MORPHY, PAUL CHARLES (18371884)

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 869 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MOL-MOS

MORPHY, PAUL CHARLES (18371884) , American chess player, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the 22nd of June 1837, the son of Alonzo Morphy (17981856) and his wife, whose maiden name was Le Carpentier. The father, the son of a well-to-do Spanish immigrant, was a prominent jurist and legislator and, like his brother Ernest, passionately fond of chess. Learning the moves from his father at the age of ten, Paul gave evidence of such extraordinary precocity that in less than two years he was able to defeat all the amateurs of his native city. While still at school he competed successfully with such strong players as

Eugene

EUGENE

Rousseau and the Hungarian master J. Lowenthal. He attended the Jesuit college of St Joseph at

Spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

Hill,

Alabama

ALABAMA

, and applied himself to the study of the law, being admitted to the bar of Louisiana in 1858. During the autumn of 1857 he took part in the first American chess congress at New

York

, winning the first prize from sixteen competitors, including the well-known L. Paulsen. Morphy went to Europe in the

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

of 1858 and entered upon a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of triumphs, both in regular mat9ches and in blindfold play, that proved him to be one of the best players of the time. The winter of 18581859 was passed in Paris, where he was destined to gain his greatest triumphs, practically winning the championship of the world by beating Adolf Anderssen, champion of Germany, by a score of 72, with two games

drawn

DRAWN

. Another feat was his simultaneous blindfold match against eight strong French players, six of whom he defeated. At this time he was in his twenty-second year. Returning to the United States in 1859, he in-tended to establish himself in the practice of the law at New Orleans, but the outbreak of the Civil War frustrated these plans. His devotion to chess had already begun to affect his health. He spent the year 1863 in Paris, returning to New Orleans in 1864, but his health was now permanently impaired. He became insane, and at last he died in New Orleans in 1884.
See Exploits and Triumphs of Paul Morphy, by F. M. Edge (New

York

, 1859) ; Morphy's Games, edited by J. Lowenthal (New York, 186o) ; Paul Morphy, by Max Lange (

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, 1881).

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