it out on   youtube but if you were able to stumble 14 and  a half minutes into my video i do want to show   you my appreciation uh you know it's a 17 move  game from 1858 okay uh and ladies and gentlemen   the reality of the situation is back in 1858 i  have no clue how these games even made it like   into chessgames.com think about that they didn't  have they didn't mark they didn't put this on pen   and paper they played the game and then somehow  it got submitted like how how did it make did paul   morphy just go back to the states like hey dudes  look look how i smoked these bozos while they were   you know i was watching this i wasn't even looking  at the board they were just saying their moves   i don't know i don't know but what i do know is  paul morphy was an absolutely brilliant player   and uh this game i have used to many many effect  to show opening principles uh the good and the bad   of the opening the way you should play the opening  and all sorts of different tactics double attacks   long castling many different types of pins and  sacrifices and not leaving your king in the center   and obviously the amazing checkmate pattern at the  end so thank you for making it uh to the end of   this video and if there's any other historical  games that you want me to cover however simple   they are or complex or sagas do let me know in  the comments below if you're new to the channel   welcome if this is the first video first few  videos that you've seen of mine i have a lot of   playlists on all elements of chess and if you are  a long time viewer you already know the drill i   very much appreciate you thank you for supporting  my content and uh i will see you in the next video

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 596,786

Keywords: gothamchess, gothamchess london, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess openings, gothamchess vienna, famous chess game, famous chess games, best chess games, best chess games ever played, best chess game ever played, paul morphy, paul morphy opera game, opera game, opera game chess, paul morphy chess games, paul morphy agadmator, agadmator paul morphy, paul morphy chess, famous chess matches, paul morphy documentary, chess lessons for beginners

Id: rzGTG04u1gs

Length: 15min 45sec (945 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021