Editing Paul Morphy (section)

==Style of play==
{{AN chess|pos=secright}}
With the White pieces, Morphy opted for [[King's Pawn Game|1.e4]] except in a few games played at odds. He favored gambits such as the [[King's Gambit]] and [[Evans Gambit]]. With the Black pieces, Morphy usually answered 1.e4 with [[Open Game|1...e5]]. In the [[Spanish Game]], the Morphy Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6), the most popular response for Black, is named for him. When playing against [[Queen's Pawn Game|1.d4]] as Black, he favored the [[Dutch Defense]] (1...f5), but also tried the [[Queen's Gambit Declined]].{{sfn|Sergeant|1957|pp=350-351|loc=Index of Openings}} In his notes to the games of the [[La Bourdonnais – McDonnell chess matches]] he criticized the [[Sicilian Defense]] (1.e4 c5) and [[Queen's Gambit]] (1.d4 d5 2.c4);{{sfn|Sergeant|1957|pp=24-25}} the only recorded instance of Morphy playing the Sicilian Defense as Black was during a game against Löwenthal in 1858.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Johann Jacob Loewenthal vs Paul Morphy (1858) |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1281902 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180402102018/http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1281902 |archive-date=April 2, 2018 |access-date=May 23, 2017 |website=www.chessgames.com}}</ref> According to [[Garry Kasparov]], {{blockquote|[Morphy] became the most erudite player of his time. Fluent in French, English, Spanish, and German, he read Philidor's ''L'analyse'', the Parisian magazine ''La Régence'', Staunton's ''Chess Player's Chronicle'', and possibly also Anderssen's ''Schachzeitung'' (at least, he knew all of Anderssen's published games). He studied Bilguer's 400-page ''Handbuch''—which consisted partly of opening analyses in tabular form, and also Staunton's ''Chess Player's Handbook''.{{sfn|Kasparov|2003|p=30}}}}

Morphy approached the game more seriously than even his strongest contemporaries. As Anderssen noted,{{blockquote|I cannot describe better the impression that Morphy made on me than by saying that he treats chess with the earnestness and conscientiousness of an artist. With us, the exertion that a game requires is only a matter of distraction, and lasts only as long as the game gives us pleasure; with him, it is a sacred duty. Never is a game of chess a mere pastime for him, but always a problem worthy of his steel, always a work of vocation, always as if an act by which he fulfills part of his mission.{{sfn|Lawson|2010|p=178|loc=quoting a letter from Anderssen to [[Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa|von der Lasa]], translated by Dr. Buschke}}}} While Morphy generally played quickly, he "knew also how to be slow, as in some of his match-games with Anderssen".{{sfn|Sergeant|1957|p=33}} Morphy played before the advent of time controls, and sometimes faced opponents who played very slowly. During the second game of their match in the First American Chess Congress finals, Paulsen required eleven hours for his moves.{{sfn|Lawson|2010|p=59}}

Löwenthal and Anderssen both later remarked that Morphy was very 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 (chess)|resign]].{{sfn|Lawson|2010|p=175}} Explaining his poor record facing Morphy, Anderssen said "[Morphy] wins his games in Seventeen moves, and I in Seventy. But that is only natural".{{sfn|Edge|1859|p=193}}