Paul Morphy: The Pride and Sorrow of Chess

by David Lawson

  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. Edge wrote Fiske on January 6, 1859, that

  Morphy is seriously engaged at the present moment in annotating some 100 of his best games, played in America or Europe. Prèti edits for France and Lowenthal for England. The proposition came from themselves and they are forcing Morphy to work—which the gentle Paul does not like.

  The Lowenthal (New York) and Prèti volumes came out much later in the year. The interest in Morphy and his games may be gauged by the fact that altogether some fourteen books and pamphlets on him were published by 1860; one of them (Lowenthal’s Morphy’s Games of Chess in the Bohn edition) was destined to be reprinted many times.

  After the Mongredien match, Rivière induced Morphy to collaborate on an analysis of chess openings. However, they had hardly begun before Morphy received an urgent message, delivered by his brother-in-law, John Sybrandt, to return to New Orleans. And four years were to elapse before Morphy was able to resume work with Rivière on the analysis.

  As the end of March approached, any thought Morphy may have had of visiting Germany was abandoned, and with the arrival of Sybrandt, Morphy’s departure from Paris was hastened. The amateurs of Paris, headed by St. Amant, Lequesne, Rivière, Prèti, Delannoy, Journoud, and others, anticipating Morphy’s departure, had planned a chess festival in his honor. The original plan was to hold a preliminary tournament of one hundred amateurs, arranged in five categories according to strength. Then, on the day of the banquet, Morphy was to play the winner of each category, giving to the first the odds of Pawn and move; to the second, Pawn and two moves; to the third, a Knight; to the fourth, a Castle; and to the fifth, a Castle and first move. The public banquet was to follow this simultaneous exhibition.

  However, Sybrandt’s arrival left no time for all these plans, for Morphy decided he could not wait for the final result of the preliminary tournament. A banquet was therefore hastily arranged in his honor at Pestel’s famous restaurant. St. Amant gave an account in Le Sport (April 6, 1859), of the Parisians’ last evening with Morphy—April 4, 1859:

  After six months sojourn in Paris, Mr. Paul Morphy has just left us. He is already far off. He sails from England for the United States, where the homage and congratulations of his fellow-citizens await him, who long to celebrate his triumphs in Europe, and the share which the superiority of his genius for Chess adds to the glory of the young Republic.

  It had been hoped that he could be kept a few days longer, but the hour of his departure rudely sounded, and that before the termination of the Tournament which had been organized at la Régence for the sole purpose of offering him a festival; a brilliant, yet, at the same time, weak manifestation of the pleasure which had been derived from his visit, and homage of the admiration excited by his fine talent in the art illustrated by Philidor and Labourdonnais, who preceded him in having attained, in the chivalrous lists of the Chess-board, the perfection of skill and reputation.

  On the first news of his precipitate departure, the Chess players put themselves in motion and promptly organized a banquet, which came off day before yesterday (Monday), in the saloons of the Pestel-restaurant. At six o’clock more than forty amateurs of Chess, with M. de St. Amant as their chairman, crowded around a board splendidly provided. Here are the names of some of the guests:—Messrs. Morphy and his brother-in-law, Lequesne, Arnous de Riviere, Journoud, Sasias, Delannoy, Panseron (Professor at the Conservatory of Music, who was acquainted with Richér, brother-in-law of Philidor), Commandant Cheret, Dubail, Van der Huys, Pfeiffer, Bodin, Gillet, Chausson, Pasquier, Moret, Mariage, father and son, Budzinsky, Gautier, Lamouroux, Pagonkine, &c., &c.

  At the dessert, the part was assigned to Mr. Delannoy to propose the health of Mr. Paul Morphy. In a few words, sparkling and elegantly couched, the orator dwelt upon the various incidents connected with the Sojourn in Paris of the illustrious American, who has won both the affection and the admiration of all those who have had the opportunity of knowing him.

  With a distinct enunciation, betraying no foreign accent, Mr. Morphy thanked, with great felicity of expressions, the honorable company for all the evidences of sympathy he was receiving from them, and which were but the crowning of all the kind attentions with which he had been overwhelmed in the capital of the civilized world, from which one ever tears oneself away with regret, and never without the hope of returning, especially after having been so cordially welcomed. He asked, in concluding, permission to propose a toast: “To M. Saint Amant—so long devoted to the Chess cause, and who has always so well served it with the triple talent of his brilliant play, his spoken and his written word.”

  M. Saint Amant rose to return thanks. He praised and much applauded those who, more fortunate than he (prevented by want of time and leisure), have dared to confront the invincible American, whose incontestable superiority he disputes still less than do the vanquished themselves. There had been unanimity on this point throughout the French School, and not one dissenting voice in the nation has mingled with the unison which now proclaims Morphy the first Chess player in the whole world. The French School has shown emulation without jeal-ousy, without regrets, well and justly convinced that one can fall before an athlete of such superiority without diminution of reputation and still less of talent, for by contact with light we are ever illumined by some ray. It is thus that the French School, which can boast of many youthful inheritors of Chess genius—lately our hope but now our glory—has grown a step higher since the presence in its midst of the chief of the great school.

  In conclusion, the Chairman approaching the bust of Morphy, borne in on a pedestal, said:

  “To all the agreeable moments spent with Mr. Morphy are about to succeed, alas! darkness and silence. This festival, gentlemen, so full of geniality and fraternity, is unfortunately a farewell festival. Chequered as are all worldly goods, it is doomed to have its dark side. To-morrow we shall part with our guest of to-day, and the spirit of our present meeting will only commence with us through the memory of the heart and intellect, as it has just been so happily expressed to you. However, these fleeting and perishable memories failing us, something more durable will remain before our eyes in this striking image of Morphy, sculptured in marble by one of us, in whom the art of playing chess well is the least merit. Honor to the bust of the eminent Chess player, which we owe to the chisel of one of our own brothers in Chess, M. Lequesne, whom it only suffices to name. His young and illustrious model would shrink with his wonted modesty from this crown of immortelles and laurel, which, in your name, I ought properly to place on the seat of so lofty an intellect; but he cannot prevent us, at least, adorning with it the bust which has been legitimately raised to him, and which will dwell among us. Laurels which have never caused a tear to be shed, and which are destined to recall to us the great Chess school, and the illustrious French predecessors whose light and inspiration have been well caught by Paul Morphy! Let us solemnly record his promises not to forget
us, and to visit us soon again. May he realize these consolatory words before these very palms shall have had time to wither and dry up.

  “Morphy! our friend, our master, you are immortal among us. In truth, to have won, so young, the highest renown of both hemispheres, and to have one’s image reproduced by Lequesne, makes immortality doubly sure.”

  Prolonged applause accompanied the crowning of the bust of Morphy, now deposited in the Chess sanctuary of La Régence.

  Different toasts were then proposed by Messrs. Lequesne, Dubail, Pogonkine, to the illustrious dead! to the skillful sculptor! to the memory of Philidor and Labourdonnais; to the absent (among whom most regretted were Messrs. Doazan, Mery, Hermann and Lecrivain), and to our stranger guests. To this last toast replies were made by representatives of Germany and Russia.

  The frankest cordiality prevailed throughout this banquet, whence they repaired to the Café de la Régence, there to keep up the genial current. There Mr. Morphy gave new proofs of the facility and disinterested kindness with which he plays against all those who manifest the desire to play with him, to whatever category these adversaries may belong.

  Saint Amant.

  They had wished to crown him—for as Max Lange said in his Morphy book, “Anderssen was formally crowned by the grateful Prussians” upon his return to Germany in 1851—but Morphy would not consent.

  It is likely that August Ehrmann, to whom he offered Pawn and two moves on March 31, was the last with whom Morphy contested before leaving Paris.

  But time was pressing, and Morphy was ready to leave Paris. However, Edge—as companion, secretary, and valet—was no longer with him. In fact, soon after the Anderssen match, differences developed between them, Edge merely explaining to Fiske as of February 10, 1859, writing from London:

  You will perceive that I have quitted Paris, leaving Paul Morphy alone. The fact is—since his match with Anderssen he has quite forsaken chess and feeling that there was no longer any chance of his playing anyone, I knew I was of no further utility.

  Of course, Edge now had much more time to himself. But it would appear that there were other reasons for Edge’s leaving Morphy of which the former never spoke. Nowhere in Edge’s letters to Fiske or elsewhere is there any satisfactory explanation for Morphy’s coolness toward Edge, who had labored so diligently and faithfully for him. In the letter to Fiske of February 10 mentioned above, Edge says that toward the end of January he had begun work on a book about Morphy. Without doubt he wanted primarily to give the world the story of Morphy’s trials and triumphs in Europe, such that he knew no one else could furnish.

  But Morphy disliked publicity of any sort, especially when it dealt with his chess activity. It is probable that Morphy had seen some of Edge’s manuscript and, disliking its treatment of the Staunton affair, had refused to sanction its appearance in book form. And Morphy also apparently objected to Edge’s treatment of other matters. When the book was published, an announcement in the July 1859 issue of the Chess Monthly stated: “Mr. Morphy expressly disclaims any connection with it [the Edge book] in any way or manner. There are many passages which might well have been omitted; there are many more which might well have been rewritten.”

  But Edge was determined that the story of Staunton’s and Harrwitz’s disgraceful conduct should be told, as well as the story of Morphy’s chivalry and moments of triumph. By February, when Edge wrote Fiske, the coolness between the former and Morphy had developed into a complete break, and Morphy was unforgiving. A letter to Fiske from W. H. Kent of Boston dated May 21, 1859, brings out how complete was the break:

  From Dr. Richardson I learned that the publication of Edge’s book was against Morphy’s desire and had not his sanction. I also learned why Edge was discharged. I have consequently done all I could to stop the sale of the book here. To tell the truth, I am disgusted with it myself. No gentleman would have written it. I think it places Morphy in a false position before the public.

  The book hardly merits such utter condemnation, and Kent was probably unduly influenced by Morphy’s sensitivity in the matter. It is true that Edge did perhaps take some liberties; for instance, Morphy might well have taken exception to the following:

  He [Morphy] frightened his adversaries, not by his strength, but by his personal appearance. This boy of twenty-one, five feet four inches in height, of slim figure, and face like a young girl in her teens, positively appalled the chess warriors of the old world—Narcissus defying the Titans.

  The naming of Narcissus was unfortunate. Nevertheless the book is for us a source of much information about Morphy and his stay in Europe, and of course means much more to us today than it could possibly have meant to those of Morphy’s time; and obviously others would not be as disturbed by its style as was Morphy. Edge finished the book in London, and it appeared in two editions about three months apart but with some significant differences between the two. It seems appropriate at this time to disclose the reasons for the two editions and their differences.

  Believing in February that Morphy’s chess activities in Europe were over, Edge ended the first edition of his book with a listing of Morphy’s games (except those at large odds) and a valediction. He called the book The Exploits and Triumphs in Europe of Paul Morphy, stating that “Paul Morphy’s Late Secretary” was its author, and sent the manuscript to D. Appleton & Company of New York. Appleton announced publication three months later in May 1859. Maurian reviewed it favorably in the New Orleans Sunday Delta, June 5, 1859.

  However, Morphy did play a few more games in Paris, notably a match with Mongredien, about which Edge knew, for it had been agreed to months before. Although Edge was not present during the match, he was able to include the match results in his first edition, since they were well publicized and took place soon after he left Paris.

  But now Morphy was loath to leave Paris and lingered on until the arrival of Sybrandt, who hastened his departure. He then planned to leave England for America shortly after his arrival there. In fact, he engaged passage, but due to English plans for banquets and blindfold exhibitions, he felt obliged to defer his sailing until April 30, three weeks after his arrival.

  Now, with Morphy’s renewed activity in exhibitions, etc., Edge had the urge to complete his tale of Morphy in Europe, and wrote an additional chapter describing Morphy’s second visit to England, convinced that an English edition that would include Morphy’s exciting last weeks would be of great interest. Using exactly the same text he had sent to Appleton, he added a new chapter, quoted freely from Shakespeare for chapter headings, made some minor changes, and submitted the whole to publisher William Lay of London with the title, Paul Morphy the Chess Champion, by “An Englishman,” without mentioning the earlier American edition that had previously been published.

  This London edition was first mentioned by the London Illustrated News of the World on July 2, 1859: “‘Paul Morphy in Europe’ will very shortly make its appearance, being already in the hands of the publisher, Mr. W. Lay, King William-street, Strand.” Later that month several London papers, among them Bell’s Life in London and the Era, announced its publication with short reviews in their chess columns. It was also reviewed at length in The Economist, The Critic, The Literary Gazette, and elsewhere.

  And so we have two editions, both widely accepted and well illustrated with excellent likenesses of English and other great chess players, a frontispiece of Morphy, and an excellent history of English chess clubs.

  Both editions have been out of print for over a hundred years, but now The Exploits and Triumphs in Europe of Paul Morphy, by Frederick Milne Edge, is available in reprint by Dover Publications of New York, with a new Introduction by this author.*

  Now the time had come, and Morphy, accompanied by Sybrandt and Rivière, left Paris for London on April 6, arriving there the next day. But Morphy did not at once announce his arrival.

  FOOTNOTE

  ______________

  * EDITOR’S NOTE: The Dover edition of Edge’s work is stil
l available. The work is also now available in a free online format. See Frederick Milne Edge, The Exploits and Triumphs in Europe of Paul Morphy (New York: Dover Publications, 1973), or search Google Books, http://books.google.com/ for The Exploits and Triumphs in Europe of Paul Morphy.

  CHAPTER 15

  Farewell to England

  Although Morphy, Sybrandt, and Rivière had arrived in London on April 7, registering at the British Hotel, Morphy’s arrival was not formally announced until April 10, presumably because he wished for some days of quiet.

  When his presence in London became known, London threw open its doors to him. The St. George’s Chess Club and other clubs had planned banquets and ovations for him and perhaps hoped for some further demonstrations of his chess powers. Morphy had secured passage on the Africa, which was to leave Liverpool April 16, but two weeks more were to elapse before England would let him go. As will be seen by the following letter, published in the London Era of January 9, 1859, plans to receive him had begun on the first of the year:

  Bath, January 1, 1859

  To the Editor of the Era,—

  Sir,—As I understand that Mr. Morphy contemplates another visit to England before his return to America, will you permit me, through your columns, respectfully to suggest to the Chess community of this country the propriety of offering him a public entertainment, together with some adequate testimonial which may serve to mark our sense of his transcendent ability as a Chess player; and also our appreciation of him as a chivalrous, high-spirited, and honorable man—a character which I hope Englishmen know how to value far more than even any amount of skill at Chess.

  Should this proposal take any definite shape, I shall be happy to be allowed to contribute £5 towards its accomplishment.

  I am, Sir, your obedient servant