Book Review: Paul Morphy: A Modern Perspective by Valeri Beim
A critical look at Morphy's play according to newer standards
This is a decent collection of games from Paul Morphy, arranged in chronological order and in two parts. The first part covers Morphy's career in America. The second part covers Morphy's tour of Europe.
The point of this book is to give a critical view of Morphy's play from the perspective of a modern-age grandmaster, so it's not as much a tour of Morphy's "best hits" as it is a look at how Morphy triumphed over his opponents, and also his limitations.
This was my first Morphy game collection book, but I'm not sure it should have been. The analysis is very thick, and Beim profusely quotes Kasparov's infamous very-computer-heavy lines from My Great Predecessors. It's not that I think earlier players (especially of the Romantic era of Chess) are above criticism; I think sometimes this criticism misses the point from a historical perspective. The fact that Morphy played like he did with competition like he had makes it inexplicable how he became so strong, but this book seems to miss the point.
I do think the games themselves, however, are very good and instructive, and there are some worthwhile critiques to take away -- you can really see the gap between Morphy as the premier positional exponent of the Romantic School and what would come later from Steinitz. Morphy disrespects pawns a lot, and his plans in closed positions were rather limited to full frontal assaults ASAP: in this sense he definitely represents the worst impulses of players who have learned from the Open Game to rely on tactics to solve all problems immediately.
I still think this could be a worthwhile read for certain students, but the level of analysis is rather dense for any neophyte trying to distill actual lessons from Morphy's play for the first time. I wouldn't read this unless you're around 1600 USCF or chesscom (maybe 1800 lichess). If you're under that, find something else. First Book of Morphy is one suggestion. Morphy: Move by Move, might be another.