The First Unofficial World Champion: Paul Morphy!

Bonjour chessers! In honour of the Candidates Matches going on now, let's remember our very first (Unofficial) World Chess Champion, Paul Morphy. Only he and Bobby Fischer were World Champs from the United States. What country are you from? Are you going to be World Champ, too? Watch how Morphy so willingly sacrificed his pieces to lure his opponent just where he wanted him! By, Mrs Jessica E Prescott (aka BoundingOwl).

Morphy was known for sacking his pieces, but he always did CDC first!

Here is Morphy with white. Looking around the board, he noticed both loose and hanging pieces. Plus, black's king is trapped! Morphy is castled and his pieces are all protected, except one. Watch his forcing move and see if you can choose the next best move.

Now what is the queen no longer guarding?

Let's watch Morphy do it again! Here he made sure all his pieces were working together and black's king was wide open. Each move is check. Can you force the king down the board? Sac first!

Now the only thing left to do is set up a mating net. Play Kf2 to prepare for a checkmate with a pawn!!

In both of those games, Paul Morphy did 3 things:

1. He developed and castled before attacking.

2. He looked for loose and hanging pieces.

3. He made sure his pieces were coordinated (working together) before sacking!!

And voila! The recipe for checkmate is yours. Delicious.

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