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 Morphy's Defenseto the Ruy Lopez is generally considered Black's best." Morphy's Defense 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. ... SOURCE: everything2.com |
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"Transitional Man" Before Morphy chess players concentrated primarily on pawn moves, like trying to dig a trench before beginning a battle. What Morphy understood first is that by bringing out his minor pieces--- bishops, knights-- he could command many more spaces than his opponent. The combination of pawn and piece moves allowed him to bring much more presssure on the center more quickly, and to respond with greater flexibility than his chess opponents. His style in essence gave him an advantage of many tempos, or moves. Development permitted him to both build his own defensive structure while pressuring his opponent. This made Morphy chess's first great innovator. It is a shame that Howard Staunton ducked him. Still, that evasion stands as proof to his brilliance." SOURCE: everything2.com |
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Searching for Paul Morphy Frances Hunter "The recent death of the brilliant and creepy American chess champion, Bobby Fischer, put me in mind of the first great American chess player, Paul Morphy. Morphy was one of the greatest chess players of all time and is credited with revolutionizing the game in the 1850s. I never heard of Morphy until we were doing the research for To the Ends of the Earth. Our villain, General James Wilkinson, was commander of the United States Army and a traitor in the pay of Spain. We needed to find out who was the Spanish consul in New Orleans in 1809; in other words, who would have been Wilkinson's "contact." It turns out in 1809, a new consul, Diego Morphy, had recently taken up the post. Morphy was the son of an Irishman, Michael Murphy, who had moved to Spain in 1753. Murphy married a Spanish woman and hispanicized his name to Morphy. Eventually he became a footnote person in history by serving as the American counsul in Malaga, a port city in southern Spain. There are letters between Morphy and Thomas Jefferson in the National Archives. Michael's son, Diego Morphy, was born in 1765. Interestingly, he married an Irish woman. The couple moved to the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo but were driven out at the time of the bloody slave uprisings in the 1790s. Diego had to hide his infant son in a basket, cover him with vegetables, and dress his wife as a market vendor to get them on to a ship going to Philadelphia. He later moved to Charleston, where he served as the Spanish consul to the Carolinas and Georgia. His wife died, and in 1797 he married a Spanish woman named Louisa Peire. In 1809 the Morphys moved to New Orleans, where he took up the post of Spanish consul until his death in 1813. One of his sons then took over the job and kept it until 1818. The Morphys became became American citizens and permanent residents of the city. They lived at 1113 Chartres Street, which is today known as the Beauregard-Keyes house and which you can still visit. You can find some great pictures of the house (which is open to the public) and much more on a great site about the New Orleans of Paul Morphy. Don Diego's son, Alonzo, became an attorney in New Orleans and started a family that eventually included Paul Morphy. Unfortunately, Paul's life followed a trajectory very similar to that of Bobby Fischer. Attracted to chess almost from babyhood, he began to beat world-renowned chess champions before he even reached adolescence. By the age of 22 he had conquered the chess world. But by the age of 25 Morphy had withdrawn from competitive chess. Like Fischer he developed a disdain for the limelight that eventually made him a recluse. The Civil War blighted his family's prospects, which further embittered him. He did not engage in any work, and began to show signs of paranoia. At age 38 he was briefly institutionalized. He died of a stroke in the bathtub at the young age of 47. You can spend hours of fascinating reading this very extensive site dedicated to documenting the life of Paul Morphy, the "pride and sorrow of chess."" SOURCE: www.frances-hunter.com |
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RE: Morphy-Barnes vs Staunton-Owen |
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Paul Morphy's Chess Rating "Paul Morphy does not have a rating because the rating system was not invented until after his death. However, chess historians have estimated that Paul Morphy's rating would be over 2600." "To achieve a Chess Master rating (2200) is a significant accomplishment for anyone. Albert Einstein was a chess enthusiast but only made it up to 1800 in rating!" SOURCE: www.academicchess.org |
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Paul Morphy Beats The Devil www.vachess.org |
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Parade Passing By The Paul Morphy Chess Club SOURCE: Crescent City Memory, Alexander Allison Photograph Collection, New Orleans Public Library: nutrias.org |
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Paul Morphy Street |
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Paul Morphy Online History and Trivia Quiz The Online Quiz (in two parts) on Paul Morphy (you may find the sentence structure difficult to read, it's a 'Google' translation): Part One: www.echiquier-louvierois.be Part Two: www.echiquier-louvierois.be I scored 90% on Part One, and 100% on Part Two. How well do YOU know Paul Morphy?!!? |
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Paul Morphy Beats Howard Staunton 1. Morphy/Barnes 1-0 Staunton/Owen 2. Staunton/Owen 0-1 Morphy/Barnes You can see these games (and more) on 'Morphy.pgn' - 415 Games of Paul Morphy: www.chess-poster.com Does anyone know the dates/places these two games were played? |
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