Paul Charles ( June 22 , 1837 – July 10 , 1884 ), “The Pride and Sorrow of Chess,” was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his time, and was unofficial World Chess Champion . Some chess grandmasters consider Morphy to have been the greatest chessplayer who ever lived.

Morphy was also the first American to be internationally acknowledged as the preeminent world figure in a cultural or intellectual field. He was also the first chess prodigy since the creation of the modern rules of chess.

Morphy abandons chess

Morphy reportedly declared that he would play no more matches with anyone unless he was giving odds of pawn and move (in a match between two evenly matched Masters, a pawn advantage is considered a winning advantage). After returning to his home, he declared himself retired from the game, and with a few exceptions, he gave up the public playing of the game for good. He then began to think of beginning his law career. Unfortunately, he was unable to, as in 1861 the American Civil War broke out, disrupting life in New Orleans. Opposed to secession, Morphy did not serve in the Confederate Army but remained for a while in New Orleans, then left the city for Paris . He lived for a time in Paris to avoid the war, returning to New Orleans afterwards.

His principled stance against the war was unpopular in his native South, and he was unable to begin practice of the law after the war. Attempts to open a law office failed due to a lack of clients; if anyone came to his office, it was invariably in regard to chess. Financially secure thanks to his family fortune, Morphy had effectively no profession and he spent the rest of his life in idleness. Asked by admirers to play chess again, he refused, considering chess not worthy of being treated as a serious occupation. Chess in Morphy’s day was not a respectable occupation for a gentleman, but was admired only as an amateur activity. Chess professionals in the 1860s were looked upon as akin to professional gamblers and other disreputable types. It was not until decades later that the age of the professional chess player arrived with the coming of Wilhelm Steinitz , who barely made a living and died broke, and Emanuel Lasker who, thanks to his demands for high fees, managed a good living and greatly advanced the reputation of chess as a professional endeavor.

Morphy’s chess play

Today many amateurs think of Morphy as a dazzling combinative player, who excelled in sacrificing his Queen and checkmating his opponent a few brilliant moves later. One reason for this impression is that chess books like to reprint his flashy games. There are games where he did do this, but it was not the basis of his chess style. In fact, the masters of his day considered his style to be on the conservative side compared to some of the flashy older masters like La Bourdonnais and even Anderssen.

Morphy can be considered the first modern player. Some of his games do not look modern because he did not need the sort of slow positional systems that modern grandmasters use, or that Staunton, Paulsen, and later Steinitz developed. His opponents had not yet mastered the open game, so he played it against them and he preferred open positions because they brought quick success. He played open games almost to perfection, but he also could handle any sort of position, having a complete grasp of chess that was years ahead of his time. Morphy was a player who intuitively knew what was best, and in this regard he has been likened to Capablanca. He was, like Capablanca, a child prodigy; he played fast and he was hard to beat. Lowenthal and Anderssen both later remarked that he was indeed hard to beat since he knew how to defend and would draw or even win games despite getting into bad positions. At the same time, he was deadly when given a promising position. Anderssen especially commented on this, saying that after one bad move against Morphy one may as well resign. “I win my games in seventy moves but Mr. Morphy wins his in twenty, but that is only natural…” Anderssen said, explaining his poor results against Morphy.

Notable chess games

• Louis Paulsen vs Paul Morphy, New York 1857, Four Knights Game: Spanish. Classical Variation (C48), 0-1 A positional pressure develops into a decisive attack with a Queen sacrifice.
• Paul Morphy vs Duke Karl of Brunswick/Count Isouard, Paris 1858, Philidor Defense: General (C41), 1-0 The ” Opera game ” – a casual game against unexperienced opponents, but at the same time one of the most beautiful and clearest attacking games of the century. Often used by chess teachers to demonstrate how to use time, develop pieces and generate threats.
• Paul Morphy vs Adolf Anderssen, Casual Game 1858, King’s Gambit: Accepted. Kieseritsky Gambit Berlin Defense (C39), 1-0 Morphy loved open positions. In this game, one can see how he used to win in such positions.