A fun fact about Paul Morphy is that he never wanted to be a professional chess player

A fun fact about Paul Morphy is that he never wanted to be a professional chess player. Despite being considered one of the greatest chess prodigies in history, Morphy saw chess more as a hobby.

In fact, after his international success, instead of continuing his chess career, he decided to retire and focus on his profession as a lawyer, although he never got to practice it fully. Ironically, the man many consider the "first unofficial world champion" saw chess as secondary in his life.