The Legend: Paul Morphy - GM Ben Finegold - 2014.12.18

Grandmaster Ben Finegold pays tribute to his favorite player ever, former unofficial World Champion Paul Morphy. See how the first great American player outclassed his opponents, all while sacrificing pieces and starting a rook down.
Morphy vs Charles Le Carpentier, New Orleans (1849): C44 Scotch gambit
Morphy vs James McConnell, New Orleans (1849): C40 Greco defence
James McConnell vs Morphy, New Orleans (1850): C02 French, advance variation
Morphy vs. NN, ? (1850): C57 two knights defence, Fegatello attack, Polerio defence
Morphy vs Charles Maurian, New Orleans (1857): C37 King's Gambit Accepted, Ghulam Kassim gambit
Morphy vs Thomas Herbert Worrall, New York (1857): C37 King's Gambit Accepted, Ghulam Kassim gambit

[@jason666king]

GM Finegold has the perfect mix of cocky, funny, and instructive. I love this guy.

[@ELMO7TARAMQ8]

i agree :)

[@kevincastro6670]

That's Mister GM Finegold to you

[@Ianuarius]

He's also grandmaster in dad jokes.

[@thakurv1]

D rider

[@dtouey]

"It's not clear how he got good." That's actually an extremely interesting question.

[@patrickmoloney672]

Extremely suspicious I think.

[@SynsityGW]

Some people's brains are just wired for chess. It's really strange but there are some people who can just look at a board and understand it in a way that we could never even imagine.

[@TheClassicWorld]

It's very clear. He was a genius.

[@larslowther1495]

Obviously used an engine

[@Cyber_Elf_Elpizo]

A time machine

[@kenney9120]

Paul Morphy won because he was not only a brilliant tactician, but also understood development and controlling the center. He was a player ahead of his time.

[@SahnigReingeloetet]

Morphy understood material better than most modern grandmasters. One of the, if not THE best attacking players of all time imho

[@Dante-fe6dm]

Morph was not get and master

[@innosanto]

He was not only ahead he was a century ahead and if he played up to 30y maybe would be 150 y ahead.

[@DarshanSenTheComposer]

'And then he died... Coz that's what happens when u r born 1837.'-GM Ben Finegold

[@yadasampatidasa8690]

And it is still happening ...

[@Prachtbart]

Xdddddd dudes hilarious

[@eastweymouthchris]

I have watched most of the Finegold lectures and only now realized Ken West is not a GM.

[@longlivelife3173]

Haha I think most would keep that to themselves!

[@munibzain1966]

Wait, What!!???

[@PriveGitaarles]

Me too

[@red_l6634]

Ken west is not a gm he is an idea

[@stewartprice553]

Ken West is a force of nature and a dream made flesh. His greatness transcends norms.

[@PriveGitaarles]

Morphy was also well known for his subtle intense smile appearing during a lot of his middle games realizing he still had his rook on a1

[@eyezuel5307]

no way really??

[@BruskAwat]

"If you play g5 check, suggested by Ken West in his head ..." Killed me!

[@gunther-herbertv.7317]

I thought about g5 while he said that... I felt personally attacked.

[@dannygjk]

ikr XD

[@aaronmkari]

If I taught a Legends class, it would be on GM Ben Finegold.

[@JimmyLundberg]

Yes! And the lecture is all about teaching his rules. "Never play f3, always play Bf1, never trade, always play Kb1" etc etc. Oh and most importantly: "Never try."

[@J_Tramel]

Jimmy Lundberg And of course allways play C4.... Because it's explosive.

[@JimmyLundberg]

double question mark

[@halovalo4247]

Aaron Kari terrible

[@thijsyo]

Knife f5

[@jamesvargas3619]

So i was reading the wiki page out of curiosity. Morphy only ever played on and off. Never had any formal training. never a day in his life took the game seriously. He never played competitive matches due to his families moral code against gambling. Stopped playing all but entirely as he went to u of louisiana. Graduated early (because obviously hes a fucking genius) and had some 'free time' on his hands before he hit the minimum age for a legal servant, so he just decided to go become world chess champion? Im speechless.

[@RonaldYengwayo]

Unofficial WCC*

[@bashbrannigan]

He did play some serious chess, but there weren’t many to play in those days. He won the serious games as well.

[@garrettohyeah7365]

he played serious games, just never accepted money for winning

[@byahnesh]

Got into chess about a month ago, trying to learn as much as I can but most informative videos are just so boring. This guy gives good ideas, humiliates you for bad ideas, and is hilarious if you appreciate his sort of comedy. Well done

[@Musicrafter12]

Ben: "He's threatening mate. Which one is it, Ken?" - "That one" "Correct"

[@Agingacio]

The guy who play with Morphy and Stainitz was Anderssen.

[@dgmisal1979]

Agustin Ronconi and most impressively, Andersson got better than ever after playing Morphy.

[@liammcooper]

Eyyy, my 19th century chess trivia is still solid

[@renehenriksen1735]

Wasn´t his name Adolf Anderssen? And wasn´t he from Germany? If I remember correctly it was him who played "The Immortal Game" and "The Evergreen Game", where he played such sharp openings as the King´s gambit and the Evans-gambit. Both games was with White I think.

[@Blaisem]

I knew this because I watched the other Morphy video here from Finegold, which he made a few months before this one and he talks about Anderssen, Stainitz, and Morphy

[@jodybarnes9466]

Anderssen was my thought as well. He was a pure tactician...making him a beast against players of the time...but meant he'd have no consistent shot against Morphy, who had an understanding of position and strategy.

[@brewmaster270]

I like the humor Ben Finegold. People who don't appreciate Paul Morphy don't understand chess.

[@BobbyMack]

I love how I have no idea who Ken West is, but Finegold shits on him every lecture, so I have this image in my head of him being an awful player.

[@gaming2top759]

+bobbyfearfactor not just an awful, but also the one who is playing for long time and does not really improve :D

[@liver1865]

+BTDroad 2TOP I wonder why he is called 'Grandmaster' Ken West. :):):):):):):D

[@thekkl]

+Ryan Zheng I think sarcasm.

[@liver1865]

Yeah, that's what I meant

[@joseluisparreno4999]

Hahahaha good!

[@somebodyelse5784]

And Ben Finegold is the Paul Morphy of chess lecturers. Great stuff, as always!

[@juampixx]

Morphy was pure talent and it is talent in what we have to think if we want to compare him with today's players, if we bring morphy to the present day in order to be fair we should fill his brain with today theory or if we pick any gm from the present and take him or her to the past we should empty gm's head of theory and once we've done that see who is better.

[@dannygjk]

Exactly.

[@sylver76]

Morphy might never have become the attacking genius he was if someone had feed him thousands of computer lines, canned defenses and ready made draws. And all the time modern players spend on preparing computer lines and studying old games could have been spend on developing their own lines. We know without the shadow of a doubt that Morphy was brilliant, but we can't compare him to modern players because the scene has changed too much for a valid comparison.

[@Smallpastures1]

17:37 "Oh, Kc6? I missed that. Okay. But that blocks the knight, that's ridiculous." He was messing with that dude, right? That's a mate in one with Nd8. Moments like this are why Finegold is my favorite lecturer.

[@gameronshinozuke790]

Morphy: most entertaining chess player Ben finegold: best entertainer when talking with peeps

[@brucewillis542]

thanks for this video ben, I've been working towards seeing thousands of moves ahead ever since watching this.

[@ensoberbecer]

I really like his lectures. Good stuff.

[@facespaz]

What a treat to come across this! Morphy's my favorite and Ben's always fun to watch, so glad this exists.

[@bernardtassart7225]

Man, funny and instructive, fiercely enjoyed it!!!! greetings from Belgium 🍻 thank you very much for your lesson

[@macboran8939]

Thanx to GM Finegold for mixing humour n teaching helps me remember alot n thanx to the producer Ben Simon for giving us access to the videos keep up the good work👏👏👏

[@vasilievitsch5613]

I never thought that it was possible to hear about Vasilios Kotronias at a lecture about Paul the First.. Nice presentation btw, thanks GM Finegold :)

[@Maddolis]

A new Finegold lecture on Morphy? Sweet!

[@capt.malickbilal1554]

Thanks!

[@peteralainszpiriev4750]

THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!!!!! YOU KNOW SOMETHING important Morphy know everithing

[@000TheOtherGuy000]

theres 2 reasons why I watch chess club & SCoSL videos: to get better in chess and to laugh about ben's jokes :-) thank you..!! waves from switzerland...

[@dylanperry377]

I didn't like him when I first seen one of his lectures, but then I started to notice that his trash talk isn't malicious. And even though he is corny, he seems like a good, humble, honest, funny guy.

[@scarscrews]

First 10 minutes without a game, only Ben speaking, luv it

[@gregorygranger4298]

Your "Legends of Chess Lecture Series" are outstanding! ~ Thanks GM Ben!

[@vallishabm9434]

great presentation style.... and sense of humor...

[@lolololololololol11]

GM Finegold is hilarious. Always puts me in a good mood.

[@xdplaya87]

17:38 for those of you that don't know: answer to ..Kb6-c6, is Nf7-d8#

[@AbdulHameed-bg7jy]

still watching these in 2019

[@azcoolazu]

i cant belive how many times ive seen this

[@ericmcdonough6771]

BEN if you read this please never stop.

[@rick4400]

You make the best presntations. Not only do you know your stuff really well, but you are hilarious.

[@wasreallygoodnikka]

I'd like to see a game between Morphy vs GM Ken West ;)

[@Guitare_picking]

This guy is so funny ! I love this !

[@-_Nuke_-]

Ben you are a legend!

[@Foxhound3857]

"He likes to retreat, like any frenchman." Man, a lot of trash talking goes on in St Louis.

[@siLence-84]

Common joke about the French..

[@Remyfication]

And its getting old...

[@fess04]

Fantastic stuff....the thing that struck me ....was the accuracy of Paul Morphy.......calculating through to mate leaving captures and avoiding seemingly powerful short term advantages while making his moves in the face of weaker opposition is the kind of thing computer engines do routinely against weaker human opponents.....only there were not computers then calculating with brute force or enjoying the breath of a data base to work from. back then............or were they (cue twilight zone theme : ).....there is no question given recorded history.....that he was well ahead of his time....great lecture Mr Finegold.....

[@ganeshankrishnamurthy6317]

Super 💯 explained

[@wfcyellow]

I totally love the somewhat obscure but brilliant Simpson's reference, "Put it in H" !

[@scowell]

I know Ben is a font of all arcana Simpson... but I thought he copped this one from GingerGM.

[@SVP-uy9qb]

I love this guy

[@freshboots_77]

Very instructive even with Ben's sarcasm overload...lol. I genuinely feel that GMs before the age of computers are not given enough props. Unbelievable stuff from Morphy.

[@MrSupernova111]

Paul Morphy was such a beast! By far the best player of all time when compared to his peers.

[@eliezerferrieri]

Great Comment i love Paul Morphy

[@12jswilson]

The first game showed was against his uncle. What a beating to receive from your nephew.

[@leadnitrate2194]

Khal Draco? Is that a GoT reference?

[@12jswilson]

@@leadnitrate2194 it's a combination of several different fandoms, including GoT.

[@liver1865]

Love Finegold !!!

[@xanbex8324]

Shit stopping brillant commentaries by the wonderful Mr. ben....love his patter...love his jokes...yeah....

[@misterkefir]

ahh.. what a shame that the bronstein lecture is unavailible! I really like his style, and I bet gm finegold showed some awesome moves and combinations of his.. Well, you can't have everything I guess.

[@MrFartyman44]

wow these games are cool

[@slavicamastilovic8771]

queen e8 was mate also in second position when he block check with queen to f6. Anyway very good video :D

[@robertcooper1952]

I really enjoy GM Finegold's down-to-earth humorous style of presentation.

[@brianzhou8278]

Nice!

[@AguNorris]

21:33 - Ben: "White resigned" - Sweet-ass crowd: "Ooooowww :("

[@connormonday]

I wish Ben Finegold would write a book about Paul Morphy's games

[@bernard9823]

Finegold is like really funny and he's got stories.

[@GaeasBlessing]

28:32 "They're like _'Wow, a pawn_! Wow!'" LOL! I almost choked to death on my sandwich laughing at that. GM Finegold is seriously hilarious. He should do stand up.

[@rgsliwa8298]

Morphy employed most of the pieces if not at all in the attack. Its amazing and something too be considered.

[@Langfish25]

excuse me Ben, imma let you finish, but Beyonce made the greatest video of all time. The greatest video of all time.

[@brianred7146]

Rotfl!

[@dannygjk]

lol XD

[@basehead617]

"Well, he is setting up for the next game" LOL

[@altair91100]

Mr. Ben is funny, would love to meet him :D

[@liver1865]

+altair91100 ME TOOO!!!!

[@Spiritbro77]

I was really looking forward to the Bronstein Lecture! Please post it!

[@STLChessClub]

Spiritbro77 Sorry, but it wasn't recorded.

[@Spiritbro77]

That's a shame. He's my favorite chess master. Oh well. Can't go back in time to record something.... Merry Christmas to everyone at the Chess Club!

[@MainlineNovelty]

Morphy could, he has a time machine...

[@patrickmoloney672]

First thing I read this morning. Today is a good day.

[@TheArabKnight1]

more Finefold please ..

[@puttaloo]

Hello GM Finegold, I like your lectures and am a great fan of your teaching. One lesson that stuck with me from your lessons is 'use all your pieces'. Below is a game where I used all my pieces(sacked most of them, dare I say Morphy style) , and checkmated my opponent, who didn't move three of his pieces. I know the game is 'very suspicious' , but I thoroughly enjoyed playing it, thanks to you. [Event "Live Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.01.06"] [White "puttaloo"] [Black "Dan-27"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "1475"] [BlackElo "1550"] [TimeControl "30|0"] [Termination "puttaloo won by checkmate"] 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 h6 4.d4 g5 5.Bc4 Bg7 6.b3 c6 7.Ne5 Bxe5 8.dxe5 b5 9.Bxf7+ Kxf7 10.Qh5+ Kg7 11.Bb2 Qe7 12.Nd2 Qe6 13.Nf3 c5 14.O-O-O Kf8 15.Rd6 Qe8 16.Qg4 Rh7 17.Nxg5 hxg5 18.Qxg5 Qf7 19.Rf1 Rg7 20.Qd8+ Qe8 21.Rxf4+ Rf7 22.Rxf7+ Kxf7 23.Rf6+ Nxf6 24.Qxf6+ Kg8 25.e6 Qxe6 26.Qg7# 1-0

[@rockerrider7197]

That was a record lecture judging by the number of times he referred to this Ken West guy )

[@user-ve6xr9zl2l]

unsurpassed chess beauty !!!

[@OMADRevolution]

Morphy truly was the greatest!

[@juanjuzgadoibiza558]

My favourite player that ever lived is ben Finegold

[@user-gi4re7hh5u]

Morphy😘💪💪💪💪💪

[@dgmisal1979]

Murphy didn't hate chess after 1859. He just had no competition. And as for his disregard of chess as a profession... I wrote a paper on this in my PhD program. It was a common thing in the mid 19th century. Chess was considered akin to whist.

[@innosanto]

Is whist not good? It is a simplified bridge? What is wrong with whist? Oh you mean it was considered passtime activity?

[@hsuilung8960]

Morphy was a machine

[@parthsexperiments7366]

Besttttttttttt videooooooooo everrrrrrrrrrr

[@parthsexperiments7366]

Thank u

[@sahilkhatri4182]

Hey, anyone new watching here ?? I see comments form 6-4 years ago...

[@burleyboys3788]

Comedy gold, finegold!

[@Hasdarubal]

In the Seargent(?) book there are two consultation games with Morphy/ someone VS. Staunton/ someone. Morphy's side wins both games and you can sort of tell Morphy is calling the shots. They are very interesting games.

[@giriiyer3968]

Morphy/Barnes vs Staunton/Owen. One game is available but the other is not Anyway in my opinion Staunton was quite poor quality even by the 1858 standards. It was a correspondence game which Morphy side won. It wasn't such a good game,and May be a bit funny,as Staunton was not all that good. Of course,imo alone.

[@DreamyJives]

more Ben Finegold!!!

[@scottdouglas935]

There IS a rating system for backgammon, (4:50) it's called Performance Rating (PR). It measures, on average, how much a player loses per move as compared to eXtreme Gammon. (BG program). For instance Mochy is about 2.5., so he's 97.5% perfect.

[@brucknerian9664]

Great presentation on Morphy ... I agree, the best there ever was, but I'm not too sure how he'd come out against a Fischer..

[@eliezerferrieri]

I allow myself two corrections: the date of the match Morphy-Maurian and 1857 and the match attributed to Thomas Herbert Worrall in reality he was never in New York in 1857 it is about some other opponent this match was played during the 1st american Chess Congress and Worral was never there

[@wmichaelbooth]

That's a great mate in the first game.

[@ja734.]

Hey, in the last game, isnt it R4f3? With R1f3, it makes no sense because after h5 black could play Nxf4, and after Bg4 white could just play Rxg4 both instantly winning. It makes sense if the rook is on f1 in stead of f4 though.

[@Greg_Ulmer]

Yeah, Ken West!

[@tomarintomarin9520]

I like the outro song

[@Michealgallardo98]

at 15:28 Nf5 loses to Qb4+ Nd2 hxg5, very suspicious

[@moondigit007]

"Dude this is too easy let me play you as _enjamin or _eingold!!?".All Morphy's games are chess lectures in themselves ,superbly instructional.

[@morfi3395]

Morphy is a chess legend!

[@EGarrett01]

This actually reminds me of ChessNetwork's Thunderhorse tournament videos. Down a piece, opponent plays awful and gets mated quickly, funny comments, on to another game.

[@giroppa99]

Damn it, Ken West!

[@Belfor09]

Those games are awesome. Just sacrificing all of pieces and still win. Also.. Ben Finegold FTW Also.. Class dismissed

[@altair91100]

+Belfor09 I love games from 19th century, they are so dynamic, brilliant and beautiful. Grandmasters' games nowadays are like 35 moves, nothing happens, then someone ends up with an extra pawn and his opponent resigns, meh

[@KARTIKEYA007]

+Nerian I bet you cant find the combos which morphy used to find in the 1800s, implying that u would also get smacked by him.

[@KARTIKEYA007]

***** Professional chess players would be complete shit without computers and no chess theory to learn from. Morphy had no theory at all to study but still made the best moves according to engines, you can check out the game in engine of today and see that many of his moves were top recommendations. In other words, if a person today becomes 3300 rating when all others are around 2800, then he would be considered a genius, same was with morphy. He was MUCH higher rated than all of his opponents that why he is considered a genius. Engines today completely beat any super GM in all games(black / white). Engines are considered to be around 3300 elo. So does that mean that the super GMs of today are bad?? does it mean that? no. It's just that the conventional chess wisdom of today cant see the complexities which engines manage to see. Some day crossing 3000 would be easier but that wont mean that carlsen etc will become bad.

[@TheClassicWorld]

+KARTIKEYA007 In fact, Morhpy never once opened a single chess book! True genius. Greatest chess player of all time, by far. Really just like the Leo of chess.

[@Bobobhehe]

ciri :3

[@christopherjohnson1873]

How confident can we be that there aren't tons of losses of Morphy's that were just never recorded?

[@TheErdnuss007]

depends on what you mean by tons, but yes he didnt win every game

[@EarthSurferUSA]

As a beginner, I so much enjoy watching a good game to the end. I hate draws, and I hate retirement. I hate it when a game is ended and I have no idea why. Maybe they don't play to the end anymore, so we can't "reverse engineer", (for the lack of a better phrase), what they were thinking to achieve the end? I can't stand watching grand master games today. They all quit. The "end game" has been eliminated,----AND THAT IS THE BEST DAMN PART!!!!!!! :)

[@shenbapiro1036]

I could beat morphy if he didn't have atleast one of his pieces That piece is the king.....

[@4pm462]

how are you checkmating him if he doesnt have a king

[@hamidurrahman8736]

If Ben was not drunk, for sure he wanted to say, that piece was the Queen

[@noahstonemusic]

So you would lose?

[@danytzvi861]

if you think you can win at chess when your oponent doesnt have a king then you will have a tough time with morphy haha

[@Slywolf1992]

Poor Ken West gets absolutely BTFO in every Finegold lecture and I love it.

[@oneputtsteven]

A prize for the most King moves! LMAO!

[@mamihappy206]

Feb 18,2021 from philippines

[@Ronbo710]

Ben slays me.

[@connormonday]

#StayStrongKen