Paul Morphy played many of his attacking masterpieces at odds (a way of handicapping a chess game so that a weaker player begins the game with an advantage). The handicaps he gave to balance the game varied greatly. In most cases, the conditions for the game at odds were described by Howard Staunton’s in his treatise “The Chess Players Companion” which devoted a couple hundred pages to the art of properly handicapping a chess game.
In a blog post entitled “Winning Chess Moves: Morphy vs. Schrüfer, 1859”, I presented a chess puzzle from a beautiful finish that Morphy played at a dinner party in Paris. Today, we will look at the game Paul Morphy played against his dinner host at that occasion, August Ehrmann.
Originally from Strasbourg, August Ehrmann had a reputation for being an excellent chess player and also had a high enough net worth to allow for travel to different chess locales. While in Frankfurt, Germany, August Ehrmann was the strongest players in town and when in Paris, he frequented the Café de la Régence to seek out suitable competition. Ehrmann met Morphy at the Café de la Régence and invited his new friend to dinner.
Paul Morphy gave his generous dinner host a Pawn and Two Moves Odds. Morphy (black) removed his f7 pawn.
August Ehrmann played 1. e4 2. d4
The odds given seem to have been appropriate as August Ehrmann ended up with a draw against Paul Morphy. Morphy, who played quite accurately, seemed to lack his usual magic in this game.
That’s not to say Morphy didn’t play well, in fact, I believe his 11.… Nxf2! was brilliant and his 33… b4 followed by 34… Rd8 were quite instructive.
Ehrmann reacted well to Morphy and his exclaim worthy moves 37. Qh3!, 39. Nf3! and 40. Ng5+! nearly resulted in victory.
However, August Ehrmann missed his winning opportunity a few moves later when he played 43. Rxd2. Here, 43. Qg4! leads to a decisive advantage for white.
Below, is the complete game score. As always, I recommend for the reader to play through the moves on a physical chessboard to fully appreciate this instructive game.
[Event “Odds game”]
[Site “Paris FRA”]
[Date “1859.03.31”]
[EventDate “?”]
[Round “?”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[White “August Ehrmann”]
[Black “Paul Morphy”]
[ECO “000”]
[WhiteElo “?”]
[BlackElo “?”]
[Source “(London) Sunday Times, 1859.05.29”]
[PlyCount “112”]
[SetUp “1”]
[FEN “rnbqkbnr/ppppp1pp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq – 0 1”]
1.e4 — 2.d4 e6 3.Bd3 c5 4.dxc5 Qa5+ 5.c3 Qxc5 6.Ne2 Nc6
7.Be3 Qh5 8.f4 Nf6 9. Ng3 Qh4 10.Qe2 Ng4 11.Bf2 Nxf2 12.Qxf2
Bd6 13.e5 Bc7 14.Ne4 Qe7 15.Nbd2 O-O 16.Qg3 d5 17.Ng5 h6
18.Ngf3 Qf7 19.O-O Bd7 20.Nh4 Ne7 21.Bc2 Nf5 22.Nxf5 exf5
23.Rae1 b5 24.Kh1 Bb6 25.Qd3 a6 26.Bb3 Be6 27.Nf3 Rfb8
28. Nh4 Bd8 29.Nf3 Bb6 30.Bc2 g6 31.Re2 d4 32.b3 dxc3 33.Nh4
b4 34.g4 Rd8 35.Qg3 Kh7 36.gxf5 gxf5 37.Qh3 Rf8 38.Rg2 Rad8
39.Nf3 Rg8 40.Ng5+ Rxg5 41.fxg5 Qf8 42.gxh6 Rd2 43.Rxd2 cxd2
44.Qg2 Qxh6 45.Qb7+ Qg7 46.Qxg7+ Kxg7 47.Kg2 Bd4 48.Rd1 Bd5+
49.Kh3 Be3 50.Bxf5 Bf3 51.Bg4 Bxd1 52.Bxd1 Bf4 53.e6 Kf6
54.Bg4 d1=Q 55.Bxd1 Kxe6 56.Kg2 Ke5 1/2-1/2
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