Napoleon Marache vs Paul Morphy (1857) Two Knight's the Knight

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Napoleon Marache vs Paul Morphy
"Two Knight's the Knight" (game of the day Oct-18-2009)
New York (1857), New York, NY USA
Italian Game: Evans Gambit. Pierce Defense (C52) · 0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Given 214 times; par: 31 [what's this?]

explore this opening	find similar games	2 more N Marache/Morphy games
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Oct-12-16		Jimmy720: Development > Material

Apr-11-17		zanzibar: Fine, in his Middlegames book, has the finale of the game on p47, diagram 68. He attributes New Orleans as the site of the game (not NYC), and has White resigning after 19...Ng3 (a move he awards with !!!, in all modesty).

Aug-21-17		Xeroxx: Paul Morphy (?) 1 Inaccuracies 0 Mistakes 0 Blunders 12 Average centipawn loss

Oct-11-17		Phony Benoni: Just proves that Marshall was Better than Morphy. Marshall could sacrifice queens on g3. Morphy could only sacrifice knight.

Oct-11-17		patzer2: White's game starts to collapse after 7. e5? d5 ∓ (-1.18 @ 32 depth, Stockfish 8.) Instead, our Opening Explorer indicates White has had reasonable success with the popular tries 7. 0-0 = or 7. Qb3 =.

Oct-11-17		Magnus Kasparov: "Phony Benoni" Whereas Morphy sacs a knight to give immediate mate Marshall sacs a queen to transpose into a winning endgame. I prefer the former's simple technique over the latter's tedious performance.

Oct-11-17		wtpy: Should have known this game and maybe I did in another life. Took me several minutes to find the beautiful finish.

Oct-11-17		offramp: Today's GoTD is P Cramling vs A Galliamova, 1994, which has the title, <"Let's Call It a Knight">.

Oct-11-17		wtpy: Patzer2, If white plays 10 Ba3 inatead of Ng5 black has minimal advantage per Olga, who I have grown quitw fond of.

Oct-11-17		Cheapo by the Dozen: I found the solution pretty quickly, and was checking to see if I'd missed any responses. Then I glanced up to see that Black was Morphy. Pretty much the end of my checks. :)

Oct-11-17		saturn2: After 19..Ng3 the white queen is under attack and Nde2+ is threatened. So it costs white at least the queen. 20 Qe1 Nde2 21 QxN NxN

Oct-11-17		Cheapo by the Dozen: I guess White should have played 19 Qa4, but he still would have been well and truly lost.

Oct-11-17		Walter Glattke: 20.Qxd4 Ne2+ 21.Kh1 Rxd4

Oct-11-17		An Englishman: Good Evening: Perhaps too famous for a puzzle, but still fun to study. Not sure we can recommend the strategy of giving Morphy the odds of Queen Rook and Queen Knight.

Oct-11-17		saturn2: <I guess White should have played 19 Qa4, but he still would have been well and truly lost.> 19..Ne2+ 20 Kh1 NxBf4 attacks also g2 so black would remain a piece up.

Oct-11-17		theo77: Morphy forever

Oct-11-17		AlicesKnight: 19.... Ng3 exposes the white Q and controls e2. If 20.QxQ then Nde2 is mate, otherwise White must give up the Q to avoid it. Things fall apart with 18.Qc2 but were bad well before this.

Oct-11-17		sackman: Poor Napoleon....

Oct-11-17		Once: After yesterday's knight wibbling, today we have an over-excited bishop: 13...Ba3 14...Bxf8 15...Ba3 16...Bc1 17...Bf4 Meanwhile Morphy does that Morphy thing of getting all his pieces out. Tactics happen when you're better developed. The position just before the tactic is telling: click for larger view Black may be the exchange down, but he is several tempi ahead. All of his pieces are working whereas white has two sleeping rooks and an inactive QN. More than that, both of Morphy's knights have taken a step away from black's third rank. That means that they are now within striking distance of the white king. And we have a monster passed pawn. Sure, Morphy's opponents don't play well, but even so this is witchcraft.

Oct-11-17		sudoplatov: Edo ratings has Marache at 2266 or 84th in the world based on 21 games. Edo has Morphy at 2802 or 1st worldwide based on 266 games.

Oct-11-17		claudi: 19...Knight g3 means give me your Qween or I will mate your King.

Oct-11-17		morfishine: A famous position & game, perhaps too famous <19...Ng3> *****

Oct-11-17		patzer2: <Once> Good comment about Morphy's recognition that his more active pieces with two pawns for the exchange was winning for Black. Indeed, in playing 11...Bf5! -+ (-2.72 @ 31 depth, Stockfish 8) Morphy must have seen the coming skewer 13. Ba3 and realized he was winning after 13...Qg6 14. Bxf8 Qxg5 -+ (-2.87 @ 30 depth, Stockfish 8.) Today, that's Pretty standard stuff for Experts and Masters. However, in Morphy's day it must have seemed like magic, especially to his opponent.

Oct-11-17		cocker: A bolt from the blue.

Oct-11-17		matvox: What if white played pawn to f3, simultaneously protecting the queen and opening an escape hatch for the king?

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