Paul Morphy (1837–1884): playing style, games and openings

Unofficial world's best player, 1858. Decades ahead of his time on development and open lines: he brought pieces out fast, opened the position and punished opponents who didn't.

1837–1884 · Known for: Rapid development & open lines · 211 games in the collection

Explore Paul Morphy's games in the analyzer Compare with your own games

Playing style: Attacker

Goes for the king: checks, pawn storms and opposite-side castling, and willing to give material for the initiative.

Aggression 88 / 100

Risk-taking 100 / 100

Endgame bias 11 / 100

Solidity 32 / 100

Simplification 56 / 100

These scores come from the 211 games used for the style profile (classical-length games), measured the same way the analyzer measures your own games.

Results

Paul Morphy scored 170 wins, 18 draws and 23 losses (85% score) in 211 games.

With White: 121 wins, 6 draws and 9 losses (91% score) in 136 games.
With Black: 49 wins, 12 draws and 14 losses (73% score) in 75 games.

Favourite openings

As White

Italian Game: 36 games, 93% score
King's Gambit: 31 games, 90% score
Sicilian Defense: 12 games, 92% score
Two Knights Defense: 9 games, 100% score
Ruy Lopez: 9 games, 83% score
French Defense: 8 games, 100% score

As Black

Italian Game: 17 games, 76% score
Ruy Lopez: 16 games, 75% score
King's Gambit: 9 games, 67% score
Philidor Defense: 8 games, 75% score
Dutch Defense: 5 games, 90% score
Petrov's Defense: 4 games, 50% score

A famous game

The Opera Game (Morphy, Paul vs Duke Karl Count Isouard, 1-0, 1858) — replay it move by move and see Stockfish's verdict.