Old Chessnut

GOING through an old copy of Chess magazine from July 2007, I came across an article more than a page long - and remember that Chess uses an a4 format - on the famous game in which Paul Morphy beat an aristocratic consulting team at the Paris Opera House.
I find it hard to believe there are many, if any, regular readers of Chess who have not seen the game before. It would be difficult to prove, but I suspect it may be the most-published game of all time.
The main rival to such a claim must be the 1851 Immortal Game between Anderssen and Kieseritzky.
It may well be there are better games than these two, although quality in such cases is subjective, but none that has been published so often.
Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to take (yet) another look at Morphy's gem, but this time with the help of the analysis engines Stockfish10 and Komodo10.
Morphy - Duke of Brunswick/Count Isouard
Philidor Defence
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Bg4?!
This move goes back to at least 1795, but by the time of this game had been superseded by 3...f5 and (today's favourite) 3...exd4.
4.dxe5 Bxf3
The engines reckon it is better to give up a pawn by 4...Nd7!?, which has been played by many strong players including Albin, Lasker, Mieses, Blackburne, Nimzowitsch and, in more modern times, by at least six players rated over 2400.
Is ...Nd7 any good? Well, according to ChessBase's 2019 Mega database, Albin won both his outings with it, and Blackburne scored +3=1-0.
5.Qxf3 dxe5 6.Bc4 Nf6?
The most popular move in Mega19, but the superior 6...Qd7 had been played in George Atwood - Jonathan Wilson, London 1795. Atwood continued, as Morphy was to do, with 7.Qb3, when 7...c6 meant that at least Black was not losing material (but 1-0, 22 moves).
7.Qb3 Qe7!?
Fischer called this "a clever move," his point being that 8.Qxb7 would allow the aristos to get queens off the board with 8...Qb4+. They would in all likelihood have still lost, but would have had the satisfaction of the game lasting a lot longer than it did (and Morphy would have spent a lot longer sitting in the duke's luxury box with his back to the opera).
Later in 1858, in Morphy's match against the Prussian Daniel Harrwitz, the weaker 7...Bd6? was played. Morphy won in 59 moves.
8.Nc3
The engines prefer the prosaic 8.Qxb7 but Morphy, at least metaphorically, may have had one eye on the opera.
8...c6 9.Bg5
Fischer reckoned this puts Black in zugzwang: "He can't develop his knight because his (b) pawn is hanging (and) the bishop is blocked by the queen."
9...b5?!
It is easy to condemn this move, but in 15 subsequent games to reach the position after 9.Bg5, the text was played in 12 of them.
The engines reckon best play is 9...Na6 10.Bxf6 gaf6 11.Bxa6 bxa6 12.0-0, with a miserable game for Black.
10.Nxb5! cxb5 11.Bxb5+ Nbd7 12.0-0-0 Rd8
Fischer points out that breaking the pin on the queen's knight with 12...0-0-0? loses instantly to 13.Ba6+ Kc7 14.Qb7#
13.Rxd7 Rxd7 14.Rd1 Qe6 15.Bxd7+ Nxd7 16.Qb8+! Nxb8 17.Rd8+
The exact same game last occurred in Mega19 in Edmundo Luz (2059) - Jose Correa (1686), Maranhão (Brazil) 2018.