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Paul Morphy vs Johann Jacob Loewenthal
New Orleans 1850  ·  Russian Game: Cozio (Lasker) Attack (C42)  ·  1-0


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Kibitzer's Corner
Sep-09-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  lostemperor: This is the other game Morphy won against Loewenthal. Btw. the match was just before his 13th birthday.
Aug-18-05   ThaDoctor: i think that Morphy is the first Big legend (as far as i know of), and i think he is the biggest :) this game is a good prove
Aug-18-05   RookFile: Well, Anderssen played the Immortal Game.
Dec-01-05   Chopin: Morphy beats Loewenthal, who himself was a great player.
Jan-10-06   morpstau: morphy crushed anderson 7-2 and morphy was coming off his sickbed from a fever!
Jan-21-08   JimmyVermeer: I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned this, but Philip Sergeant claims this game was a draw, not a win for Morphy (Game CXLVI in his book). He gives Morphy's 55th move as Kc4, followed by 55...Kc6 56 Rh5 Bg1 57 Rh6+ Kb7. If Sergeant's account of the game is correct (which he claims he got from Lowenthal himself), then perhaps what was posted here was just wishful thinking on the part of someone who idolizes Morphy to the point of disallowing him to make such a blunder.

I will likely post more on this later.

Jan-21-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Calli: <JimmyV> It has been discussed extensively elsewhere on CG. To make a long story short, Lowenthal published a bad score. This was proven conclusively by David Lawson in his book. He points out that the correct score was, in fact, published by Morphy's uncle in the newspaper long before Lowenthal somehow made it into a draw.
Jan-22-08   JimmyVermeer: hm, I haven't read Lawson's book. Was Lowenthal just a liar then, or did he honestly think this game was drawn? Where on CG was this discussed, if not in this game's forum? Never mind, I found it in another Morphy-Lowenthal game. Odd. Was Morphy's 55th move actually a6? I find it very strange that Lowenthal would deliberately lie about the outcome of this game - no matter how grievous his blunder in the game was, lying about it was an even bigger blunder.
Jan-22-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  tamar: He may have just forgotten, as there was some confusion on whether to call it a draw or not. It was a difficult period of his life, travelling about a country meeting local chess heroes.

No one could have imagined that his casual games against a 12 year old boy in the Creole section of New Orleans would be discussed 157 years later.

Jan-22-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Calli: Your reaction is much the same as my own first thoughts about the matter. Even now its difficult to explain Lowenthal publishing the game as drawn in a collection authorized by Morphy. There was no way that he would not be found out.

The only reasonable explanation is that Lowenthal confused the game with a another game that was drawn. There was a third game in 1850 that was drawn. Morphy considered it "unpublishable" according to Maurian because of mistakes by both players. In 1856, Lowenthal made a statement that he could not remember whether he played 2 or 3 games with PM in 1850. My guess is that he decided that he drew one and lost one. He may have looked at his notes which perhaps included a blunder variation and mistook it for the actual score. So, in his mind, he was publishing all of his games with Morphy, one loss and one draw. The real score was previously published in NY and London so he could have easily verified the moves.

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