Frederick Milnes Edge
The Exploits and Triumphs of Paul Morphy, the Chess Champion
Account of the Great European Tour
e-artnow, 2021
Contact: [email protected]
EAN: 4064066388928
Table of Contents
Chapter I. Morphy's First Games.
Chapter II. The First American Chess Congress.
Chapter III. Morphy Prepares to Start for Europe.
Chapter VI. The Staunton Affair.
Chapter VII. Morphy in France.
Chapter VIII. The Café de la Régence.
Chapter IX. The Match Between Morphy and Harrwitz.
Chapter X. Morphy's Greatest Blindfold Feat.
Chapter XI. Continuation of the Match with Harrwitz.
Chapter XII. Morphy in Society.
Chapter XIII. Morphy and the French Amateurs.
Chapter XIV. Morphy Gets Beaten.
Chapter XV. Morphy and Anderssen.
Chapter XVI. Morphy and Mongredieu.
THIS RECORD
OF
PAUL MORPHY'S
ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE OLD WORLD,
IS DEDICATED
TO
The Members of
THE FIRST AMERICAN CHESS CONGRESS,
BY
THEIR MOST GRATEFUL
AND OBLIGED SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
I am much indebted, in the following pages, to the kind assistance of that able writer and veteran chess-player, Mr. George Walker, who has furnished me with most of the very interesting and valuable information contained in the fourth chapter of this work. I am likewise under obligations to Herr Löwenthal for many anecdotes relating to chess celebrities of the past, and other information; and also to Mr. George Medley, Honorary Secretary of the London Chess Club, and Mr. Ries, of the Divan.
The cuts with which this work is embellished have been engraved by the well-known Brothers Dalziel. The portrait of Paul Morphy, copied from a photograph taken shortly after his arrival in London last year, is an excellent likeness.
The portraits of Messrs. Staunton, Boden, Anderssen, and Löwenthal, are copies of photographs, for which they sat at the Manchester Meeting, in 1857. The originals of Messrs. Saint Amant and Harrwitz are admirably executed lithographs of those gentlemen, taken about four years ago, and that of Mr. Mongredieu is copied from a photograph kindly lent for the purpose.
I am under great obligations to Mr. Lewis, who came to London expressly to sit for his likeness; and I feel assured that my readers will value this "very form and feature" of an amateur who was famous before Labourdonnais was known outside the Régence; and whose works are found in every chess-player's library.
I had considerable difficulty in obtaining the portrait of Mr. George Walker. Photographs, lithographs, etc., of that most popular of all chess writers, did not exist, and many friends prophesied that his likeness would not be in my book. But I importuned him so that he relented, and confided to my care an oil painting, for which he sat five years ago, and which was the only portrait of him in existence.
My readers can judge of the resemblance of the other cuts by the portrait of Paul Morphy. I only wish my story was as good.
CHAPTER I.
MORPHY'S FIRST GAMES.
Paul Morphy's father, Judge Morphy, of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, beguiled his leisure hours with the fascinations of Chess, and, finding a precocious aptitude for the game in his son, he taught him the moves and the value of the various pieces. In the language of somebody,—
"To teach the young Paul chess,
His leisure he'd employ;
Until, at last, the old man
Was beaten by the boy."
I have here spoilt a very pretty story. The report in chess circles is, that the young Paul learned the moves from seeing his father play with his uncle, Mr. Ernest Morphy, long ranking amongst the first players in the Union, and one of the brightest living ornaments of American chess. One evening—so runs the tale—this gentleman awaited the arrival of the Judge, when Master Paul impudently offered to be his antagonist. What was the uncle's astonishment at finding the stripling a match for his deepest combinations, and what the father's surprise on discovering a very Philidor in his son of ten years! Deschapelles became a first-rate player in three days, at the age of something like thirty. Nobody ever believed the statement, not even Deschapelles himself, although his biographer declares he had told the lie so often that he at last forgot the facts of the case. But the story about Morphy beats the Deschapelles story in the proportion of thirty to ten. I sorrowfully confess that my hero's unromantic regard for truth makes him characterize the above statement as a humbug and an impossibility.
Paul's genius for Chess was, very properly, not permitted to interfere with his educational pursuits. At college (in South Carolina) until eighteen years of age, he had but little time for indulgence in his favorite game, nor did he find any one capable of contending with him. When