Nevertheless Morphy only faced the Petrov six times, despite it being a popular defence in the mid-19th century.
Perhaps this had something to do with Morphy being recognised as a genius of Open games, and there may have been a feeling that the Petrov allowed a very-open Open game.
Although Morphy only faced the Petrov seven times, he tried three different systems against it.
He seems to have respected the Petrov - he certainly rated the defence enough to try it three times in his celebrated match against Johann Löwenthal.
Morphy first faced the Petrov in a 'casual'* game in 1850 against the same Löwenthal.
Morphy - Löwenthal
Petrov Defence Cozio Attack
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Qe2!?
 |
| Position after 5.Qe2!? |
5...Qe7 6.d3 Nf6 7.Nc3!?
Normal is 7.Bg5, but Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Nakamura and So have experimented with the text. It is also the preference of the engines Stockfish10 and Komodo10.
7...Be6 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bxf6!?
Giving up the bishop-pair in the interest of speedy development. Capablanca also played this way in a win over Marshall at St Petersburg 1914.
9...Qxf6 10.d4
Löwenthal notes in his Morphy's Games Of Chess: "10.Nd5 does not yield any advantage as Black can safely reply with 10...Qxb2."
10...c6?!
Marshall played 10...Be7?! against Capablanca, only to be hit with 11.Qb5+. Marshall was an attacking player, and probably sacrificed his b pawn deliberately (he played the same move 11 years later against Mieses), but the idea is not liked by the engines.
Those same engines reckon Black's best is 10...Qe7, in which case White has a slight lead in development, but Black has the long-term advantage of the bishop-pair.
 |
| White to make his 11th move |
*****
*****
*****
*****
11.0-0-0?!
Morphy seems to have missed a trick here. 11.d5, as pointed out by Löwenthal, is strong. After the forced 11...cxd5, Löwenthal gave 12.Nxd4, but that allows unclear complications with 12...Qxb2. Better, as given by the engines, is 12.0-0-0, when White will recover his d pawn while leaving Black with a weakness at d6 and a lag in development.
11...d5
"In order to prevent the advance of the [white] d pawn" - Löwenthal.
12.Ne5 Bb4 13.Nxd5?
A rare miscalculation by Morphy. An anonymous annotator in ChessBase suggests 13.Qe3.
13...Bxd5 14.Ng6+
This is better than 14.Nxc6+ Be7, eg 15.Nxe7 Qxe7 16.Qh5 Qg5+.
14...Qe6?
White is better after this. What both players missed is 14...Kd7! After 15.Nxh8 Na6 19.Nxf7 Qxf7, White has rook and two pawns for bishop and knight. This may be OK materially, but Black has open lines for his bishop-pair, and White has problems untangling his kingside. Meanwhile, the black king is safe on d7 as White has no pieces that can get at it.
15.Nxh8 Qxe2
Best, according to the engines, but the whole sequence helps White activate his kingside.
16.Bxe2 Kf8 17.a3
ChessBase gives "17.c4! Be6 18.d5 cxd5 19.Bf3 Kg8 20.Bxd5 Bxd5 21.Rxd5," when ChessBase's 21...Kh8? loses to 22.Rd8+ etc. However, Black can improve with 21...Be7, when White will again emerge with rook and two pawns for bishop and knight, but this time Black will not have the bishop-pair, and White will have no problems with kingside development. The engines prefer White.
17...Bd6 18.Bd3
Better is ChessBase's 18.Bh5! as White subsequently gets rid of Black's bishop-pair with a double-capture on f7.
18...Kg8?!
Löwenthal: "18...Bxg2, although it looks hazardous, might have been played with advantage." Certainly, 19.Rhg1 is nothing to be worried about. But Löwenthal may have feared 19.Bc4 Bd5 20.Bxd5 cxd5 21.Rd3, but the engines reckon Black is much better after 21...Nd7.
19.Nxf7 Kxf7 20.f3 b5 21.Be4 Nd7 22.Rde1 Nf6 23.Re2 Re8?
A positional error that I suspect many club players today would know to avoid. The point is that, as a general rule, when you have one rook and the opponent has two, it is a mistake to exchange a pair as the opponent's two rooks have a degree of redundancy.
24.Bxd5+ cxd5 25.Rxe8 Nxe8 26.g3 g5 27.Kg2 Ng7 28.Ra1 a5 29.Kd3 Ke6 30.a4 b4 31.c4!
Löwenthal: "An excellent move."
31...Bc7
Black faced a tricky decision. Neither Stockfish10's 31...dxc4+ 32.Kxc4, nor Komodo10's 31...bxc3 32.Re1+ Kd7 33.bxc3, seems satisfactory for Black.
32.Re1+ Kd6 33.Re5 dxc4+ 34.Kxc4 Ne6 35.Rb5 Nf8 36.Rd5+ Ke6 37.Rc5+ Kd6 38.d5 Kd7 39.Rc6 Bd6 40.Ra6 Ng6 41.Rxa5
Morphy's skilful rook manoeuvres have netted him a second pawn, and an overwhelming advantage.
41...Ne5+ 42.Kb5 b3!?
Hoping to make this pawn passed and thus create counterplay. 42...Nxf3 is met by 43.Ra7+, eg 43...Kc8 44.a5 Nd4+ 45.Kb6, and the a pawn will cost Black a piece.
43.Ra7+ Kd8 44.f4 gxf4 45.gxf4 Nd3 46.Kxc4 Nxf4 47.Rh7 Be5 48.Rxh6 Bxb2 49.Kxb3 Bg7 50.Rh7 Be5 51.a5 Nxd5!?
ChessBase gives this a question-mark, but Black is lost in any case.
52.Rxh5 Bxh2 53.Rxd5 Kc8 54.Rb5 Kc7 55.Kc4 Kc6 56.Rh5 Bg1 57.Rh6+?
The engines reckon White is still winning after this, but the position now seems to be drawn. Correct, as pointed out in ChessBase, is 57.Rh7 followed by a6 etc.
57...Kc7?
In Morphy's Games Of Chess, there comes the note: "After a few moves the game was declared drawn."
But Black is losing here. He should have played 57...Kb7, which draws, as a check with the Nalimov endgame tablebase shows.
In ChessBase the game continues:
58.Kb5?
A mistake. As ChessBase points out, White wins with 58.Rh1 Be3 59.Rb1 Kc6 60.a6 Bb6 61.Rb5 Ba7 62.Rb7 Bb6 63.Rf7 followed by a7 etc. If in this line Black tries 61...Kc7, then 62.Kd5 leads to similar play.
58...Kb8 ½–½
ChessBase claims White is winning, as indeed do the engines. But the Nalimov endgame tablebase shows the position to be drawn.
*As I pointed out in my series on Morphy v The French, most games in Morphy's times were 'casual' - tournaments were rare and matches not much less so.
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