Various thoughts on Morphy

"My real introduction to the chess world and most of its modern celebrities dates from 1858, when I was an attache of the American Legation in Paris.
     It was at this period that I first met Paul Morphy, the young American chess genius, whose extraordinary talents had already astonished English lovers of chess, and were then causing amazement and admiration amongst the habitues of the Cafe de la Regence, the famous chess resort of the Parisians, and of all professional and amateur votaries of the game visiting the French capital at that brilliant and prosperous period of the Second Empire, following the termination of the Crimean war.
     In my hours of leisure, I went almost every day to the Regence, to do a little "wood-shifting" with some mazette (duffer) of about my own feebleness, or occasionally to pay half a franc for the privilege of being beaten at the odds of Rook or Knight by any professional "artist" or strong amateur who would graciously condescend (for fivepence a lesson) to show me "how it was done." I was Morphy's fellow countryman, and four years his senior. He had arranged to make Paris his headquarters for a considerable time, and it was not long before we became intimate friends. Paul was a native of New Orleans, and like all scions of the best Louisiana families, spoke French and English perfectly. The son of a judge of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, he was in every respect a gentleman by birth, breeding, and education. A lawyer by profession, he never regarded chess otherwise than as a pastime, and rarely played for any pecuniary stake whatever, unless at the express wish of his opponents. In physique he was of diminutive stature and almost effeminate build, except the head, which was large and well developed. His face was that of a boy of fifteen, with as yet no single vestige of either beard or moustache. As his age was a few months over twenty-one at the time to which I refer, it is probable that at no period of his life was he destined to become "bearded like the Pard," or, indeed, ever to apply a razor to his boyish face. I remember his gloves were ladies' fives, and his shoes a child's size, into which not one woman in a hundred thousand could have squeezed her feet. From this brief description of Paul Morphy's outer man, when he quietly and modestly appeared among the throng of accomplished chess players who then congregated daily and nightly at the Cafe de la Regence, some idea may be formed of the interest and excitement created by his victories over all who challenged him to single combat, and playing blindfold simultaneously against eight of the best players in Paris. I was an eye-witness of these various exploits, and enjoyed Paul's triumphs far more than he did himself."   -James Mortimer, 1905



     "Another meteor flamed into view shortly afterwards — Paul Morphy. It really appeared at that time as if the Crescent City were going to provide the United States with celebrities. She thinks still, in her pride, that she would have done so had not her most promising youth been drafted, since the Civil War, into the menial service of working for a living. 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. He belonged also to what is called the good old families, and dated from what is called the good old times, and lived in one of the old brick mansions on Royal street, p360whose pretty court-yard ever attracts the inquiries of the passing-by stranger. And as young musicians of the day strummed after the star of Gottschalk, so young chess-players played with Morphy's glittering triumphs and the chess championship of the world before them. They are old chess-players now, meeting in a great club of their own, entertaining distinguished visitors, and holding their local and international matches: but that which most prominently characterizes these old gentlemen to the foreign and to the home chess world of to‑day is not, as they imagine, their personal prowess at the game, undisputed as that is, but the perpetuating in their club of the Morphy tradition and sentiment; the Creole tradition and sentiment, it may be called, which give picturesqueness, not only to the individuals but to so many of the institutions of New Orleans, localizing them, narrowing them, enhancing them."  - Grace King, 1926


     "It seems preposterous to suggest that a single player could have a serious impact on such an ancient game in as short a time as a year.  And yet in 1858 America's Paul Morphy created a legacy that altered the chess world forever.  The wealthy young man from New Orleans entered the chess world only because he was not yet of age to practice as a lawyer when he finished his studies.  He quickly proved himself in a class above the best players in the United States, but the real competition was a cross the Atlantic.  Reversing the path of the conquistadors, the twentypone-year-old demolished the greatest players of the day one after the other.
     Morphy returned to the States as a hero.  Little wonder, as he was the first American to achieve such global preeminence.  While the official title of world champion wouldn't be rcognized for another thirty years, there is no question that Paul Morphy was the king of chess.
    ...Morphy was so far ahead of his time that it took another quarter century for these principles of development and attack to be rediscovered and formulated."  - Garry Kasparov, 2010

people say "but he played weak opponents"

SO DO WE!!  But do we produce Morphyesque games????

I don't know why people on this site are obsessed with morphy. I get the feeling that his "opponents" were just blundering combinations here there and everywhere. they were probably a little more concerned about cholera, the duel at dawn with Ichabod Crane and the prices of gin, rum, tobacco and cotton than anything having to do with chess.  

(whatever you people are secretly talking about it's total bs)

Hail Morphy! 

brankz wrote:

I don't know why people on this site are obsessed with morphy. I get the feeling that his "opponents" were just blundering combinations here there and everywhere. they were probably a little more concerned about cholera, the duel at dawn with Ichabod Crane and the prices of gin, rum, tobacco and cotton than anything having to do with chess.  

(whatever you people are secretly talking about it's total bs).

.

But where his opponents really weaklings? Or did Morphy just make them all look that way?

Was there some secret cache of stronger chessplayers in a monestary somewhere, that Morphy never faced?

He beat Adolph Anderssen and Anderssen was by no means weak he was the most respected and feared players in the world in his time.

I knew a 2400 who thought Fischer actually was weak because his opponents just "gave him the games--there was no real resistance."  He was comparing Fischer's games to the Kasparov-Karpov games.  Anybody else here think Fischer was actually weak?

The same can be said of Morphy.  He was so much stronger than his contemporaries that they look weak--just like all great champions.  I can show you Morphy games where he was playing hyper-modern chess in 1859--60 years before the rest of the world caught on.  Alekhine said Morphy's greatest strength was NOT his tactical abilities (which Alekhine referred to as "trinkets and baubles") but his positional accuracy, which was also praised by Lasker, Capablanca, and Botvinnik.  Morphy was the world's first dynamic positional player, but he was a positional player first--after he achieved the position, then he would play for the brilliant finish.  Brilliancies were what the public wanted, and Morphy did "play to the gallery" when he could, just like Tal did, but nobody accuses Tal of just steam-rolling defenseless weaklings, though Tal's results of 1958/59/60 were eerily similar to Morphy's results of 1857/58/59.  If you take into account that Morphy retired in 1852 and only played a handful of games between age 14 and 20, and this with no one within 400-500 points of Morphy's strength, to come out of retirement in 1857 and play at the level he did--there is no doubt in my mind that Morphy was the most talented player in chess history.  Nobody went as far in strength with as little effort as Morphy did--to my eyes, only MagMax has combined the same lack of work with outstanding ability as Morphy did, and he may eventually change my mind about the most talented ever, but his story isn't over yet.  For now, I stick with Morphy.

Sorry, I couldn't resist ^_^

Bold is what Mortimer actually meant.

"Paul was a native of New Orleans, and like all scions of the best (Read: richest) Louisiana families, spoke French and English perfectly (French babay!  Language of love! Gotta know French for courting :D ) The son of a judge of the Supreme Court of Louisiana (A rich elitist do nothing government sack in other words, probably defended slavery.  What ever happened to upholding good morals such as, I don't know, right to self-ownership and just compensation for one's labor?), he was in every respect a gentleman by birth, breeding, and education (making a virtue of accidental arbitrary criteria out of one's parents, early environment, and means to afford education, how quaint) A lawyer by profession, he never regarded chess otherwise than as a pastime (didn't take the game too seriously, had to court da ladehs with his French!), and rarely played for any pecuniary stake whatever (because playing for money is for the proles, gentlemen get their money from mommy and daddy), unless at the express wish of his opponents. In physique he was of diminutive stature and almost effeminate build, except the head, which was large and well developed(He was a midget who didn't lift, because muscle isn't very flattering in suits you know!  Oh, he had a big head too) His face was that of a boy of fifteen, with as yet no single vestige of either beard or moustache (poor chap couldn't grow a beard!  But I can't help but wonder... what was his age defying secret!  Inquiring minds need to know!)  As his age was a few months over twenty-one at the time to which I refer, it is probable that at no period of his life was he destined to become "bearded like the Pard," or, indeed, ever to apply a razor to his boyish face. I remember his gloves were ladies' fives, and his shoes a child's size, into which not one woman in a hundred thousand could have squeezed her feet (He had such small girlie feet that not even real girls could fit in his shoes lol!) From this brief description of Paul Morphy's outer man, when he quietly and modestly appeared among the throng of accomplished chess players who then congregated daily and nightly at the Cafe de la Regence, some idea may be formed of the interest and excitement created by his victories over all who challenged him to single combat, and playing blindfold simultaneously against eight of the best players in Paris (blindfold babeh!  Heck yeah!  Boy got serious game!) I was an eye-witness of these various exploits, and enjoyed Paul's triumphs far more than he did himself."   -James Mortimer, 1905

TheGreatOogieBoogie--I take it that that was supposed to be funny.  If you are here to work on your routine, you're right--it needs work.  A lot of it.  Good luck, but don't quit your day job.

There was a guy on another server who had done a lot of computer analysis, especially of Morphy's endgame play, and while I don't know what the engine was, how strong etc, the computer fairly often missed finding or correctly defending against Morphy's moves.  If you study his games and treat them as problems, I doubt very much that most of us would score very high in "solving" them as Morphy did OTB.  That should say something.  

It's funny you should mention nuances of the language when you can't spell my name right.

If that proved your point then you never had one.

Yeah Morphy changed the game quite a bit and was great but to say he'd crush Nimzovich is a bit much.  It's easy to look at games from the past and say "lol a beginner defeats them all now!" but they built the foundation for more recent chess discoveries.  Could Morphy beat Deep Blue or even Botvinnik?  Not a chance, but then again Babe Ruth nowadays wouldn't even make the majors for many of the same reasons.

To really appreciate how good players then were yet understand how far we've came we have to do guess the move.  Earlier in that same game I played cxb3 with the idea of creating an outside passed pawn and following the basic endgame principle of capture away from the center, yet Anderssen played axb3. 

I think Morphy would win some games but probably lose a set match to Nimzo.  As for the position the one I posted was later here's the pawn capture one:

The game in question is below, I did terrible in many places but wasn't all bad:

I like articles on Morphy. And yes, he was rich - not just his money(or of his family) but also his life! He had a gooood life!

I love that guy <3

I always thought he had a rather sad life. He died at 47, after not being able to work in the field he was interested in, or ever having some sort of stable relationship, suffering mental problems for a long time. A decade earlier one of his best friends wrote about persecution mania and Morphy's mind being deranged, if I recall correctly.

One of Morphy's prime "victims", Mongredien, lived to be 81, with wife and children. He was very successful in business and a prolific author on different subjects. Compared to Morphy his life seems to have been very good. 

Hmm, that's interesting. Mongredien must have had a good life. However I consider Morphy's life especially rich. The most important period of life is childhood. I believe he had a wonderful one. Considering his adulthood - he really didn't have a business career(law career) and didn't have wife and children, however he did have a University degree and was prolific in the area of chess just enough to have become sort of immmortal. I believe Morphy's achievments were made possible thanks to harmony he lived and that is what I call good life. Maybe I rather should call it harmonic life

And of course the end of his living days weren't harmonic indeed, unfortunately - that is from the outer point of view. I mean he influenced so many and still is!

This.