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Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 - July 10, 1884) is considered to have been the strongest chess player of his time and unofficial World Champion from 1858 to his retirement the following year. Perhaps more importantly historically, he was the first American after Ben Franklin to be recognized as the pre-eminent world figure in an intellectual field.
Morphy was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to a wealthy and distinguished family. His father, Alonzo Michael Morphy, was a lawyer, state congressman, state attorney general, and finally state Supreme Court justice of Louisiana. Morphy's mother, Louis Therese Felicite Thelcide Le Carpentier, was the musically talented daughter of a prominent French Creole family.
According to Morphy's uncle, Ernest Morphy, no one formally taught Morphy how to play chess. Ernest Morphy wrote that Morphy as a young child learned on his own from watching the game played. Morphy's uncle recounted how Morphy, after watching one game for several hours between his father and his uncle, told his uncle afterwards that he should have won the game. The uncle and father were surprised, as they didn't think that young Morphy knew the moves, let alone any chess strategy. They were even more surprised when Morphy proved his claim by resetting the pieces and demonstrating the win his uncle had missed.
After that Morphy was recognized by his family as a precocious chess talent. Taken to local chess activities and allowed to play once a week at family gatherings on Sundays, Morphy demonstrated his innate ability in contests with relatives and local players. By the age of nine, he was already considered as being one of the best players in New Orleans. In 1846, General Winfield Scott visited the city, and let his hosts know that he desired an evening of chess with a strong local player. Chess was an infrequent pastime of Scott's, but he enjoyed the game, and considered himself a formidable chess player. After dinner, the chess pieces were set up, and Scott's opponent was brought in: nine-year-old Morphy, dressed in a lace shirt and velvet knickerbockers. Seeing the small boy, Scott was at first offended, thinking he was being made fun of; but when assured that his wishes had been scrupulously obeyed, and that the boy was a chess prodigy who would tax his skill, Scott consented to play. To General Scott's surprise, Morphy beat him easily; not once, but twice, the second time the boy announcing a forced checkmate after only six moves. Two losses against such an infant was all General Scott’s ego could stand, and he declined further games and retired for the night, never to play Morphy again.
In 1850, the professional Johann Löwenthal visited New Orleans, and could do no better than General Scott. Löwenthal played three games with Morphy during his New Orleans stay, losing two and drawing the third.
After 1850, Morphy did not play much chess for a long time. Studying diligently, he graduated from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama in the spring of 1855. He then was accepted to the University of Louisiana to study law. He received a law degree in 1857, in preparation for which he is said to have learned the Louisiana Civil Code by heart.
Not yet of legal age to begin the practice of law, in 1857 Morphy found himself with free time. He received an invitation to participate in the First American Chess Congress, to be held in New York in the fall. At first he declined, but then at the urging of his uncle, who was quite proud of Morphy's chess skill, he eventually decided to play. Having secured parental permission, Morphy made the long trip to New York via steamboat up the Mississippi River then overland by railroad to New York. There, he defeated each of his rivals, in the final round defeating the strong German master Louis Paulsen. Morphy was now hailed as the first American chess champion, and such was his strength of play, that many urged him to test his skill abroad.
Still too young to start his law career, Morphy soon after returning to New Orleans was invited to attend an international chess tournament to be held in Birmingham, England in the summer of 1858. He accepted the challenge and traveled to England but ended up not playing in the tournament, instead playing a series of chess matches against the leading English masters, defeating them all except retired English chess master Howard Staunton, who deliberately ducked all opportunities to play Morphy. The underhanded Staunton meanwhile conducted a newspaper campaign to make it seem that it was Morphy's fault they did not play, suggesting among other things that Morphy did not have the funds to serve as match stakes, when in fact Morphy was so popular that numerous wealthy people and groups were willing to stake him for any amount of money.
Seeking new opponents and now aware that Staunton had no real desire to play, Morphy then crossed the English Channel and visited France. There he went to the Café de la Regence in Paris, which was the center of chess in France. He played a match against Daniel Harrwitz, the resident chess professional, and soundly defeated him.
In Paris Morphy suffered from a bout of intestinal influenza and came down with a high fever; in accordance with the medical wisdom of the times, he was treated with leeches, resulting in a significant loss of blood. Despite the fact that he was now too weak to stand up unaided, Morphy insisted on going ahead with a match against the visiting German champion Adolf Anderssen, who was considered by many to be Europe's leading player, and who had come to Paris all the way from his native Breslau, Germany, solely to play against the now famous American chess wonder. 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 Morphy was the strongest player ever, stronger even than the famous champion Bourdonnais. In America, people declared him to be "Chess Champion of the World" because of this match, though Morphy himself did not like the title (his championship now is considered to have been unofficial, the first official championship occuring in 1886).
In both England and France, Morphy played many exhibition matches against the public. He would take on eight players at once while playing without sight of the board, the moves of his opponents and his replies being communicated verbally. It was while he was in Paris in 1858 that Morphy played a well-known game at the Opera House in Paris, frequently quoted in many chess books, against the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard.
Morphy was well liked by all. He was small in stature, slim, impeccably dressed, cultured, extremely polite, quiet and reserved. His sense of sportsmanship was of the highest caliber, and his combination of brilliant play and personal modesty made him a phenomena.
Returning to England in the spring of 1859, Morphy was now lionized by the English, and his chess supremacy acknowledged. A match was set up where he played the five leading English grandmasters simultaneously. One of them, Samuel Boden, had a fair claim to being along with Adolf Anderssen, the strongest player in the world save for Morphy. Morphy won two games, lost one, and one game was drawn. No other world champion has since duplicated Morphy's feat of playing five of his closest rivals simultaneously.
Morphy then started the long trip home, via New York. Still only 22, he was now a world-famous celebrity, the first American to be universally regarded as the pre-eminent figure in an intellectual field. In Europe, he was invited to associate with royalty, given an audience with Queen Victoria, sought after by the best people. In America, popular acclaim was such that he had to travel home slowly, stopping in all the major cities, where in each the leading citizens competed to heap honors on him. Famous people such as Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes honored him at testimonial banquets. Manufacturers sought his endorsements, newspapers asked him to write chess columns, a baseball club was named after him. A book of his games was published by Johann Löwenthal, the grandmaster he beat as a child, and again in a formal match during his first visit to England. Everywhere, he thrilled the public with demonstrations of his skill.
When Morphy finally got home, he issued an open challenge to anyone in the world to play a match at odds of pawn and move; and finding no takers, he declared himself retired from chess, and he gave up the public playing of the game for good. He then began to think of beginning his law career. Unfortunately, he was unable to start, as in 1861 the American Civil War broke out, disrupting life in New Orleans. Opposed to secession, Morphy did not serve in the Confederate Army but remained for awhile in New Orleans, then left the city for Paris. He lived for a time in Paris to avoid the war, returning after the war back to New Orleans.
Morphy’s principled stance against the war was unpopular in his native South, and he was unable to practice law in New Orleans after the war. Attempts to open a law office failed due to a lack of clients. Financially secure thanks to his family fortune, Morphy effectively now had no profession and he spent the rest of his life in idleness. Asked by admirers to play chess again, he refused, considering chess unfit as a serious occupation. Chess in Morphy’s day was not a respectable occupation for a gentleman, but was instead an amateur activity. Chess professionals in the 1860’s were looked upon as akin to professional gamblers and other disreputable types. It was not until decades later that the age of the professional chess player arrived with the coming of Wilhelm Steinitz, who barely made a living and died broke, and Emanuel Lasker who, thanks to his demand for high fees, managed a modest living.
Morphy's final years were tragic. Depressed, he spent his last years wandering around the French Quarter of New Orleans, talking to people no one else could see, and having irrational feelings of persecution.
Morphy died early of a stroke at the age of only forty-seven. Despite the fact that Morphy had not played chess publicly for over twenty-five years, it was not until after Morphy's death that Steinitz proclaimed that his match with Zukertort would be for the "official" world chess championship. Steinitz's forbearance to claim the title while Morphy was still alive was a recognition of Morphy's chess strength.
According to the online database chessgames.com, Morphy suffered only twenty losses out of about 200 games in his life, giving him a far higher scoring percentage than any other master in the history of the game.
"Morphy, I think everyone agrees, was probably the greatest of them all." - former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer
See also: List of chess players, List of chess world championship matches.
Writings of Paul Morphy
- Morphy's Games of Chess by Paul Charles Morphy & Johann Löwenthal, Batsford; October 1991. ISBN 0713450576
Further reading
- Morphy's Games of Chess by Philip W. Sergeant & Fred Reinfeld, Dover; June 1989. ISBN 0486203867 - Written almost a hundred years ago, but still the best collection in English of Morphy's games.
- The Genius of Paul Morphy by Chris Ward, Cadogan, 1997; ASIN: 1857441370 (out of print) - The most recent collection of Morphy's games, but already out of print.
- Paul Morphy, The Pride and Sorrow of Chess by David Lawson, 424 pages; Mckay,1976 (out of print) - This is the only book-length biography of Paul Morphy in English.