On Thursday, October 8, Thompson resigned his third game with Morphy after forty-six moves, and two hours and thirty-six minutes of play. Now Morphy advanced to the second section. Later that day he played side games with H. P. Montgomery, Louis Paulsen, and James Thompson, winning all games, the last given here in facsimile of Morphy’s writing.
Lawson then gives the game as recorded by Morphy himself. The reader can click the picture at the left and see an example of Morphy's neat handwriting. A modern politician could accuse Lawson of ignoring "the elephant in the room" when he declares this game played after the tournament game. Clearly, Morphy noted at the top of the score that this is game 3 of the CI or Congress I.
It is hard to explain Morphy writing this heading for a game that, according to Lawson, was played after he had already beaten Thompson in game 3 of their match. Also surprising is that Morphy recorded an offhand game at all. He was known for simply remembering such contests and dictating them at a later time. One possibility is that D.W. Fiske simply made a mistake in the tournament book. The volume was long delayed and was eventually published in September 1859, nearly two years after the Congress. Perhaps the two games played on the same day by the same opponents were simply filed in the wrong place. Is the short game (Shibut 125) really the tournament game? Is the longer game (Shibut 003) actually a casual game? This explanation, however, would not seem to be correct as both Lange and Löwenthal had the shorter game at a time when the official tournament games were being withheld pending publication of the tournament book. Morphy approved the Löwenthal collection and he must have been sure that Shibut 125 would not be in the Congress book as a tournament game.A better explanantion is that Shibut 125 was played before Shibut 003 which was published as the actual tournament game. Thompson played poorly and as Löwenthal noted:
The termination of this game is pretty, and it was solely on that account that we included it in our selection, as it otherwise presents few points of interest
Could it be that, given the poor quality of play and short nature of the game, Morphy allowed Thompson to play the third game again? Could the players have turned in their second game played that day (Shibut 003) as their tournament game? We may never know for sure but at the very least the exact date of Shibut 125 is known.
[Event "Unofficial Games From the 1st ACC"]
[Site "New York, USA"]
[Date "1857.10.08"]
[Round ""]
[White "Thompson, James"]
[Black "Morphy, Paul C"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C52"]
[Opening "Evans gambit"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.Qb3 Qf6 8.O-O d6 9.e5 dxe5 10.cxd4 exd4 11.Nbd2 Nge7 12.Bb2 O-O 13.Ne4 Qg6 14.Bd3 Bf5 15.Nh4 Qh5 16.Nxf5 Nxf5 17.f4 Rfe8 18.Rf3 Nb4 19.Ng5 Nxd3 20.Qxd3 Qg6 21.Rh3 Re3 22.Qb5 Rxh3 23.Qxb7 Re8 24.Nxh3 Bb6 25.Rf1 Ne3 26.f5 Qg4 27.Nf2 Qe2 28.Rb1 Nd1 0-1
Game Sources:
Lange - Game XIII
Löwenthal - Page 397
Maroczy - Game 054
Sergeant - CLXXVII
Shibut - Game 125
Date Source:
Lawson, page 58
4 comments:
The MyMorphy.pgn contains 6 games between PM and JT (Shibut numbers)
# ?? src white won
125 Oct 57 jt pm
126 Oct 57 jt pm
127 Oct 57 jt pm
001 Oct 6 57 Maroczy jt pm
002 Oct 7 57 Maroczy pm pm
003 Oct 8 57 Maroczy jt pm
So we have six recorded games and a sheet of paper that states Morphy won eight games of Thompson. Most sources state that the match games are 1,2,3 - but it is sure hard to ignore that elephant.
If game 125 is the 3rd match game then the date is derived from that fact not necessarily because it was dated so. If so, then was the date on game 3 assumed because it was believed to be the third game of the match?
I agree that I find it hard to believe Morphy bothered to record an offhand game and more difficult that he would title it Game 3. It was a tournament so I do not seeing him offering to decline a win and give Thompson another shot. I guess that I could be of the opinion that everyone has overlooked the fact that #125 is
actually a match game and #3 was the offhand game. As far as Lawson mentioning 46 moves and the time one would need to know if the information was also on the score
sheet (does not appear to be) or by notes taken by Edge or another secretary. That would mean the time was associated to the wrong game and the 46 moves is because of the chosen game. However, Game 1 was 21 moves and lasted 1 hour so it would seem unlikely that the third game if it were #125 with 28 moves could have lasted 2 hours
and fifty minutes. So it must be the 46 move game??? Of course, Paulsen could have disguised himself as Thompson and only played 28 moves.
Then there is the fact that Lowenthall published #125 before the 1st ACC by Fiske.
It is difficult to know which is true beyond a doubt, but Morphy's hand writing on that score sheet is certainly reason to cast some doubt on the historical record.
According to Lawson, there are two Thompson games on the 8th. The tournament game (Shibut 3) and the offhand encounter (Shibut 125). See no reason to doubt that those two games were played that day, though possibly reversed. You don't think so? Not sure what the question is...
The blog tries to point out something odd happened. Perhaps Thompson said "Tournament game? Oh, I thought we were just warmimg up!" or maybe the two started the 2nd game quickly and, it being a much higher quality game, they submitted the longer game. Maybe with Fiske's approval?
I see that heading on what is suppose to be a casual game. It does raise a good question, but nobody without some original source is going to change the historical record. That said, I do feel that there is a strong possiblity that some games were mixed up. Maybe the same day maybe not. Why didn't Lawson address it? He must have seen it. Who knows maybe he left it for us to sort out. I can go with Lawson's date - I just wouldn't consider it a real solid reference.
I think they are the same day. Morphy writes 3rd game for the header and that dates it on the 8th. The other game has an exact time, the match ended on the 8th and Morphy is known to have played Thompson another game that day. It was likely submitted as the tournament game. The reason I believe this is true is that the shorter score was apparently published somewhere else because Löwenthal and Lange put it in their collections. Morphy could have given Löwenthal the score but not Lange. Likely it was in some newspaper because I didnt see it in TCM.
To sum up, I am keeping the traditional classification of these two games on the Morphy File because it appears the participants actually submitted the longer game by mutual agreement. I speculate that it didn't matter to Morphy which win was submitted, while Thompson looked better in the higher quality game. As always, I await further information but its the only reasonable explanation I can think of at this time.
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