Paul Morphy

Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. During his brief career in the late 1850s, Morphy was acknowledged as the world's greatest chess master.
A prodigy, Morphy emerged onto the chess scene in 1857 by convincingly winning the First American Chess Congress, winning each match by a large margin. He then traveled to Europe, residing for a time in England and France while challenging the continent's top players. He played matches with most of the leading English and French players, as well as the German Adolf Anderssen—again winning all matches by large margins. In 1859, Morphy returned to the United States, before ultimately abandoning competitive chess and receding from public view.
Due to his early exit from the game despite his unprecedented talent, Morphy has been called "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess". This epithet has often been credited to Sheriff Walter Cook Spens, chess editor of the Glasgow Weekly Herald, but it is unclear when it first appeared in print.
Morphy was born in New Orleans to a prominent wealthy family. His father Alonzo Morphy, of Spanish and Irish ancestry, was a lawyer. He later served as a Louisiana state legislator, Attorney General, and a Louisiana State Supreme Court Justice. Morphy's mother, Louise Thérèse Felicitie Thelcide Le Carpentier, was a musically talented woman from a prominent French Creole family. Paul grew up in an atmosphere of cultivated, genteel civility, where chess and music were the typical highlights of a Sunday home gathering.
Sources differ about when and how Morphy learned to play chess. According to his uncle, Ernest Morphy, no one formally taught the young Morphy how to play chess; rather, he simply learned by watching others play. After observing Ernest and Alonzo abandon what had been a lengthy game, conceding that it was a draw—Paul spoke up, stating that Ernest should have won. This surprised the two men, who had not realized that Paul knew the rules of the game, let alone any notion of strategy. They were even more surprised when Paul proved his claim by resetting the pieces and demonstrating the win his uncle had missed. Biographer Frederick Milnes Edge dismisses this anecdote as apocryphal, however. In 1845, Ernest acted as the second for Eugène Rousseau in his match against Charles H. Stanley, and took the young Paul along with him.
By 1846, the nine-year-old Morphy was considered one of the best players in New Orleans. That year, General Winfield Scott visited the city while on his way to the war with Mexico. He informed his hosts that he wanted to spend an evening playing chess against a strong local opponent. While he only played infrequently, Scott enjoyed chess and considered himself to be a formidable player. The arrangements were made, and a game was set up after dinner. When Morphy was brought in, Scott initially took offense to a child being offered as his opponent, believing he was being made fun of. However, after being assured that his wishes had been scrupulously obeyed, and that Morphy was a chess prodigy who would prove his skill, Scott agreed to play. Morphy easily defeated Scott in both of the games they played, ending the second game by announcing a forced checkmate after only six moves.
During 1848 and 1849, Morphy competed against the leading players in New Orleans. He played at least fifty games against Eugène Rousseau, considered to be the strongest of Morphy's opponents during this era, and lost at most five. In 1850, Hungarian chess master Johann Löwenthal visited New Orleans. Löwenthal, a refugee of the Hungarian revolution of 1848, had visited various American cities and competed successfully against the best local players. He accepted an invitation to Judge Morphy's house to play against Paul, now twelve years old. Löwenthal soon realized he was facing a formidable opponent: each time Morphy made a good move, Löwenthal's eyebrows shot up in a manner described by Ernest Morphy as "comique". Löwenthal played three games against Morphy during his stay in New Orleans, with sources recording him as either having two losses and one draw, or as losing all three games.
Beginning in 1850, Morphy played relatively little chess for a number of years, instead focusing on his education. Diligent in his studies, he received a bachelor's degree in 1854 from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, with his graduating thesis detailing what he saw as the narrow logical limits on justifications for war and secession by the southern states. He proceeded to spend an additional year on campus studying mathematics and philosophy, and in May 1855 was awarded a master's degree with the highest honors.
Morphy went on to study law at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University), receiving an LL.B. degree on April 7, 1857. It has been claimed that Morphy memorized the complete Louisiana Civil Code during the course of his studies.
Not yet the required age to practice law, Morphy found himself with free time after graduation. That year, he received an invitation to participate in the First American Chess Congress, to be held from October 6 to November 10, 1857, in New York. Morphy initially declined, but later changed his mind at the urging of Alexander Beaufort Meek, a judge and close family friend. The main event of the Congress was a 16-man knockout tournament, with each round consisting of short multi-game matches contested by the opponents. Also competing was the strong German chess master Louis Paulsen, who was already aware of Morphy's talent, and said openly beforehand that he would be the tournament's victor. Moreover, while the competition was underway Paulsen repeatedly stated that if Morphy were to visit Europe, he could prove his status as the game's greatest living player. As predicted by Paulsen, Morphy defeated James Thompson in the first round, his family friend Meek in the quarter-finals, the German master Theodor Lichtenhein in the semifinals, and ultimately Paulsen himself in the finals, to win the tournament's grand prize.
After his victory, Morphy was immediately hailed as the chess champion of the United States, but he appeared to be unaffected by his sudden fame. According to the December 1857 issue of Chess Monthly, "his genial disposition, his unaffected modesty and gentlemanly courtesy have endeared him to all his acquaintances." While staying in New York during the fall of 1857, Morphy played 261 games, both with and without odds. In regular games, Morphy's overall record was 87 wins, 8 draws, and 5 losses.
Also in 1857, Morphy founded the Chess Club of New Orleans, becoming its first President. Early in the following year, he was recruited by Daniel Fiske to serve as co-editor of his Chess Monthly publication, a position he held until the end of 1860.
Up to this time, Morphy was not well known or highly regarded in Europe. Despite his dominance of the American chess scene, the quality of his opponents was relatively low compared to Europe, where most of the best chess players lived. European opinion was that they should not have to make the journey to the United States to play a young and relatively unknown player, especially as the United States had few other quality players to make such a trip worthwhile.
Morphy returned to his home city with no further action. The New Orleans Chess Club determined that a direct challenge should be made to European champion Howard Staunton.
Staunton made an official reply through The Illustrated London News, stating that it was not possible for him to travel to the United States and that Morphy must come to Europe if he wished to challenge him and other European chess players.
Eventually, Morphy went to Europe to play Staunton and other chess greats. Morphy made numerous attempts at setting up a match with Staunton, but none ever came through. Staunton was later criticized for avoiding a match with Morphy, although his peak as a player had been in the 1840s and he was considered past his prime by the late 1850s. Staunton is known to have been working on his edition of the complete works of Shakespeare at the time, but he also competed in a chess tournament during Morphy's visit. Staunton later blamed Morphy for the failure to have a match, suggesting among other things that Morphy lacked the funds required for match stakes—a most unlikely charge given Morphy's popularity. Morphy also remained resolutely opposed to playing chess for money, reportedly due to family pressure.
Seeking new opponents, Morphy crossed the English Channel to France. At Paris's Café de la Régence, the center of French chess, Morphy soundly defeated resident chess professional Daniel Harrwitz. While there, he also defeated eight opponents in blindfolded simultaneous exhibitions.
In Paris, Morphy suffered from a bout of gastroenteritis. In accordance with the medical wisdom of the time, he was treated with leeches, resulting in his losing a significant amount of blood. Although too weak to stand up unaided, Morphy insisted on going ahead with a match against the visiting German master Adolf Anderssen, considered by many to be Europe's leading player. The match between Morphy and Anderssen took place between December 20, 1858, and December 28, 1858, when Morphy was still only 21 years of age. Despite his illness Morphy triumphed easily, winning seven while losing two, with two draws. When asked about his defeat, Anderssen claimed to be out of practice, but also admitted that Morphy was in any event the stronger player and that he was fairly beaten. Anderssen also attested that in his opinion, Morphy was the strongest player ever to play the game, even stronger than the famous French champion La Bourdonnais.
Morphy gave numerous simultaneous exhibitions in both England and France, sometimes while blindfolded, in which he regularly played and defeated eight opponents at a time.
Still only 21 years old, Morphy was now quite famous. While in Paris, he was sitting in his hotel room one evening, chatting with his companion Frederick Edge, when they had an unexpected visitor. "I am Prince Galitzin; I wish to see Mr. Morphy", the visitor said, according to Edge. Morphy identified himself to the visitor. "No, it is not possible!" the prince exclaimed, "You are too young!" Prince Galitzin then explained that he was in the frontiers of Siberia when he had first heard of Morphy's "wonderful deeds". He explained, "One of my suite had a copy of the chess paper published in Berlin, the Schachzeitung, and ever since that time I have been wanting to see you." He then told Morphy that he must go to Saint Petersburg, Russia, because the chess club in the Imperial Palace would receive him with enthusiasm.
Morphy offered to play a match with Harrwitz, giving odds of pawn and move, and even offered to find stakes to back his opponent, but the offer was declined. Morphy then declared that he would play no more formal matches, with anyone, without giving at least those odds.
In Europe, Morphy was generally hailed as world chess champion. In Paris, at a banquet held in his honor on April 4, 1859, a laurel wreath was placed over the head of a bust of Morphy, carved by the sculptor Eugène-Louis Lequesne. Morphy was declared by St. Amant "the first Chess player in the whole world". At a similar gathering in London, where he returned in the spring of 1859, Morphy was again proclaimed "the Champion of the Chess World". He may also have been invited to a private audience with Queen Victoria. At a simultaneous match against five masters, Morphy won two games against Jules Arnous de Rivière and Henry Edward Bird, drew two games with Samuel Boden and Johann Jacob Löwenthal, and lost one to Thomas Wilson Barnes.
Upon his return to America, the accolades continued as Morphy toured the major cities on his way home. At the University of the City of New York, on May 29, 1859, John Van Buren, son of President Martin Van Buren, ended a testimonial presentation by proclaiming, "Paul Morphy, Chess Champion of the World". In Boston, at a banquet attended by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Louis Agassiz, Boston mayor Frederic W. Lincoln Jr., and Harvard president James Walker, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes toasted "Paul Morphy, the world's Chess Champion". Consumer products including the "Morphy Hat" and the "Morphy Cigar" were named for him, as was the Morphy Baseball Club in Brooklyn.
At the New York testimonial dinner, Morphy made an assessment of chess that has been widely paraphrased:
Nowadays this may seem ironic or even paradoxical in light of Morphy's dedication to chess. But at the time, Morphy's remarks did not cause surprise.
Morphy was engaged to write a series of chess columns for the New York Ledger, which started in August of 1859. They consisted primarily of annotating games of the La Bourdonnais – McDonnell chess matches of 25 years before, plus a few of Morphy's own games. The column ended in August of 1860.
After returning home in 1859, Morphy intended to start a career in law. He did not immediately cease playing serious chess; on a visit to Cuba in 1864, he played a number of games with leading players of that country, including Celso Golmayo Zúpide, the champion, all at odds of a knight. For the rest of his life, Morphy would not compete in another tournament or serious match without odds, a stipulation he would stress repeatedly.
Morphy was late to start his law career, not having done so by the time the American Civil War broke out in 1861. His brother Edward had joined the army of the Confederacy at the very beginning of the war, while his mother and sisters had emigrated to Paris. Not much is known about Morphy's Civil War service; David Lawson cites contemporary reports that Morphy had briefly been on the staff of Pierre Beauregard, as well as being seen at the First Battle of Manassas. Lawson also recounts a recollection by a Richmond resident in 1861 describing Morphy as being "an officer on Beauregard's staff". Other sources indicate that Beauregard considered Morphy to be unqualified, but that he had indeed applied for a staff position. During the war, he spent time both in New Orleans and abroad, spending time in Havana (1862, 1864) and Paris (1863).
After the war, Morphy remained unable to build a successful law practice. According to records, Morphy attempted at least three times to open and advertise a law office, with each endeavor ultimately being abandoned. It has been speculated that his celebrity as a chess player worked against him, overshadowing his attempted practice. Financially secure thanks to his family's fortune, Morphy essentially spent the rest of his life in idleness. When asked by admirers to return to chess competition, he refused. In 1883, Morphy encountered Wilhelm Steinitz on the street while Steinitz was visiting New Orleans, but declined to discuss chess with him.
Morphy showed signs of deteriorating mental health in his final years. By 1875, his mother, brother and a friend tried to admit him to a Catholic sanitarium, but Morphy was so well able to argue for his rights and sanity that they sent him away. Morphy had shown signs of a persecution complex; he sued his brother-in-law, for example, and tried to provoke a duel with a friend. Hertan notes that it is not easy to determine just when this behavior began, or what might have triggered it, but gives as an example some incidents described in a letter by Charles J. Woodbury to The Hartford Times in 1873. By 1879, according to a letter to the Cincinnati Commercial from a Dr. L. P. Merideth, Morphy was talking to himself and responding to imaginary salutations.
Ernest Jones published an article of psychoanalytic discussion of Morphy. Reuben Fine published a longer article in which Morphy was mentioned. Both articles have been criticized for the use of unreliable historical sources.
Fine wrote that Morphy "arranged women's shoes into a semi-circle around his bed", and this has been widely copied and embellished upon. But it is a misquotation from a booklet written by Morphy's niece, Regina Morphy-Voitier. She wrote:
Fine incorrectly claimed that the shoes described were women's shoes instead of Morphy's own. But in any case, Hertan dismisses the psychoanalytical studies:
On the afternoon of July 10, 1884, Morphy was found dead in his bathtub in New Orleans at the age of 47. The cause of death was described as congestion of the brain brought on by entering cold water after a long walk in the midday heat. A lifelong Catholic, Morphy was buried in the family tomb in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, Louisiana. The mansion was sold by the family in 1891, and later became the site of the restaurant Brennan's.
With the White pieces, Morphy opted for 1.e4 except in a few games played at odds. He favored gambits such as the King's Gambit and Evans Gambit. With the Black pieces, Morphy usually answered 1.e4 with 1...e5. In the Spanish Game, the Morphy Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6), the most popular response for Black, is named for him. When playing against 1.d4 as Black, he favored the Dutch Defense (1...f5), but also tried the Queen's Gambit Declined. In his notes to the games of the La Bourdonnais – McDonnell chess matches he criticized the Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5) and Queen's Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4); the only recorded instance of Morphy playing the Sicilian Defense as Black was during a game against Löwenthal in 1858. According to Garry Kasparov,
Morphy approached the game more seriously than even his strongest contemporaries. As Anderssen noted,
While Morphy generally played quickly, he "knew also how to be slow, as in some of his match-games with Anderssen". Morphy played before the advent of time controls, and sometimes faced opponents who played very slowly. During the second game of their match in the First American Chess Congress finals, Paulsen required eleven hours for his moves.
Löwenthal and Anderssen both later remarked that Morphy was very hard to beat, since he knew how to defend well and would draw or even win games despite getting into bad positions. At the same time, he was deadly when given a promising position. Anderssen especially commented on this, saying that, after one bad move against Morphy, one might as well resign. Explaining his poor record facing Morphy, Anderssen said "[Morphy] wins his games in Seventeen moves, and I in Seventy. But that is only natural".
Garry Kasparov posited that Morphy's historical merit lay in his realizing the relevance of three principles that would be vital in later analysis of the game: rapid development, domination of the center, and creation of open files. These principles were only formulated in the theoretical work of Wilhelm Steinitz a quarter-century later. Kasparov maintained that Morphy can be considered both the "forefather of modern chess" and "the first swallow – the prototype of the strong 20th-century grandmaster". World champions Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, and Max Euwe have stated that Morphy's play was far ahead of its time. Euwe moreover described Morphy as "a chess genius in the most complete sense of the term".
Bobby Fischer ranked Morphy among the ten greatest chess players of all time, and described him as "perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived". He noted that "Morphy [...] had enormous talent", and stated that he had the talent to defeat top players of any era. Reuben Fine disagreed with Fischer's assessment: "[Morphy's] glorifiers went on to urge that he was the most brilliant genius who had ever appeared. [...] But if we examine Morphy's record and games critically, we cannot justify such extravaganza. And we are compelled to speak of it as the Morphy myth. [...] He was so far ahead of his rivals that it is hard to find really outstanding examples of his skill... Even if the myth has been destroyed, Morphy remains one of the giants of chess history."
Morphy is mentioned in Walter Tevis's 1983 novel The Queen's Gambit, as well as in the 2020 miniseries adaptation produced by Netflix, as the favorite player of Beth Harmon, a chess prodigy and the novel's protagonist. Morphy is also referenced in the 1955 James Bond novel Moonraker by Ian Fleming.
Games at odds, blindfold games, and consultation games are not listed.
Morphy defeats his main rival in the First American Chess Congress. Notes are excerpted from those by Kasparov.
During Morphy's stay in Paris, he played a casual game at the Italian Opera House against the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard. While Morphy's opponents were not the strongest, this later became a well-known game due to its beauty and instructive value, often used by chess teachers to demonstrate how to use tempo, develop pieces, and generate threats.
In the ninth game of their match, Morphy launches a sacrificial attack against Anderssen's Sicilian defense, winning in 17 moves. Notes are excerpted from those by Kasparov.