In 1858, the American prodigy Paul Morphy attended a performance of The Barber of Seville at the Italian Opera in Paris. Between acts he played a casual game against two amateurs — the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard — consulting together against him. The result became the most famous teaching game ever played.

Play through the game

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Morphy vs. Duke of Brunswick & Count Isouard, Paris 1858

8
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a1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
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17.
1-0 White wins
Start

What the game teaches

Morphy’s whole strategy can be summarised in one sentence: develop your pieces toward the enemy king, and do not stop to grab material when you can gain time instead.

Rapid, purposeful development

By move 9 every one of Morphy’s minor pieces was active, while his opponents had moved their queen and a bishop and little else. Each move created a threat that forced a reply, so Black never got a turn to catch up.

  • Knights and bishops came out toward the centre on their first move.
  • The queen entered only when it created a concrete threat.
  • He castled to connect his rooks before launching the final blow.

Help your pieces so they can help you. — the principle every beginner is taught using exactly this game.

The sacrificial finish

The combination from move 15 is the payoff. Morphy gives up his bishop and then his queen — material he never needed — because the real currency of the position was time and coordination, not points. The final 17. Rd8# is delivered by the two pieces he developed earliest.

Why it still matters

Over 160 years later, the Opera Game is still the first annotated game most players study, because it isolates a single idea so cleanly. Every modern attacking plan is a more complicated version of what Morphy did here in seventeen moves.