by David Lawson
e. Master Paul, now and hereafter, wields his Rook with considerable tact.
f. Honor to this industrious King!
g. Philidorian-like.
h. There is not a good move for black; his game is irretrievable.*
*This is as fine a specimen of Chess skill and ingenuity, especially in one so young, as it has been our lot to see for some time.
Chess Editor Clipper.
This Petroff game with Ernest Morphy’s notes is given here complete because of a gross error in Lowenthal’s edition of Morphy’s Games of Chess, published in 1860. In Lowenthal’s book, the Petroff game shown above to have been won by Morphy is altered beginning with move fifty-five so that it becomes a drawn game. Following Lowenthal—whose London book (the Bohn edition) became the accepted source for the many games it contained—this game has ever since been copied as a draw in all collections of Morphy’s games in which it has appeared. It would appear that circumstances seemed to conspire to perpetuate this falsification.
The great interest in Paul Morphy and his games that developed during his first visit to Europe prompted Lowenthal to publish a collection of Morphy’s games. Similarly, in Paris, Jean Prèti wished to bring out a collection of Morphy’s games, and Morphy helped both in the selection of about one hundred of them. He helped Lowenthal during his last days in London before leaving for New York, although his time was much taken up with social affairs, exhibitions, and banquets.
Fiske, then editor of the Chess Monthly, mentioned the collection Lowenthal was working on in a letter to Prof. George Allen, dated August 12, 1859:
I don’t altogether understand the affair but it appears that he [Lowenthal] has sold it [the book of Morphy’s games] both to Bohn [of London] and the Appletons [of New York] and the arrangement has reached Bohn’s ear and he is furious. Morphy suspected something of the kind before he left London, and upon his arrival here made Appleton withdraw from their announcement the line which styled him the editor.
After completing the “Memoir” for the book and notes for 168 games (Prèti had kept his to just over 100), Lowenthal sent the manuscript to Appleton & Company of New York, and Morphy was looking over the galley proofs in early October. Appleton published Morphy’s Games of Chess in December 1859. Lowenthal had not waited to add the five games Morphy played simultaneously on April 26 of that year against the five masters, Bird, Boden, Barnes, Lowenthal, and Rivière.
But no sooner had Lowenthal forwarded the manuscript to Appleton than he started to add additional games for Bohn, including among them the Petroff game between himself and Morphy, which had not been chosen for Appleton. However, he altered a few moves as mentioned above and ended the game as a draw, instead of ending it as it had in reality ended—“gloriously won by Master Paul.”
Since the Bohn edition had more games than the Appleton edition (thirty-eight more), it was the more widely sought after. It appeared about two months after the Appleton edition and went through many printings until its last in 1913, while the Appleton edition never got beyond its first printing.
As quoted above in the Fiske letter, Morphy did no editing for the book; he merely helped for a few days on selection of games for the Appleton edition. He did even less than indicated by the notice “To the Reader,” which appears in both editions, for, as Maurian wrote in his chess column in the New Orleans Sunday Delta of January 29, 1860:
The notice “To the Reader” which prefaces the work and which is signed by Mr. Morphy, was not written by him; he merely af-fixed his name to it to recommend Mr. Lowenthal’s book to his friends and to chess players.
However, the Bohn edition was the primary source of many Morphy games and it had many more games than any other collection of that time (1859-1860)—Lange’s, Prèti’s, and Staunton’s notwithstanding. Moreover, it appeared to be authorized in toto by Morphy, who had agreed to Lowenthal’s issuing a collection of his games, although in fact he (Morphy) knew nothing about the Bohn edition (and its additions), although Fiske says he had his suspicions, until he saw it in print. The London edition thus became the basis for all following collections of Morphy’s games. And so this Petroff game, actually won by Paul, has come down to us as a draw, none having questioned Lowenthal’s explanation as given on page 349 of the Bohn edition. (It is GAME CXLVI in Sergeant’s Morphy’s Games of Chess.)
It is probable that neither Sergeant nor other chess authors before him were aware of the early publication of the game as given by Ernest Morphy. Uncle Ernest had sent the game not only to the New York Clipper years before but also to Howard Staunton, chess editor of the Illustrated London News, who published it together with Ernest Morphy’s letter, on November 22, 1856.
Of course Ernest Morphy knew that in sending it to Staunton it would be seen by Lowenthal, who had a similar chess column in the London Era, and he could expect the game score and letter to be challenged if at variance with the truth, especially as they publicized Lowenthal, a world master, being beaten two times out of three by a twelve-year-old boy.
Lowenthal did not denounce the game score at the time, nor did he suggest that the game had ended in a draw. On the contrary, it appears that Lowenthal, in replying to “Americanus” (evidently someone who had seen the game in Staunton’s chess column the week before and had asked if it were true), conceded the defeat in his chess column in the Era of November 30, 1856.
Americanus—Yes; it is quite true that in 1850 Herr Lowenthal lost one or two games with Master Paul Morphy, of New Orleans, then a lad of thirteen. It is six years ago, and he has only an imperfect recollection of the circumstance, because the games were careless ones over the board, neither intended as specimens of Chess nor for publication. Players of the first order lose a game now and then to Rook players.
It might be taken from this reference to Rook players that Lowenthal’s opponent had received the odds of a Rook or should have received such odds; but they had played even, as the two published games between them prove. In fact, Morphy never received odds from anyone; instead he started giving them as a child, although this question of odds arose many years later (see Chapter 26).
Lowenthal may well have wished to forget his having referred to Morphy in 1856 as a “Rook player,” when two years later, in 1858, Morphy’s true reputation became known in England during his European tour. It may be noted, on the other hand, that Staunton, remembering the letter and game that he had published in 1856, took pleasure in reminding the readers of his chess column on May 22, 1858, just before Morphy’s arrival in England “that Mr. Morphy when a mere child beat Mr. Lowenthal two games out of three,” the Petroff game being one of the two.
However, even if Lowenthal’s reply to “Americanus” had never appeared, it is impossible that Lowenthal could have entirely missed Ernest Morphy’s presentation of the game. In 1856 and 1857 the game appeared in the five following publications: in the United States, England, and Swit-zerland as it had been presented by Ernest in the New York Clipper; Staunton’s Illustrated London News, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Porter’s Spirit of the Times, and the Schweizerische Schachzeitung.
The following excerpt from the Bohn edition strongly suggests the probability that Lowenthal had seen the game in one or another of the above publications when looking for additional Morphy games. As he says on page viii of the “Preface”:
The book contains a far larger number of games than was at first contemplated. The editor feels, however, that in having yielded to the advice of his Chess friends, and inserted every instructive game played by Mr. Morphy, of which he could procure a copy, he has greatly enhanced the value of the volume, without doing any injury to Mr. Morphy’s reputation. The additional games are not to be found in any other collection; they have been gathered from the various periodicals, English and Foreign, which devote their pages to the progress of chess.
Yet, when he later specifically mentions the Petroff game, Lowenthal writes as though the game had never been published before, simply ignoring the
previous publications, and the reason for his reply to “Americanus” in his chess column of November 30, 1856.
In presenting the game as a draw, however, he must have felt the need for some explanation. Therefore, preceding the two known games played in 1850, which he was now adding for the Bohn edition, Lowenthal states (see page 349 of the Bohn edition):
The two following games were played between Mr. Lowenthal and Mr. Morphy in the month of May 1850, during a visit of the former to the City of New Orleans. It is right to mention that at this time only two games were played between Messrs. Morphy and Lowenthal. Of the two games actually contested on the occasion, Mr. Morphy won the first and the second was drawn. The latter game the Petroff, we have by us accompanied by notes, in the M.S. of Mr. Ernest Morphy, who recorded it at the time it was played.
Lowenthal may even have been able to justify this explanation to himself. But it is obvious that if he had some manuscript, it was not Ernest Morphy’s. Possibly, if the manuscript had no name on it and was in poor condition after ten years, Lowenthal’s wish that it be Ernest Morphy’s was father to his belief that it was.
In any event, Lowenthal’s bringing Ernest Morphy’s name into the explanation of the game forestalled any questioning. Even if one had seen the game before, one would imagine some previous error. And Lowenthal undoubtedly counted on the probability that most people would not remember a game they read about four years ago, concerning some unknown player. Ironically, this game, which Lowenthal (as quoted earlier) considered unworthy of publication when represented as a game won by Morphy, became of sufficient interest to include in his Bohn edition when represented as a drawn game.
During Morphy’s visit to England, friendship developed between him and Lowenthal, and the latter became a staunch supporter of Morphy, apart from his work on the collection of Morphy games. It seems likely that it was out of consideration of Lowenthal’s sensibilities that Morphy let Lowenthal’s publication of the early Petroff game as a draw go unchallenged. In any case, it was a fait accompli, and any challenge would have precipitated a very disagreeable situation.
It would appear that Lowenthal attempted in every way to minimize his losses to Paul by saying in his “Memoir,” which precedes the game section of his book (page 4 of the Bohn edition), that he (Lowenthal) “was at that time depressed in mind and suffering in body, and was also prostrated by the climate.” Yet the fact remains that, while he played and lost two games to young Paul on May 25, 1850, the very next day, May 26, 1850, he played Eugène Rousseau, winning all five games that were played. He himself mentions in his narrative in The First American Chess Congress that “on the 26th [May, 1850] I played with Mr. Rousseau (not match games) and won five games—all we played.” This he remembered well. Eugène Rousseau was considered the strongest player in New Orleans at that time.
Although Lowenthal was not certain whether there were two or three games played with Morphy in 1850, all other sources mention three games. Lowenthal had seen the The First American Chess Congress book. He had in fact been one of its contributors and had selected some games from it for his Bohn edition. The Congress book states that
He [Lowenthal] visited New York and some of the western cities, and finally reached New Orleans in May, 1850. On the twenty-second and twenty-fifth of that month he played with Paul Morphy (at that time not yet thirteen years of age) in the presence of Mr. Rousseau, and Mr. Ernest Morphy and a large number of amateurs of New Orleans.
The first game was a drawn one, but the second and third were won by the invincible young Philidor.
Yet about these 1850 games, Lowenthal’s memory seems “deficient,” and, as Maurian put it,
It is singular that Lowenthal did not remember exactly how many games he played with Paul Morphy in 1850. In the very interesting account of his visit to America (T he First American Chess Congress book, page 394) he says:
“I do not remember whether we played in all two or three games; one was drawn, the other or others I lost.” They played three games, as stated by D. W. Fiske, on the authority of Paul Morphy himself ( The First American Chess Congress book, page 507) in the presence of Mr. Rousseau, Mr. Ernest Morphy and a large number of the amateurs of New Orleans. The facts are undisputed.
Maurian had something to say about the third game in the New Orleans Times-Democrat of January 10, 1892:
Fortunately, I can say something about this third and unpublished game which has its importance. I have it from Morphy himself, and, although I am not aware that it was ever in print, I have often mentioned it in conversation with chess friends. Morphy, when spoken to about this game and asked why it had never been published, replied to the effect that it was simply unworthy of publication as Lowenthal had made an oversight at an early stage of the game, by which he suffered such heavy loss that he at once resigned. And eyewitnesses to the game, here supplemented Morphy’s statement by adding that, as soon as the oversight was committed, the youthful player chivalrously insisted upon the master’s retracting his move, whereupon Lowenthal smiled at the child’s naïveté of his adversary but declined the offer.
There is thus seemingly an explanation for one of the three games having been called a draw. Since Lowenthal had refused to retract his move and Paul was unwilling to accept the game as a win, it is probable that it was agreed to call the game a draw for the record. This would coincide with Ernest Morphy’s mention of a draw and two wins, and also Fiske’s statement in the Book of the Congress.
Apparently Maurian never knew about any arrangement for the draw above mentioned, and Paul said nothing about it in talking about the early Lowenthal games, for he did not tell everything to even his closest friend—witness Maurian never knew about Paul’s only chess problem, which likely had come up some time for discussion.
And so when Lowenthal published the Petroff game, Maurian may well have considered this the drawn game of the three, for very evidently he never knew that Ernest Morphy had sent the game to the New York Clipper. Marache had published both the game and the problem on the same page and date of the Clipper, and if Maurian had known about the publication of one he would have known about the other, and we know he never knew about the problem for he said so.
Ernest Morphy left New Orleans in 1852 and was living in Ohio when he sent Paul’s game and problem to Marache, and very evidently he just never told his New Orleans friends and relatives that he had done so. Also, Ernest Morphy was too meticulous and rigidly honest a person to have given out two such different versions of the Petroff game, one as a draw, and the other as “gloriously won by Master Paul,” as he demonstrated by his game score. The score of the third game mentioned by Maurian and Ernest Morphy, if recorded, is unknown.
It is quite clear that Lowenthal, notwithstanding the statement in his London edition of Morphy’s Games of Chess, had played three games of chess with Paul Morphy in 1850, and accepting Ernest Morphy’s version of the Petroff game, of which there is proof, rather than Lowenthal’s version, which is based upon some hypothetical manuscript, this Petroff game should hereafter be shown as a win for Morphy in all future collections of his games, the position after fifty-four moves being as shown below, with White to make his fifty-fifth move.*
Ernest Morphy used the word “Abandons” instead of “Resigns.”
FOOTNOTE
______________
* EDITOR’S NOTE: This is now the most common citation of the disputed game, owing entirely to Lawson’s account.
CHAPTER 4
From School to the Mississippi
At the time of Lowenthal’s visit to New Orleans, Paul was attending Jefferson Academy at 53 Bourbon Street. The Academy’s advertisement circular stated, “School hours are from half-past Eight till Three, and from half-past Four to Six.” Here he and Charles Maurian were classmates. Probably they had met before, since Maurian says the families were intimately acquainted. He tells a little about Paul and those school years in the following extract from a New Orleans Picayune article in the
January 17, 1909, issue:
A dreamy-eyed delicate boy, sitting at his little desk, his elbows on the boards, and his palms supporting chin, plunged in deep thought. Morphy was always thinking, thinking, thinking and there was a depth in his dark soulful eyes that it was hard to fathom.
Every morning he would leave his father’s fine home in Royal Street . . . and with his bundle of books hanging from a strap over his shoulder, would take his way up to the Jefferson Academy, in Bourbon Street, between Custom house and Bien-ville. Mr. J. G. Lord was the master of the school, and beside Paul, Edward Morphy, his brother, was also numbered among the pupils. . . . Nobody knows just when or how Paul learned the game of chess, and it is generally believed that he picked it up from watching his father and his uncle play on the broad back porch of the Morphy mansion. The game fascinated Paul as a little boy, and he would linger by the table watching his relatives moving the queens, the rooks and other pieces about, when other lads of his years were out at play. . . .
Paul at school was always studious. . . . He preferred literature, but had a good head for mathematics [and] found enjoyment on sitting down with one of the classics.
Often when the boys were at their rough games in the courtyard Paul, not physically strong enough to join the pastime, would sit watching them with just the suggestion of longing in his eyes. . . . Paul’s delicate physique was an early concern of his father, and with the hope of developing the lad, Judge Morphy engaged a famous maître d’arms to instruct him in the art of fencing. Paul devoted himself to the exercise with the same application that he gave to everything else, and was soon quite a swordsman, but in after years he dropped fencing entirely. Paul was still taking his fencing lessons while a student at Spring Hill College, Mobile.
In 1850 Paul completed his preparatory work at Jefferson Academy and then registered at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, on December 3, 1850. His entry in the college records merely notes that he was the brother of Edward Morphy, who had first entered Spring Hill two years before. Once again, Paul and Maurian were classmates.
