Evening star., 1898-10-15
MoRpHY's VISIT TO ENGLAND.
Sensation Created by the American
Chess Expert.


The following published in the London
Press shortly after Morphy's arrival in
that country in 1858 will no doubt prove
interesting reading to the followers of the
game of chess i'll this generation:
The chess world Gor chess world there
is, although it is seldom brought into con-
tact with any other of the fifty worlds into
which society is so curiously cross-diVided)
has received an impulse sufficient to arouse
it from its usual medtative tranquility.
general chess onfagration seems TO be kim
ding just when the political and the fash
ionabie world begin 10 pale their ineffec-
tuaI fires in the approaching dawn of the
recess The matches which have produced
this startling effect are not of the Lucifer
order, but will burn longer and more stead
lily than the patent night lights or Palner's
best stearine. To convey views in a
more familiar metaphor, Mr.. Morphy, the
champion of the American chess is in the
field and prepared to joust with all comers.
And putting aside match with Mr. Lowen-
thai (now pendlng) and another with Mr..
Staunton also the tapis, the event of
neither Of which can We assume to pre-
Judge thus far has kept his ground trt-
Gmphantly. Though occasionally beaten. he
has scored considerable majority of games
against every player whom he has en-
countered, including several of our first
Eng giish celebrities. And this with gal
lery or strangers, and at the age of twen-
ty-one. When a few months since read
of the appearance of an American phenom-
enon (our present visitor, who was to whip
all creation in the chequered field, We con
fess we felt somewhat skeptcal. The Ian
guae OF the west is singularly tinged with
oriental hyperbole, and putting under the
auspices of Mr.. Barnum has attained the
dignity of a science We thought of the
Feejee mermaid and woolly horse-of the
hunter who could whip his weight in wild
cats, and of the mare whose rapid transit
past successive milestones gave the coun-
fi,1rtn
yard. Even the report of the New York
chess congress, where the young amateur
from New Orleans won, unless our memory
fails us, eighty-one games out of eighty
four. did not completely dispel our preju-
dices. The games were brilliant, but they
were played chiefly against third-rates
with whom 1t might be safe to take liber-
ties. So daShing style would perhaps
prove fatal when dried against wary vet
Grams, trainel In defense and tenacious of
the smallest advantage once gained. Such
were our previous impressions and those
of many abler 3udges-impressions not des-
tttute of some prior probability. But we
were nistaken-~we confess 1t, frankly and
dehberately-utterlyr and absolutely mis-
taken. Mr.. Morphy{ needs no aid either of
yarn whole cloth eve adopt the latest
American metaphorsD to establish his claims
as an extraordinary genius III his own line.
This is no place for discussing the value of
chess, either as recreation or as a test
of intellectual power. Enough to say, that
its living votardes are legion, including
many men dixie Messrs. Staunton and
Buckle now the first names of English
chess) of high literary or professional dis
tinction, and that 1t is historically asso-
ciated with recollections of Charles XII,
Napoleon and other
Dead but sceptered m ,narchs who still
rule
Our spirits from their mns''
Our present purpose is to claim for our
distinguished visitor, as a gifted and ac-
complished chess playe-, the praise to
which he Is entitled in tn At character even
from the non-chess play ing world. Not
to put too fine point tn it, Dickens
would say, the qualificai ions requisite for
excellence in chess playing are principally
four:
1. Inventive power. for original combina-
GonS.
2. Power of analysis, sem chiefly in work.
ing out the possible results of a given posi-
tion
g. Temperament, word which we pur-
posely use vaguely.
4 Memory.
OF course, It Is easy to except to this