Paul Morphy: The Pride and Sorrow of Chess by David Lawson

Author:David Lawson [Lawson, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781887366977
Publisher: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press
Published: 2014-02-17T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

“The World Is His Fatherland”

Morphy’s formal challenge to the chess players of the world, offering the odds of Pawn and move, was never taken up. Thereafter, however, in his casual games, he almost invariably offered Knight odds. With his friend Rivière, he made a single exception, continuing to play him even.

Morphy had promised a match with Augustus Mongredien, president of the London Chess Club, who, knowing Morphy would have no time for it in London on his way back to America, decided to come to Paris in late February to redeem the promise. The match of eight games was played at Mongredien’s hotel, the Hotel du Louvre. It began on February 26 with only St. Amant and Rivière present. Mongredien had no illusions as to what the outcome would be, and the match ended on March 3, Morphy seven, Mongredien zero—the first game having ended in a draw. Apart from these, and three with Lowenthal, one with Boden, and some with Mongredien and Rivière in 1863, Morphy never thereafter played others without giving odds.

As was seen in Chapter 13, after his defeat of Anderssen, Morphy’s acclaim seemed to cover all Europe. T. J. Werndly of Holland celebrated him in the January 1859 Sissa in a five-stanza poem ending:

Weep not, O Europe

Rejoice not, America!

For genius like his,

Both lands are too small.

The World is his Fatherland!

Many such testaments to Paul Morphy have continued to be voiced by great masters down to the present day. Emanuel Lasker (in Lasker’s Chess Magazine of January 1905) pronounced him

the greatest chess player that ever lived. Every student of the game, who has delved into the stories of the past, realizes that no one ever was so far superior to the players of his time, or ever defeated his opponents with such ease, and no one ever offered Knight odds to the men who considered themselves his equal.

In Pablo Morphy, by V. F. Coria and L. Palau, Capablanca is quoted as saying

Morphy’s principal strength does not rest upon his power of combination but in his position play and his general style. . . . Beginning with La Bourdonnais to the present, and including Lasker, we find that the greatest stylist has been Morphy. Whence the reason, although it might not be the only one, why he is generally considered the greatest of all.

Dr. Max Euwe said, in “64” Shakhmatny, June 24, 1937: “Morphy is usually called ‘the greatest chess genius of all time.’ This formula, to be sure is somewhat broad, but just the same it remains in force even after a more attentive examination of the question.”

What with Morphy’s decisive victory over Anderssen, and his almost universal acclaim as the greatest chess player, past or present, interest in his games knew no bounds. Max Lange and Jean Dufresne were already preparing a collection of his games. Within about three months, the former issued a collection of 120 Morphy games. Lowenthal in London and Jean Prèti in Paris were pressing Morphy to help in the selection and annotation of 100 games.

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