His opponent was old French foe - and close friend - Jules Arnous de Rivière.
Rivière - Morphy
Paris 1863
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Bc5
Morphy returns to the move that saw his two losses against the Evans.
6.0-0 d6 7.d4 exd4 8.d4 Bb6 9.Nc3
This is generally regarded by theorists as White's best try in the Normal Position, and is the choice of the engines Stockfish10 and Komodo10. But George Botterill* implies that he prefers 9.h3, stating: "Instead of doing something frantic, White decides that he will preserve all the advantages of his position and starts by preventing the annoying ...Bg4. There are many cases in which the most effective way of handling a gambit is just to strengthen your position in a quiet and methodical way, rather than forcing an immediate crisis."
9...Bg4
Harding prefers 9...Na5, which is the only move covered by Bologan (Kaufman does not reach this position as he only covers 7...Bg4 and 7...Bb6).
10.Bb5
Harding gives this an exclamation mark, saying it is "the only good move." He adds: "White is a pawn down but he has good development and a strong pawn centre, which means he can switch pieces quicker from one wing to the other." However, Howard Staunton's 10.Qa4!? and Pierre de Saint Amant's 10.Be3!?, both of which get on with development, seem playable, although the engines prefer the text.
10...Bd7
Returning the development tempo that White lost with 10.Bb5. An opponent of Morphy's played 10...Kf8!? against him in 1857, and this is treated as the mainline by Botterill and Harding.
 |
| White to make his 11th move |
*****
*****
*****
*****
11.Bg5!?
A key moment from a theoretical viewpoint.
Botterill gives 11.e5! (his punctuation) Nge7 12.Bg5, calling it "attractive for White." However, the engines reckon 12...h6 13.Bh4 g5 at least equalises for Black.
Harding also gives an exclamation mark to e5, but after 11...Nge7 12.Bg5 only mentions 12...dxe5 and 12...0-0.
11...Nce7?!
It is hard to understand this move when Black could have proceeded with development with 11...Nge7 or forced the g5 bishop to move with 11...f6.
12.Bc4 Be6 13.Qa4+?!
The engines' 13.d5 and 13.Bxe6 look considerably stronger, eg 13.d5 Bd7 14.e5 is very problematic for Black.
13...Qd7 14.Bb5 c6 15.Bd3 f6 16.Bh4?!
16.Be3 was probably a better retreat. The engines also point out 16.Rab1!?, threatening Rxb6.
16...Ng6 17.Bg3
An interesting alternative was 17.Nd5!?, possible because 17...cxd5? runs into 18.Bb5.
17...N8e7 18.d5 Bf7 19.Nb5!?
This is playable, but does not really achieve anything.
19...Bc5 20.Rac1 0-0 21.Nbd4 Kh8?!
It seems that better was ...Ne5, which was also good on move 19.
22.Bc4 Ne5 23.Nxe5 fxe5 24.dxc6 bxc6 25.Nb3 Bb6 26.Rfd1
White has completed development and has long-terms pressure on Black's centre.
26...Bh5 27.Rd2 a5 28.Qa3 Rad8!? 29.Bxe5 Rxf2 30.Kh1??
As an anonymous annotator in ChessBase's 2019 Mega database points out, White is fine after 30.Rxf2 dxe5 31.Nc5! Qd4 32.Nd3.
30...Rxd2 31.Bxg7+ Kxg7 32.Nxd2
White is a bishop down and has no real attack against Black's king. The remaining moves were:
32...Qa7 33.Qg3+ Bg6 34.Rf1 Bd4 35.Nf3 Qc5 36.Bb3 Rf8 37.h4 Be5 38.Qg4 Qe3 0-1
*I have been comparing play with two specialist books: Open Gambits: Italian And Scotch Gambit play by George Botterill (Batsford 1986) and Evans Gambit And A System Vs. Two Knights' Defense by Tim Harding (Chess Digest, 1991); and with two respected repertoire books: The Chess Advantage In Black And White by Larry Kaufman (McKay Chess Library, 2004) and Bologan's Black Weapons In The Open Games: How To Play For A Win If White Avoids The Ruy Lopez by Victor Bologan (New In Chess, 2014).
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