Game 42 in Philip W. Sergeant’s Morphy’s Games of Chess (1916), printed pages 93–94. Commentary from this edition; named earlier annotators remain credited in the notes. Second game of the 1858 Harrwitz match. The source gives the playing time as five and one-half hours.

1. 4.Qxd4 Compare Games XXVII, XLIV, XLVI, and LXVII; and see note on XX, move 4.
2. 7.Bg5 Lasker speaks of White’s B as an agent provocateur, tempting Black to attack it with 7..P—B3, which is inferior to Harrwitz’s move here. See Game XLIV.
3. 8.Nc3 It has been much disputed whether White should have played 8 B×Kt, and if Q×B; 9 Q×Q. Morphy’s preference for keeping his Queen can be readily understood.
4. 13.e5 This hardly seems good, leading to a shattered K side, without sufficient compensation in attack.
5. 15.Kb1 With all deference to J.L., 15 P—B4 is better.
6. 18.Ree1 Two alternatives suggest themselves: 18 QR—K1; and 18 P—KB4, the latter being Maroczy’s recommendation, to hinder the retreat of the Black Queen. Morphy, however, wants to use the open Kt file.
7. 24.Nh5 24 R—Kt6, Q—K2; 25 R—K6, R—Q1 leads to nothing for White. The text-move and 26 P—R3, however, are part of a fruitless combination, which Black meets without difficulty, proceeding then to cut off the Knight.
8. 26.a3 Making a flight-square for his King, and threatening 27 R×Kt, Q or R×R; 28 R×Pch, etc. But, as Black has an answer to this, the move merely wastes time. 26 Q—B3 is better.
9. 37.Qe1 This made Harrwitz’s third successive win against Morphy (see Game CCXXV below). Steinitz says that “no satisfactory explanation is given” how Morphy lost this game. 13 P—K5 had much to do with the loss; so had the Knight’s manœuvre on the KR file.