What I am trying to say is that every player that his legacy still remains today is a truly great player regardless of what his current opposition was because each of those players helped soccer become what it is today, and for that they are remembered.

Paul Morphy was great player because his games cause people to love chess. I've seen hundreds of Kasparov games, but the first Morphy game I saw caused me to fall in love with the game. It is a feeling that drives people to say "Morphy was the best ever", not a rational analysis, no "metrics" system could ever get to the depth of romantic thought, inspiration or charisma as these are human qualities and not a mathematical counting process.

<Paulsen>, is it true IMO that people adore Morphy because of his reputation of the "American cavalier", but isn't that a truly great achievement? Would Kasparov, being born in 1837, would have managed to learn on his own, without the Botvinnik school or the Karpov match, everything he knows today? Would he travel on a ship, with bad health, for months at a time, to prove his greatness at such a young age to such unworthy opposition? Because this is what Morphy did, he used the knowledge of his contemporaries to crush them in such a way, that simply because of him crushing them, they are all remembered as weak, even including the great Anderssen, who produced such brilliancy as the "Evengreen game". This is a great legacy, how can chessmetrics process that?

I trust Fischer's opinion of Morphy more than I trust Reuben Fine's....They found so many errors in Fine's 'Basic Chess Endings' they practically had to write another book of corrections.>

[Event ""]
[Site ""]
[Date "2008.6.27"]
[Round ""]
[White "Cmorphy"]
[Black "Chessmaster"]
[TimeControl "300+3"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.O-O d6 7.d4 exd4 8.Qb3 Qe7 9.cxd4 Bb6 10.Nc3 Nxd4 11.Nxd4 Bxd4 12.Rd1 Qf6 13.Rxd4 Qxd4 14.Bb2 Kf8 15.Nd5 Qxe4 16.Qc3 Qg6 17.Bd3 Qg5 18.Qxc7 Bh3 19.Qxd6+ Ne7 20.Be4 Re8 21.Ba3 b5 22.Qc7 h6 23.Nxe7 b4 24.Bxb4 a5 25.Bd6 h5 26.Qc6 Rd8 27.Ng6+ Kg8 28.Be7 Qg4 29.Bxd8 fxg6 30.Bg5 Qxg5 31.Bxg6 Qxg2+ 32.Qxg2 Bxg2 33.Rd1 Kf8 34.Rd8+ Ke7 35.Rxh8 Bd5 36.a3 Kf6 37.Rxh5 Bb3 38.Bb1 a4 39.Rc5 Ke7 40.Rc7+ Kf6 41.Bc2 Bf7 42.Bxa4 Bh5 43.Bb3 Be8 44.a4 Bxa4 45.Bxa4 g5 46.Kg2 Ke5 47.Kf3 Ke6 48.Rc6+ Ke7 49.Kg4 Kd7 50.Kxg5 Ke7 51.f4 Kf7 52.Bb3+ Ke8 53.Be6 Ke7 54.h4 Kf8 55.Kf6 Ke8 56.Rc8# 1-0

Paul Morphy, the "Pride and Sorrow" of chess, gives us another outstanding performance in this game played in 1858. Al Horowitz considers this game in his "Golden Treasury of Chess" as "The most brilliant of Morphy"s masterpieces". For all you Morphy-lovers, enjoy.