by David Lawson
While the sand is running through, the player is bound to make twenty-four moves, which give an average of five minutes for each; but the player is at liberty to give more or less time to any move he pleases, provided the twenty-four moves are made in 120 minutes. We are happy to state that this first trial was most satisfactory. The two antagonists, though a little moved at first on account of this sword of Damocles suspended over their combinations, soon got used to it, and not the slightest inconvenience was experienced. Seeing that a great many moves, especially at the opening, may be played rapidly, as much as half an hour, or even an hour, may be taken for a decisive move at the close.
As for Morphy, without doubt he was torn between his loyalty to the Union and to the state of Louisiana. If Morphy’s 1854 Commencement address is recalled, and Father Kenny’s comment on it, it becomes clear that Morphy would have difficulty bringing his sympathies into line with the secessionist cause. The situation certainly was not clear-cut, but as Lincoln put it (see Abraham Lincoln by Benjamin P. Thomas), “All they ask, we could readily grant, if we thought slavery right, all we ask, they could as readily grant, if they thought it wrong.”* The question of slavery was really what divided the nation.
In South Carolina on April 14, 1861, the first clash of arms took place. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard of New Orleans, a friend of the Morphy family and now with the Confederacy, had been instructed to take over Fort Sumter, by force if necessary. Some months later, Paul Morphy was to call on him at Richmond.
President Lincoln’s response to the fall of Fort Sumter was to call for seventy-five thousand militia for three months’ service, and the conflict was on. Paul’s brother, Edward, joined the Seventh Regiment of New Orleans. Although Paul was not of the same mind, he finally decided that perhaps he could serve his state in some nonbelligerent capacity, and in October 1861 we find him in Richmond, as mentioned by the Richmond Dispatch of October 24:
Paul Morphy—This distinguished gentleman has been in our city for some days, and has received visits and attentions from a number of our citizens to whom his unassuming dignity and agreeable manners have made his society very pleasant. He is a fine specimen of the Southern gentleman. From a notice in another column, it appears that he is expected to visit the rooms of the Richmond Chess Club this evening.
In another column in the same issue, the following announcement appeared:
RICHMOND CHESS CLUB—A meeting of the members of the Club will be held at their Room over J. P. Duval’s Drug Store, THIS EVENING (Thursday,) 24th inst. At 8 o’clock.
Mr. Morphy has kindly consented to be present.
It is known that Morphy played at least ten games of chess while in Richmond, winning eight of them at Knight odds. While nothing definite is known about the reason for Morphy’s visit to Richmond, there were press reports that he had offered his services to Beauregard, or that he was being considered for diplomatic service. Frances Parkinson Keyes, in her novel on Paul Morphy, The Chess Players, based upon all known facts she could uncover, seized upon the possibility that he was an agent for the Confederacy in Europe, but there is not a shred of evidence indicating that this was so. Morphy waited a year after his visit to Richmond before leaving for Europe, and he returned a year before the war was over.
Undoubtedly Morphy went to Richmond with some thought of being useful, perhaps influenced by other Southern youths who were responding to the call of the South. And it may be that he was on Beauregard’s staff for a short while and that he had been seen at Manassas, as had been reported. It would seem that Beauregard sensed that Morphy had little or no enthusiasm for secession and that the general brought it home to Morphy that he was not war material, on or off the battlefield.
We know Morphy was in Richmond for a while, not only from the Richmond Dispatch, but also from the memoirs of others who mentioned having met him there. Mrs. Burton Harrison in Recollections Grave and Gay writes:
Early in the war Paul Morphy, the celebrated chess player, whom we knew in Richmond, accepted a commission to purchase for me in New Orleans, whither he was returning, a French vio-lette of real black thread lace, the height of my ambition. When the veil arrived, as selected by himself, we voted Mr. Morphy an expert in other arts than chess.
Some years later, Gilbert R. Frith, president of the State Chess Association of Virginia, related in the Columbia Chess Chronicle of August 18, 1888, and January 24, 1889, an anecdote concerning Morphy in Richmond. The incident centers around a well-known picture by Retzsch or, it would seem likely, a variation of it. As Frith tells it:
The arrival of the noted player excited, even at that troublous time, a keen interest among the lovers of the kingly game. An invitation was extended to the champion, and, with himself as the centre, a coterie of notables assembled for an evening’s play at the home of Mr. H. (Rev. R. R. Howison). . . . While at supper Morphy’s attention was attracted by a picture which hung prominently upon the wall, Mephistopheles playing a game of Chess with a young man for his soul. The Chessmen with which his Satanic majesty plays are the Vices; the pieces of the young man are, or have been, the Virtues—for, alas! he has very few left. In bad case, indeed, is the unhappy youth, for his game, as represented, appears not only desperate but hopeless, and his fate sealed. His adversary gloats in anticipation of the final coup, and the gleaming smile on the face of the latter intensifies the despair which that of the young man shows.
With the close of the supper, deeply interested, Morphy approached the picture, studied it awhile intently, then turning to his host he said, modestly: “I think I can take the young man’s game and win.” “Why, impossible!” was the answer; “not even you, Mr. Morphy, can retrieve that game.” “Yet I think I can,” said Morphy. “Suppose we place the men and try.” A board was arranged, and the rest of the company gathered round it, deeply interested in the result. To the surprise of every one, victory was snatched from the devil and the young man saved.
Incidentally, Frith mentions Morphy as being at that time “an officer on Beauregard’s staff.”
Others have mentioned seeing Morphy in New Orleans. Grace E. King in New Orleans, The Place and People mentions, “It was not very long ago that, at opera, theatre, concert, ball, or promenade, or at celebrations at the cathedral, the figure of Paul Morphy was instinctively looked for. Dark-skinned, with brilliant black eyes, black hair; slight and graceful, with the hands and smile of a woman, his personality held the eye with a charm that appeared to the imagination akin to mystery.”
George Haven Putnam, in Memories of a Publisher, adds to our picture of Morphy in New Orleans at this time. Putnam was stationed in New Orleans for part of 1862, after its capture by Farragut in April and its occupation by General Butler and his troops. A chess player himself, Putnam mentions that he carried a book of Morphy’s games in his haversack:
My regiment happened to be among those that took part in 1862 in the occupation of Louisiana, and I had occasion during two years of the campaigns in Louisiana to be in and out of New Orleans. A friend in one of the New England regiments, also a chess player, pointed out to me one day crossing Caron-delet Street the figure of Morphy. This must have been in 1862.Morphy was walking with the lagging step of an ill man. . . .
There was also, however, upon him a special pressure of trouble. While a loyal citizen of Louisiana, he was opposed to secession. He did not believe that the Republic ought to be broken up. The men of the good families in New Orleans, a group to which young Morphy certainly belonged, were nearly all members of the “Louisiana Tigers,” the Seventh Regiment of New Orleans.
Morphy had refused to join with these old-time associates in the attempt to over-throw the Republic. This brought him into social isolation. The girls were said to have scoffed at him. He ought, of course, to have done what other Southerners, objecting to secession, did. He should have made a home for himself in Paris, or somewhere in England.
As will soon be seen, Morphy did exactly that, but for the time being he was still in tro
ubled New Orleans and much troubled himself.
In February of 1862 the British Chess Association issued a “Preliminary Programme for a Grand International Chess Congress and Tournament” to be held in June in London. The “Program” mentioned “the advent of Morphy” and noted that “a limitation of time in moving will be enforced. Two-thirds of the Players agreeing, may compel Pawn to King’s fourth to be played on each side every game. In the meantime, special invitations have been sent to Messrs. Morphy, Anderssen, etc.” Morphy felt obliged to decline this invitation.
At last, for whatever reason, Morphy decided he must leave New Orleans. The city had been occupied by Union troops since April. His mother and sister Helena had left some months before for Paris, but now in October of 1862 it was not easy to book passage out. However, about the tenth of October, taking with him his testimonial gifts received in New York, he boarded the Spanish man-of-war Blasco de Garay incognito, bound for Havana. He was accompanied by Charles Maurian, and together they de-barked there and put up at the Hotel America, keeping much to themselves.However, after four or five days, Morphy’s presence became known, and on October 16, 1862, La Gaceta de la Habana and El Siglo blazoned forth the news, and a committee of chess players and other prominent Cubans, Srs. D. Blas Du Bouchet, D. Vicente, D. Aureliano Medina, and D. Felix Sicre, called on him at the hotel.
From then on his presence was the subject of much publicity, and he was honored by banquets and private invitations. In turn he gratified his hosts with sessions at the chess table, among them some blindfold games.Among others with whom he played were Messrs. Medina, Fesser, F. Sicre, Toscano, and J. M. Sicre, the latter a very good chess player and a slave of Felix Sicre. Maurian also engaged in a few games. Morphy and Maurian departed on October 31 on the mail steamer for Cadiz, Spain, following a final grand banquet given by Don Eduardo Fesser at the French inn L’Hermitage, at which Morphy’s health was toasted. He in turn made a toast “to the prosperity of Cuba.”
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FOOTNOTE
* EDITOR’S NOTE: This quote comes from the close of Lincoln’s address at Cooper Institute, February 27, 1860. See “Address at Cooper Institute, New York City, February 27, 1860,” in Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, vol. 2, 1859-1865 (New York: Library of America, 1989), 111-129.
CHAPTER 21
Paris and Petroff
After arriving in Cadiz, Morphy traveled by train to Paris, where he was reunited with his mother and sister Helena in December 1862. Fiske, in a letter to his parents from Vienna dated January 15, 1863, tells of Morphy’s arrival in Paris and of his difficulties in getting there: “Morphy, as I learned from the papers, is in Paris, but has not yet played, owing to the ‘unfortunate condition of his country, and the fatigues of his escape from the South through the blockading squadron, and the ocean voyage.’”
An American correspondent for the New York Times in Paris wrote in December:
Since my arrival, I have met with Mr. Paul Morphy, the famous chess player, about whose doings and whereabouts such contradictory reports have been circulated in the United States. Mr. Morphy has not been on any rebel general’s staff, nor has he taken any part in the war. He left New Orleans long after the capture of the city by the Federal forces, and went to Havana, taking passage thence to Cadiz, and reached Paris a few days ago. Kolisch[,] the eminent Hungarian player, is also here, and chess amateurs are making efforts to bring about a meeting between the greatest chess genius of the world and another star not unworthy to encounter the master. Morphy, however, assures me that he has renounced chess altogether, and the unhappy state of affairs at home will not permit him to bring to the task of meeting a great player the calmness and coolness which are essential to success. He has also matters of more importance to occupy his mind, and seems to be in feeble health.
The remark in the last sentence about “matters of more importance” would seem to be Morphy’s way of saying that he did not want to be both-ered about chess, although he played privately with friends—Rivière and Maurian, as well as people he had met in Paris, such as St. Leon. We have a record of a few games he engaged in at this time at Doazan’s and Rivière’s homes; one of them, with Rivière, was played at Doazan’s house on January 7.
Morphy enjoyed some social life apart from his mother and Helena, who had the company of Paul’s sister Malvina, who was married to Sybrandt and was living in Paris. Occasionally there was something of a party, such as one in early February at the house of the Countess de Colbert, at which were present Rivière, Prèti, and others. The Countess herself was a very good chess player. At the time of the 1867 Emperor’s Tournament in Paris, the Countess, in consultation with Mme. Regnauet de St. Jean D’Angély, the Princess Anna Murat, and the Duchess de la Trémoille, won two games from Rivière and G. R. Neumann, who were also in consultation. All the above women had, at one time or another, contested with Morphy.
Without doubt his presence in Paris increased that city’s chess and social activity. As Delannoy said years later in Brentano’s Chess Monthly of May 1881, “His name, during his sojourn in Paris, made a great noise; it even fills it now.” And Howard Staunton made the following comment on May 2, 1863, in the Illustrated London News:
The game has invaded even the salons of the noble Fauberg and the Chaussée d’Antin. In the most aristocratic circles there are weekly reunions, presided over by the amiable mistresses of the mansions, and attended by the most celebrated amateurs of chess. Two of the most fashionable of these private salons are those of the Duchess de la Trémoille and Mme. De Colbert. At these reunions all except actual players of chess are rigorously excluded. Even the husbands of the fair patronesses form no exception to the rule, since, if not initiated, the doors of the sanctuary are pitilessly closed against them.
Although isolating himself from public chess, Morphy was not to be free of it entirely. Ignatz Kolisch took advantage of Morphy’s presence in Paris to endeavor again to arrange a match. He wrote the following letter to Morphy dated February 14, 1863, Paris (published in La Nouvelle Régence, March 1863):
Sir,—The distinguished reputation which you have acquired at chess has long since excited in me an ambition—presumptuous, perhaps, but very ardent—to have the honor of encountering you at that game. You will remember that two years since my friends endeavored to bring us together, and transmitted to you a proposal, to which you replied by a promise equivalent to a formal engagement in case you should ever return to Europe—a promise which was made public in the American journal Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times, and which has been registered in La Nouvelle Régence. On the faith of this engagement I left England when I heard of your arrival in Paris to put myself at your disposal. Knowing, however, that at the beginning of your visit certain private considerations withheld you from playing chess, I abstained from communicating my resolution. But now, Sir, that you have resumed a recreation in which you so much excel, and daily play the game with various adversaries, the time appears to have arrived when I may recall to you your former promise.
I am sure, Sir, that I shall not appeal to your courtesy in vain; and I believe you will think it reasonable that I should exercise the same liberty which you used when you first came and threw down the gauntlet to the chief players of Europe.
Justified both by your promise and by your example, I have the honor to propose to you a chess match. The conditions, if you please, shall be the same as those which were first proposed to you in the letter of the secretary of the St. George’s Club—namely, that whichever of us wins the first eleven games shall be pronounced the conqueror.
Awaiting your reply, I beg you to accept the assurance of my consideration, &C.
Ignatz Kolisch
Morphy replied in a note to Kolisch to the effect that he had already expressed his determination to separate himself from the chess arena and declined the request for a match. He then wrote to La Régence asking it to publish an addition to the reply he had already sent Kolisch, and the following appeare
d in its pages in April:
Mr. Morphy has requested us to add a few lines to complete the answer which he has addressed to Mr. Kolisch and which clearly show the reasons of his refusal—“I could have believed at the time when hearing of your successes that you are superior to the other players whom I had encountered in Europe; but since, as you are well aware, the result of your matches with Messrs. Anderssen and Paulsen had not been favorable to you, there is now no reason why I should make an exception in your case, having decided not again to engage in such matches, an infringement of my rules which I should be obliged to extend to others, &C, &C.”
Paul Morphy
It will be recalled that on his previous visit to Paris, Morphy and Rivière planned a Treatise on Chess Openings, mentioned in the Chess Monthly of May 1859. That Morphy was serious about the treatise will be seen from one of his notes for the Greenaway game, published in the July 1859 Chess Monthly, in which he said that he would publish a complete analysis of it (the Evans Gambit) in his forthcoming treatise. Rivière and Morphy now resumed work on it, beginning with Philidor’s Defense, which they completed as given in La Régence, December 1863 through February 1864. But apparently Morphy was unwilling to do more, since nothing further was published.