Chess Games for Beginners

Video Transcript

"Hi, Fritz Gaspard, Chess Teacher at Chess In The Schools in New York City. Chess games for beginners; today I'd like to demonstrate the most famous Chess game ever played; played in the 19th century by Paul Morphy, one of the greatest players of all time. It actually was a casual game; another tournament game. He took on two players at the same time, the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard in Paris in 1858. Let's take a look at the game. Morphy had white; in the first move was a pawn from E2 to E4, controlling the center and allowing the bishop to leave F1 and the Queen to leave D1. Black responded with a pawn from E7 to E5. Morphy capitalized right away and attacked the pawn with a knight to F3, attacking the pawn on E5. The Duke and the Count defended the pawn by moving the pawn from D7 to D6 and Morphy continued putting pressure on this pawn on E5 and attacked by pushing the pawn to D4. The Duke and the Count moved their bishop to G4 to pin the knight; so the knight is not effectively attacking the pawn on E5 anymore. Morphy captured the Pawn on E5; the Duke and the Count captured the knight on F3 and Morphy captured with his queen on F3. And now the players playing black, recaptured the pawn on E5 and the position for the moment seems equal but Morphy is on the attack. He quickly moves his bishop from F1 to C4 and you may notice that the bishop and the queen are combining to attack the pawn on F7. So the players playing black must defend up 7. They bring their knight out to F6 which interferes with the queen and Morphy not want to be deterred, slid the queen from F3 to B3. Now the bishop and the queen are acting like a battery and they are attacking the pawn on F7. Black defended up 7 by moving the queen to E7. You may notice, notice that the queen is defending the F7 square but it's also blocking the bishop on F8 and that will tell later on. Now Morphy developed the knight to C3, defends the pawn; it gets a new piece into the game. The players playing black realizes the queen is also attacking the pawn on B7 which Morphy could have captured earlier but decided not to. He wanted the stronger attack. So they moved their pawn on C6. And now the queen is defending the pawn on B7 and the pawn on F7. The queen has a bit of a work. Queen shouldn't typically be defending pawns in Chess. They should be attacking. Morphy moved his bishop to G5 to pin the knight. If the knight would have moved, the queen would be lost; the bishop would capture it. And to relieve some pressure the players playing black moved the pawn from B7 to B5 to attack the bishop. There are actually expecting Morphy to move the bishop back; maybe to F2 or E2 rather or to D3. The problem is that they don't have any pieces out on the attack. All their pieces; all of the developed pieces, the knight, the queen are defensive pieces. Now Morphy realized that it was a good opportunity at this point to attack. So he captured the pawn on B5; black recaptured and Morphy is giving up a knight for two pawns. Bishop takes on B5; it's checked to the king. The king is now in trouble; in danger. Morphy has three pieces on the attack. Black still has two pieces defending. They didn't want to move their king over because once you move your king over in Chess, of course you're unable the castle and the king was sort of be just stranded in the center and easier to attack. So they block the checked with a knight. The knight on B8 blocked the check and Morphy decided to put more pressure on the knight by castling on the queen side of the board, on the long side; this side of the board. And now the rook on D1 is putting pressure on the knight on D7; the knight is pin by the bishop. So the Duke and the Count used their rook to protect the knight and Morphy realizes that he has most of his pieces in plate; the two bishops, the queen, the rook on D1. The rook on H1 is not doing anything and it needs a job and Morphy put it into place quickly as possible. Most players would probably bring the rook this way and lift it up later; but Morphy quickly capture the knight on D7. The rook captured back; because if the knight takes, the bishop will take the queen and of course as the queen takes on D7, the bishop on D5 will take the queen. So the rook on D8 captured on D7 and now the last heavy duty piece comes into the game, the rook goes to D1. Of course this rook is pinned so the Duke and the Count moved the queen up to try to exchange queens but it's too late. Morphy has figured out the checkmate. The captured on D7; checked to the king. The knight on F6 captured on D7 and now Morphy had a well-planned queen sacrifice to end it all. Queen to B8 checked; the knight must capture the queen and now the rook on D1 goes all the way up to D8, checkmate, game over and this is known as the Morphy checkmate pattern. It's a perfect game for beginners to learn because you basically learn how to attack with all of your pieces. You learn to safeguard your king and you learn how to take advantage of players who leave their king in the center of the board."