Morphy - Samuel Smyth*
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Be6 5.Bd3 Nf6 6.0-0 h6!? 7.Ne5!?
The only occasion in the six games under consideration in which Morphy did not play 7.Nc3. Ironically, 7.Nc3 is one of the choices in this position, along with 7.Re1, of Stockfish10 and Komodo9.
7...Bd6 8.f4
So this is Morphy's idea - White has a fine outpost for his king's knight at e5, and if the knight is captured, White gets a pawn-wedge into Black's position.
8...Nc6 9.c3
Exchanging on c6 was the main alternative, but Black should be able to dissolve his doubled pawns by engineering ...c5 without too much trouble.
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| Black to play and make an instructive mistake |
*****
*****
*****
*****
9...Qe7?
It is not so much the fact that the black queen is on the same file as the black king, but that it has a bishop in front of it that is menaced by the possible thrust f5.
Safe was 9...0-0, but Black may have had aggressive queenside-castling in mind.
10.Rel Bxe5
Not 10...0-0-0?? (or 10...0-0??) 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.f5 etc.
11.fxe5 Nd7 12.b4!
Partly in anticipation of Black castling long, but there is more to this move, as we shall soon see.
12...0-0?!
This loses material, but Black was in a bad way in any case.
13.b5 Na5 14.Ba3 Qg5 15.Bxf8 (1-0, 33 moves)
*Morphy's opponent was not the pushover this game makes him seem. He was probably the same Samuel Smyth who found local fame when, as a "handsome youth" of 18, he defeated the automaton The Turk when it visited Philadelphia in 1834.
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