Paul Morphy: The Pride and Sorrow of Chess

by David Lawson

  Other games and diversions were arranged for players excluded from tournament play, and for others. On October 20, on an excursion to High Bridge, Morphy and Paulsen played two blindfold games simultaneously, no boards or men being used. Morphy won one; the other was unfinished.

  As The First American Chess Congress states:

  Also among the amusements of the members were a number of so-called alternation games, as many as twenty players taking part in one of these practical chess jests. Nor did Mr. Morphy and Mr. Paulsen, after completing their daily game, hesitate to while away an hour in the evening by participating in one of these laughable battles. The blunders committed in these conjunctions of strong and weak players were a source of great merriment.

  As the Congress drew to a close, Morphy was determined to test his powers further, and in the following letter to Maurian, he shows himself eager for combat across the board:

  St. Denis Hotel

  New York, November 16, 1857

  My dear Charles,

  Your very kind letters have reached their destination and I am happy to state in reply that with the exception of Walker’s “One Thousand Games” I shall procure you all the chess books you wish to have.

  You must be appraised of the final result of the match between Paulsen and myself: the score at the termination of the contest, stood as follows: Morphy 5, Paulsen 1, drawn 2. I would have a good deal to write about, but prefer postponing all I might tell you until my return to New Orleans. Some statements will surprise you. I shall probably leave next week, unless detained (and it is very likely I will be detained) by some match with one of the first class New York players at the odds of Pawn and move.

  For reasons which it would be too long to enumerate in a letter, but which I will explain to your satisfaction when I will return home, I see fit to challenge any New York player to a match at pawn and move. If the challenge is accepted, as I have no doubt it will be, I hope that the New Orleans players will be prepared to back me. I shall also (and for equally good reasons) challenge all the members of the New York Club to play a consultation match with me.

  Do not however, hastily infer that there exists the smallest degree of ill feeling between myself and most of the New York players. The truth is that my challenge is addressed solely to Thompson who possesses no small amount of chess vanity.

  After losing eight games out of eight on even terms, he is unwilling (with what justice and show of reason I appeal to every chess player to say) to take the odds of pawn and move which I give to Marache, fully his equal as you know. The result of his conceit is that at present we never play together. With Marache at the above mentioned odds, I have played five games winning three and drawing two. Out of six games contested with Perrin at pawn and two I have won four and lost two. Mr. Thompson seems to fancy that it is beneath his dignity to accept odds of a player who has won every game contested with him, but enough of him. My impression is that I can give him the odds and make even games. We shall see.

  Truly yours,

  Paul Morphy

  P.S.

  Do not forget to see Rousseau, my uncle Charles LeCarpentier, (and every New Orleans player willing to stake anything on the result) in reference to this match.

  P.M.

  Morphy’s challenge to play against all the members of the New York Chess Club in consultation was not taken up by the club. As reported in the Chess Monthly of December 1857, Morphy then

  manifested a desire to play one or two games against the three or five strongest New Yorkers in consultation, and arrangements were made for that purpose, but the unwillingness of the New Yorkers finally defeated the design.

  On the same date that he wrote the above letter to Maurian, The First American Chess Congress states that Morphy

  addressed a courteous note to the Secretary of the New York Club, in which he stated that he was desirous, before leaving for the South, of testing his actual strength and with that in view he ventured to proffer the odds of Pawn and move, in a match, to any of the leading members of the Club. The challenge was accepted on behalf of the Club, by Mr. Charles H. Stanley. Mr. T. J. Bryan, a gentleman whose countenance is a familiar one both in the Chess circles of Paris and New York, arranged the preliminaries on the part of Mr. Morphy [Mr. Bryan had acted in a limited way for Mr. Staunton in his 1843 match with St. Amant], while Mr. Bailey acted as the second of Mr. Stanley.

  The first winner of seven games was to be considered the winner of the match at one hundred dollars a side, but after playing five games, the score standing Morphy four, Stanley none and Drawn one, Mr. Stanley, through his second, resigned.

  Sergeant, in his book Morphy’s Games of Chess, gives one of these games, which was played November 30, and notes that it

  is the only game of which the score has been preserved in the match wherein Morphy gave odds of Pawn and move to C. H. Stanley, after the finish of the Congress. It was the fifth and last game of the match.

  Recent research has discovered the scores of two additional games, the first and second of the match, both to be seen later. The first game of the match was played on November 28, ending in a draw. Fiske wrote to George Allen the next day: “Morphy began his match at Pawn & Move with Stanley last evening. With a forced mate in five moves, he played too hastily and only drew the game.” James J. Barrett, formerly chess editor of the Buffalo Courier-Express, confirms Fiske’s statement, as will be seen in his notes to the game. Barrett discusses how Morphy, in his haste, allowed great carelessness to deprive him of a very unusual mate, which should have been his due after the beginning of a beautiful combination.*

  The fifth and last game between Stanley and Morphy was played on November 30. Several days later, Stanley sent word that he was resigning the match.

  In a letter to Professor Allen dated December 20, 1857, Fiske tells what happened to the Morphy–Stanley match stakes:

  The score standing Stanley none, Morphy four and one drawn game (drawn through Morphy’s carelessness) Stanley resigned the match. Loving Morphy as I do it is a pleasant thing for me to tell that, before leaving New York, he sent the stakes, accompanied by a kind note, to Mrs. Stanley, who, poor lady, sadly needs them. Stanley would have drunk it all up, but now his wife and children will be benefited by the money. When the world shall have lost the glorious Paul (which God send, may not happen for half-a-century) and someone shall write his biography I hope this and some other incidents I wrote of, will find a place in the narrative. They will show that his heart is as great as his intellect is astute. But he will not let me speak of them now.

  In December, Mrs. Stanley gave birth to a daughter, and Stanley named her Pauline, in honor of Paul Morphy.

  Morphy, now released from tournament play, contested many other games, more than those recorded or even mentioned, for as Edge said, he was easily approached. Now, however, almost all games were at the large odds of Queen’s Rook or Knight. A notable exception to games at odds were those played with John W. Schulten, who had at times past played with St. Amant and Labourdonnais and possessed, as the Chess Monthly of January 1858 said,

  a far spread reputation as a chess player. A multitude of his games, contested on even terms, with the leading players of Europe have been published in the Chess periodicals of the last fifteen years.

  Altogether, Morphy and Schulten played twenty-four games during the last two days of November and into December, Schulten being in New York those few days for the express purpose of meeting Morphy. Morphy won twenty-three games, and undoubtedly, the monotony induced by so many wins accounts for his lapse of a single loss. This lost game speaks for itself and hardly merits discussion (see GAME 4 in Sergeant’s Morphy Gleanings).

  In reporting on one of these games for the Clipper (GAME CLXIX in Sergeant’s game collection), Marache quotes Schulten as saying, “It is a real delight to lose such a game as that. Beautiful, Beautiful.”

  Later, a lady present at one of those Schulten sittings described the scene in an article in the P
hiladelphia Item of May 1859:

  PAUL MORPHY SEEN THROUGH A LADY’S EYE GLASS

  Everybody is talking about Paul Morphy and his coming ovation [May 25, 1859], and are we, ladies, to hold our peace? When all the rest of the world is expressing so decided an opinion, too? Certainly not. It’s what we never did and never could—a course of conduct utterly at variance with all our feminine instincts; and, therefore, if our readers will go back a year or so with us we will take them into the rooms of the New York Chess Club, and give them a peep at the illustrious American who has created such a furor among the devotees of Caïssa abroad.

  Our abode is a dense atmosphere of blue cigar smoke, wreathing and curling about the room. Chess players seem to derive immense satisfaction from smoking; but, by degrees, as our eyes become accustomed to the misty illusion, we distinguish, perhaps, a dozen groups, scattered about over as many chess boards. A solemn silence prevails, unbroken, save by whispers. As we enter, people glance indifferently up, and then down again. If Queen Victoria herself [she was fond of chess] was to stand on the threshold of the New York Chess Club, nobody would be astonished, and “checkmate” would be the only observation elicited. In the adjoining room, however, a crowd is collected, all striving to catch a glimpse at some object of engrossing interest in the center. Here our bonnets and ribbons stand us in good account, and we are courteously accomodated [ sic] with a chair beside the chess board.

  Paul Morphy himself, a slender, boyish looking youth, with smooth cheek, long chestnut hair, thrown back from his broad white forehead, and a truly American fragility of figure; if you met him in the street you would take him for a boy of fifteen. The large violet eyes, however, are the most noticeable feature in his face, with their long black lashes, and luminous iris, that seem to dilate, and grow larger and larger with every second. How his white, slender fore-finger hovers over the pieces—how the quick eye, charged with electric fire, detects every advantage—how the faint flush stains his cheek, as the game becomes complicated!

  There—his veteran adversary has compassed a coup d’état that would seem fatal to any eyes but those of Paul Morphy. He leans back in his chair, surveying the board with a gaze that has all the intense abstraction of the clairvoyant. The other players leave their half-fought battles and cluster eagerly around the young Napoleon. You might hear the fall of a pin, so breathless is the hush. In an instant he resumes the game, with a brilliant series of daring and hazardous moves, throwing away his strongest pieces with a recklessness and audacity which call a gleam of triumph to the brow of his antagonist. The white-haired veteran is just about to overwhelm young Morphy, when his plans are stopped short by a softly spoken checkmate, scarcely above a whisper, from the lips of the boy.

  The spectators, unable longer to suppress their excitement, burst into enthusiastic plaudits, but the youthful conqueror only smiles quietly and in silence, as if rather annoyed than otherwise by praises. The defeated player eagerly pleads for “yet another battle,” saying, with admiring frankness, “It is a pleasure to be vanquished by you.” And the lists are once more entered afresh. There is no shadow of weariness on the smooth young brow. No—Paul Morphy could play on all night.

  Morphy played no other games with Thompson during this stay in New York, since Thompson declined to accept the odds of Pawn and move. About a year later he accepted the greater odds of Queen’s Knight and lost the match of nine games. As regards Paulsen, the New York Albion reported that it was “not generally known that Morphy and Paulsen played ten or eleven off-hand games presumably even, all of which Morphy won,” but of these extra games we have no record. Nor have we any record of games in which Paulsen accepted the odds of pawn and move, although the chess press at the time reported that such games had taken place.

  At that time, publicity was usually withheld if a player expressed the wish that his games be kept private. “The irritating custom of suppressing the players’ names,” as Sergeant says in A Century of British Chess, “or at best veiling them, has to be borne with; amateurs were very shy of their names appearing in print.”

  In fact, often out of consideration for the loser, his name would be withheld if the games were published. The names of a number of Morphy’s opponents were not known until years later in some cases, and others will never be known. Maurian, in his chess column in the New Orleans Sunday Delta, frequently referred to Morphy’s opponents as “Amateurs,” as, for example, when he published the game in which Paul checkmated his father by castling on his eighteenth move. Maurian published the game in 1858, but not until 1884 was the name of Paul’s opponent known.

  After Morphy’s death, Maurian wrote in the New Orleans Times-Democrat of July 27, 1884:

  The subjoined curious little partie at odds [Queen’s Rook], which is given in the various collections of Morphy’s games simply as between Mr. Morphy and an Amateur, will acquire renewed interest for the Chess world when it is stated that the Amateur in question was in fact Morphy’s father, Judge Alonzo Morphy, and the game was played about the year 1850, when the great master was hardly thirteen years old.

  Sergeant was never aware of this relationship of the opponents in Morphy’s Games of Chess, in which the game appears as GAME CCXCVII.

  While in New York, Morphy made no attempt to emulate Paulsen in blindfold playing. Apart from his blindfold games with Paulsen, only one other such game is known during the time of his (Morphy’s) stay in New York. On November 19, he played Lichtenhein successfully without sight of the board.

  With T. J. Bryan, Morphy contested ten games at odds of Pawn and three moves, and later some seventy at Knight odds. Of all these games with Bryan, some eighty, only one has come down to us.

  On Sunday, December 6, he visited Eugene B. Cook in Hoboken, New Jersey, accompanied by Frederick Perrin, W. J. A. Fuller, and D. W. Fiske. While there, the three visitors played a consultation game against Morphy, which they won. Cook, a brilliant problematist, was an invalid confined to his house most of the time. When The First American Chess Congress was published, the frontispiece was a chess problem composed by him and “Dedicated with the highest Esteem and Admiration to Paul Morphy, the Only.”

  Cook later composed six chess problems in the form of the six letters M O R P H Y. Over the years, others have dedicated problems to Morphy, among them Alexander Petroff, Frank Healey, Ilya Schumov, G. F. Ansidei, and S. N. Carvalho. Petroff ’s and Healey’s problems were published in the Chess Monthly of July 1859, Petroff ’s appearing together with a letter from him to Morphy.

  Morphy was now about to extend his chess activity, due to having met Fiske. The Chess Monthly was started as a joint venture by Daniel W. Fiske and Miron J. Hazeltine acting as editors and publishers. The first issue appeared in January 1857. However, Fiske observed the rising star of Morphy’s reputation during the Congress in October and wished him to join the magazine as co-editor. Since Fiske was apparently the principle party of the venture, it seems he eased Hazeltine out. Within a month after Morphy’s arrival in New York, Fiske was expressing the hope that Morphy would be editing with him, beginning in the new year. Before the middle of December the matter was settled, and the printer notified that Morphy and Fiske would be co-editors beginning January 1858.

  It may be remembered that at the Congress dinner, W. J. A. Fuller had said, “We intend to . . . challenge the world to produce his peer.” About the middle of November 1857, enthusiasm over Morphy led to the following statement in the December issue of the Chess Monthly:

  It is expected that the American Chess Association will shortly publish a challenge to Europe, which we shall probably lay before our readers next month. It will propose a match at Chess between Mr. Morphy and any living European player to take place in New York during the year 1858 for any sum from two to five thousand dollars. New York seems the most desirable place for such an encounter as it is almost equidistant, in time, from both London and New Orleans. Such players present at the Congress as had witnessed the play of the chief European a
mateurs have no fears as to the result. Mr. Morphy’s play is certainly not excelled in the published games of any living cultivator of Chess.

  Although Morphy would have preferred any such challenge to be issued by the American Chess Association, differences of opinion on conditions and arrangements for the challenge prevented the Association from acting before Morphy returned to New Orleans.

  During the time of the Congress, Matthew Brady, the well-known photographer, took several pictures of Morphy, singly and with other members of the Congress, and it was announced in the Chess Monthly of July 1858 that there would be published

  a lithographic Picture embracing Likenesses of about Twenty of the most eminent Chess Players in the United States—the same being an exact Copy of the group as arranged and Photographed by Mr. Brady of New York.

  In the foreground is represented the figures of Messrs. Morphy and Paulsen in the act of playing their memorable Match, with Judge Meek of Alabama as Arbitrator and the rear is made up of leading Chess Players watching with intense interest the progress of the Game.

  The lithograph is a fine item of great historical chess interest, but there are few copies extant.

  Although it is now known to be incomplete, the January 1858 issue of the Chess Monthly printed the following list of games played by Morphy (including tournament games) during his stay in New York:

  Passing references to Morphy’s style of play during his New York stay are to be found in the December 1857 issue of the Chess Monthly:

  Physically Mr. Morphy is of short stature and slight build. He has the dark eye and hair of the South and much of the light hearted nature of his Gallic descent. His genial disposition, his unaffected modesty and gentlemanly courtesy have endeared him to all his acquaintances. The most noteworthy features of his chess character are the remarkable rapidity of his combinations, his masterly knowledge of the openings and ends of games, and the wonderful faculty which he possesses of recalling games played months before. No player ever made more of a slight attack than he does. Blindfold[ed] he plays two games at once with about the same strength and quickness as over the board. His peculiar style is as well adopted for giving odds as was that of M’Donnell.