Famous games

Seventeen moves, two noblemen, and an opera nobody watched.

Paul Morphy was twenty-one and had come to the Théâtre-Italien for the music. The Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard had a chessboard in the box. What followed is the most taught attacking game in chess, and it turns out to be a very good print.

White: Paul Morphy
Black: Duke Karl of Brunswick and Count Isouard, in consultation
Where: Paris, Théâtre-Italien, 1858
Result: 1–0 in 17 moves, checkmate

The Opera Game as a letterpress print in a black frame on a plaster wall

Letterpress, Cream. 50 × 70 cm, Classic frame in black. The whole game is set in notation under the board, the result in oxblood. Unframed €69, framed €159.

The game was played in a box at the opera, with Morphy’s back to the stage. Which opera was on is still argued over: most accounts say Rossini’s Barber of Seville, some say Bellini’s Norma, which the company had played a few weeks earlier. His two opponents consulted on every move and took their time; Morphy, who had come to listen, did not.

After eight ordinary moves the Duke and the Count had a cramped position and not much to do with it. Morphy gave a knight on move ten, then a rook on move thirteen, then on move sixteen his queen. Each gift pulled a defender off a square it needed. The last one, Qb8+, could only be taken by the knight, and when it was, the rook that was still on the board went to d8 with a bishop behind it. Mate.

Every piece White owned took part. Nothing was wasted, nothing came back. That is why the game is in every beginner’s book and why, drawn as a set of lines, it looks the way it does: a few long straight strokes converging on one square. On the print you can follow the whole attack with a finger.

A knight, a rook and the queen, given away in seven moves. The mate needed a bishop and the one rook that was left.

The moves

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 Bg4
4. dxe5 Bxf3
5. Qxf3 dxe5
6. Bc4 Nf6
7. Qb3 Qe7
8. Nc3 c6
9. Bg5 b5
10. Nxb5 cxb5
11. Bxb5+ Nbd7
12. O-O-O Rd8
13. Rxd7 Rxd7
14. Rd1 Qe6
15. Bxd7+ Nxd7
16. Qb8+ Nxb8
17. Rd8#

The turning point: 9...b5

The engine marks Black's ninth move as the one after which White's advantage runs away. The pawn push lets the knight land on b5 with check to follow, and every move from here is forced. On the Data story print this is the move named on the chart; in the film it is where the score changes.

The Opera Game, in four styles.

Each one is drawn from these 17 moves and nothing else. Choose a style and a colour preset, add a line for the person it is for, and we print it on 200 gsm matte paper.

Swiss style print of The Opera Game — **Swiss**Signal red. The names are the legend.Also Night, Cobalt

Generative style print of The Opera Game — **Generative**Night. The queen's path is the heaviest line.Also Ultramarine, Paper

Data story style print of The Opera Game — **Data story**Paper. The evaluation curve and 9...b5 named.Also Terminal, Slate, Archive

Letterpress style print of The Opera Game — **Letterpress**Cream. The notation set under the board.Also Library, Ledger

Unframed €49, €59 or €69. Framed €119, €139 or €159.30 × 40, 42 × 59 or 50 × 70 cm. Printed within 3 working days. Shipping included to the EU, the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Print The Opera Game Watch the film

The Opera Game, generative style, in a natural wood frame above a sideboard

More games with their own page.

Each one with the story, the move where it turned, the whole game to replay, and the print beside it.

The Game of the CenturyByrne vs Fischer, New York 1956

The Immortal GameAnderssen vs Kieseritzky, London 1851

The Evergreen GameAnderssen vs Dufresne, Berlin 1852

Kasparov's ImmortalKasparov vs Topalov, Wijk aan Zee 1999

Generative, Night. 50 × 70 cm, Classic frame in natural wood. €159.

Or start with your own game