Editing Paul Morphy (section)

==Legacy==
[[Garry Kasparov]] posited that Morphy's historical merit lay in his realizing the relevance of three principles that would be vital in later analysis of the game: rapid {{chessgloss|development}}, domination of the {{chessgloss|center}}, and {{chessgloss|open lines|creation of open files}}. These principles were only formulated in the theoretical work of Wilhelm Steinitz a quarter-century later. Kasparov maintained that Morphy can be considered both the "forefather of modern chess" and "the first swallow – the prototype of the strong 20th-century grandmaster".{{sfn|Kasparov|2003}} World champions Kasparov,{{sfn|Kasparov|2003}} [[Viswanathan Anand]],<ref name="in.rediff.com">{{Cite web |title=The Grandmaster on his ten greatest chess players |url=http://in.rediff.com/millenni/anand.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031120152003/http://in.rediff.com/millenni/anand.htm |archive-date=November 20, 2003}}</ref> and [[Max Euwe]] have stated that Morphy's play was far ahead of its time. Euwe moreover described Morphy as "a chess genius in the most complete sense of the term".{{sfn|Beim|2005|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NpcftSbUA_EC&dq=paul+morphy+chess+genius&pg=PT360 360]}}

[[Bobby Fischer]] ranked Morphy among the ten greatest chess players of all time,<ref name="Fischer's Top 10">{{Cite magazine |last=Fischer |first=Bobby |author-link=Bobby Fischer |date=January–February 1964 |title=The ten greatest masters in history |url=https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fischer4.html |magazine=Chessworld |volume=1 |pages=56–61 |number=1 |access-date=July 8, 2020 |archive-date=December 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224073719/http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fischer4.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and described him as "perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived".<ref name="Fischer's Top 10" /> He noted that "Morphy [...] had enormous talent",<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 4, 2006 |title=Speaking about Fischer... |url=http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3468 |website=ChessBase |access-date=January 22, 2008 |archive-date=June 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090630034818/http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3468 |url-status=live }}</ref> and stated that he had the talent to defeat top players of any era.<ref name="Fischer's Top 10" /> [[Reuben Fine]] disagreed with Fischer's assessment: "[Morphy's] glorifiers went on to urge that he was the most brilliant genius who had ever appeared.&nbsp;[...] But if we examine Morphy's record and games critically, we cannot justify such extravaganza. And we are compelled to speak of it as the Morphy myth.&nbsp;[...] He was so far ahead of his rivals that it is hard to find really outstanding examples of his skill... Even if the myth has been destroyed, Morphy remains one of the giants of chess history."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fine |first=Reuben |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rWYK2rOi8dAC&pg=PA22 |title=The World's Great Chess Games |year=1976 |publisher=Dover |isbn=978-0-486-24512-6 |language=en |pages=22–23}}</ref>

Morphy is mentioned in [[Walter Tevis]]'s 1983 novel ''[[The Queen's Gambit (novel)|The Queen's Gambit]]'', as well as in the 2020 [[The Queen's Gambit (miniseries)|miniseries adaptation]] produced by Netflix, as the favorite player of [[Beth Harmon]], a chess prodigy and the novel's protagonist.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lehmann-Haupt |first=Christopher |date=1983-03-01 |title=Books Of The Times |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/01/books/books-of-the-times-261335.html |access-date=2023-12-13 |issn=0362-4331}}{{pb}}{{Cite news |last=McClain |first=Dylan Loeb |date=2020-11-03 |title=I'm a Chess Expert. Here's What 'The Queen's Gambit' Gets Right |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/arts/television/chess-queens-gambit.html |access-date=2023-12-13 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Morphy is also referenced in the 1955 [[James Bond]] novel ''[[Moonraker (novel)|Moonraker]]'' by [[Ian Fleming]].<ref name="Fleming">{{cite book|first1=Ian|last1=Fleming|author-link=Ian Fleming|title=Moonraker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zph_XxHy4AAC|year=1955|publisher=[[Random House]]|isbn=9780099576877|chapter=The Quickness of the Hand|series=[[James Bond]]}}</ref>