The Playing Style of Paul Morphy

Morphy is chiefly remembered as a leading exponent of the Romantic school of chess, which focused on 1.e4 openings and dashing tactical and offensive play where opponents were often checkmated in under 30 moves. Morphy favored the usual chess openings of the day, particularly the King's Gambit and Evans Gambit (when playing as White) and the Ruy Lopez (when playing as Black). The Morphy Defense of the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6) is named after him and remains the most popular variant of that opening, although he seldom used the Ruy Lopez when playing the white pieces. Morphy could play positional chess when required to do so; however, he was not enamored of it, and his closed games, while competently played, exhibit none of the imagination of his open games. He was openly critical of the Sicilian Defense and 1.d4 openings for leading to dull games, and the only known instance where he used a Sicilian Defense was a game against Löwenthal in 1858.[38] During his tour of Europe, he included a stipulation that all matches must feature 1.e4 e5 openings in at least half the games.

Morphy can be considered the first modern player. Some of his games do not look modern because he did not need the sort of slow positional systems that modern grandmasters use, or that Staunton, Paulsen, and later Wilhelm Steinitz developed. His opponents had not yet mastered the open game, so he regularly played it against them; he preferred open positions because they brought quick success. He played open games almost to perfection but could handle any sort of position, having a complete grasp of chess years ahead of his time. Morphy was a player who intuitively knew what was best, and in this regard he has been likened to José Capablanca. He was, like Capablanca, a child prodigy; he played quickly and was hard to beat. In an era before time control was used, Morphy often took less than an hour to make all of his moves, while his opponents would need perhaps eight hours or more. Löwenthal and Anderssen both later remarked that he was indeed hard to beat, since he knew how to defend well, and would draw or even win games despite getting into bad positions. At the same time, he was deadly when given a promising position. Anderssen especially commented on this, saying that, after one bad move against Morphy, one might as well resign. "I win my games in seventy moves but Mr. Morphy wins his in twenty, but that is only natural ..." Anderssen said, explaining his poor results against Morphy.

Of Morphy's 59 "serious" games—those played in matches and the 1857 New York tournament—he won 42, drew 9, and lost 8.