First American Chess Congress 1857
Final - Game 4*
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3
Morphy prefers the normal open move-order rather the pseudo-Morra he chose in game one.
2...e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nb3 Bb6 6.Nc3 Nc6
Paulsen previously played the modern favourite 6...Ne7.
7.Bf4
As before, Morphy targets the hole at d6, but this time Paulsen will not let him quickly occupy it with a minor piece.
7...e5!?
This move never caught on, although it is liked by the analysis engines Stockfish10 and Komodo10 (albeit they give White an edge). Today, ...e5 in the Sicilian is quite common. It is usually played in one move, but Black can argue he has not lost a tempo here as 7...e5!? hits White's dark-square bishop and forces it to choose between the c1-h6 and h2-b8 diagonals.
8.Bg3 Nge7 9.Bc4
This bishop takes an inviting diagonal, but note neither white knight is in a position to help pressurise f7.
9...0-0 10.Nb5 a6?!
It is one thing allowing a white knight into d6, but quite another to spend a tempo driving it there. Stockfish10 suggests an interesting pawn sac: 10...d5!? 11.exd5 Na5 12.Nxa5 Bxa5+ 13.c3 a6 14.Na3 b5 15.Bb3 Qd6, although White must be better.
11.Nd6 Bc7 12.a4
Morphy usually liked to castle early, but in this game he takes time out for what he considers more pressing matters, in this case preventing ...b5, which would, to a certain extent, justify 10...a6?!
12...Ng6 13.Qd2 Qf6 14.Rd1 Nf4
As in game one, Paulsen goes for kingside counterplay without much hope of involving many of his queenside pieces.
15.0-0 h5!?
Attacking with the h pawn after castling kingside - quite a modern idea in top-flight chess (and always has been an idea in low-level chess).
16.Nxc8!?
Grabbing a pawn, but it involves giving up a well-placed knight for a poor bishop - not very Morphy-like.
16...Raxc8 17.Qxd7 Nd4?
An anonymous ChessBase annotator suggests 17...g6, without explaining why, but the implication is to take away f5 from the white queen and so avoid an exchange of queens. The text allows minor-piece exchanges that give White's queen more breathing room.
18.Nxd4 exd4 19.Qf5
Even better seems to be 19.Bxf4, eg 19...Qxf4 20.g3, when Black cannot play 20...Qxe4? because of 21.Bxf7+! If 19...Bxf4, then 20.b3, and Black cannot protect both d4 and b7.
19...Qxf5 20.exf5 Be5
The ChessBase annotator suggests giving up a second pawn with 20...d3!?, the idea being that 21.cxd3 (the engines prefer this to 21.Bxd3) Ne2+ 22.Kh1 Nxg3+ 23.fxg3 Be5 gives drawing chances based, presumably, on opposite-coloured bishops and White's disjointed pawn-structure. Paulsen likely decided he had more swindling chances in a pieces-on middlegame.
21.Bxf4 Bxf4 22.Rxd4?!
Morphy may have thought he was winning a second pawn, but Black has tactics that prevent this. Probably better, therefore, was 22.b3 or 22.Bd3.
22...Be5 23.Re4
23.Rh4 is no improvement as the rook cannot leave the fourth rank as long as the white bishop is loose.
23...Bxb2 24.Rb1 Rfd8 25.g3 Rd4 26.Bd3
Or 26.Rxd4 Bxd4 27.Bd3, and Black has time to protect his b pawn.
26...Rxe4 27.Bxe4 Rc4 28.Bxb7 Rxc2 29.Bxa6 Bd4
Perhaps it was this threat to f2 that Morphy missed back on move 22.
30.Rf1
Passivity in rook endings is often fatal to winning chances, and that also applies to rook-and-opposite-coloured-bishop endings. But White seems to have nothing better.
30...Ra2 31.Bb5 Kh7 32.Bc4
The a pawn cannot be advanced, so Morphy jettisons it for a black pawn, but now all pawns will be on one side of the board.
32...Rxa4 33.Bxf7 h4 34.Kg2
If 34.gxh4, then 34...Be5 35.h5 Rh4, winning the h2 pawn.
34...Ra1 35.Bg6+ Kg8 36.Rxa1 Bxa1 ½–½
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| The final position - should Morphy have played on? |
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Komodo10 and Stockfish10 agree White is winning.
That is also a common view on the internet. eg at chessgames.com, where various reasons are given for Morphy agreeing a draw:
He disliked endgames, I think - Catfriend
I believe white has a win here. Not an easy win, but a win nonetheless. Maybe they agreed to a draw because of exhaustion. Some of the games played in that era could go on for days - technicaldraw
Morphy often agreed to draws in positions that favoured him. These days we're concerned with squeezing something from everything and never giving half points away, and that's fair enough; in Morphy's time he was a living legend [this was Morphy's first serious tournament, and possibly his first tournament of any kind], hailed across the world, and romance was the order of the day. The occasional draw was neither here nor there - TrueFiendish
Ask yourself: who's asking for the 'draw', Morphy or Paulsen? And remember the 'Age' in which the're playing. Chess etiquette was an essential character trait of this young master, as was his generosity. Gestures such as this reveal a depth of compassion, adding stature to the growing legend - Rory O Rion
I think Morphy agreed to the draw because playing Paulsen was like watching paint dry - RookFile
Amateur psychology aside, let's take a look at the position on the board.
The first thing to note, apart from the opposite-coloured-bishops, is that White has the wrong bishop for promoting an h pawn as h8 is a dark square.
Bearing that in mind, here is the mainline, compiled largely by the engines with me playing Black:
37.Kh3 hxg3 38.fxg3 Bf6
It does not matter where exactly the bishop goes as long as it oscillates on the long dark diagonal.
39.Kg4 Bb2 40.h4 Bf6 41.Kf4 Bb2 42.g4 Bf6 43.g5 Bb2
How can White make progress? The engines still believe White is winning, but their evaluation stays exactly the same and all they do from now on is move the white king here and there - both signs that a position is really drawn.
Indeed it can be seen that even if White could somehow get in the move f6 (or the moves h5-h6) without losing material, Black can play ...gxf6 (or ...gxh6), leaving White with pawns on the h and f files. Both those files' queening squares, from White's perspective, are dark squares, which can easily be controlled by Black's king and bishop.
Going back to the diagram, White could go three pawns up by playing 37.gxh4, but then he has two sets of doubled pawns on files with dark queening squares.
So the answer is: No, Morphy should not have played on.
*Morphy had the white pieces in games one, four, five and seven; Paulsen in two, three, six and eight.
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