country death_date death_place worldchampion birth_place birth_date birthname image article_title name
united states 10 july 1884 new orleans , louisiana , united states 1858 -- 62 -lrb- unofficial -rrb- new orleans , louisiana , united states 22 june 1837 paul charles morphy paulmorphyhair.jpg paul morphy
 paul morphy
paul morphy

paul charles morphy -lrb- june 22 , 1837 -- july 10 , 1884 -rrb- was an american chess player .
he is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial world chess champion .
he was a chess prodigy .
he was called `` the pride and sorrow of chess '' because he had a brief and brilliant chess career , but retired from the game while still young .
bobby fischer included him in his list of the ten greatest players of all time , and described him as `` perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived '' .
morphy was born in new orleans , louisiana , to a wealthy and distinguished family .
he learned to play chess by simply watching games between his father and uncle .
his family soon realized the boy 's talent and encouraged him to play at family gatherings , and by age nine , he was considered one of the best players in new orleans .
at just twelve years of age , morphy defeated visiting hungarian master johann löwenthal in a match of three games .
after receiving his degree in 1857 , morphy was not yet of legal age to practice law , and found himself with free time .
he received an invitation to play at the first american chess congress in new york city , and , at his uncle 's urging , accepted .
morphy won the tournament , which included strong players of the day , such as alexander meek and louis paulsen .
morphy was hailed as the chess champion of the united states and stayed in new york playing chess through 1857 , winning the vast majority of his games .
in 1858 , morphy travelled to europe to play european champion howard staunton .
morphy played every strong player in europe , usually winning easily .
the match with staunton never took place , but morphy was hailed by most in europe as the world 's best player .
returning to the united states in triumph , morphy toured the major cities playing chess on his way back to new orleans .
by 1859 , on returning to new orleans , morphy declared he was retiring from chess to begin his law career .
however , morphy was never able to establish a successful law practice and ultimately lived a life of idleness , living off his family 's fortune .
despite appeals from his chess admirers , morphy never returned to the game , and died in 1884 from a stroke at the age of forty-seven .
