Morphy Child Prodigy
Morphy Learns Chess
Morphy learned chess from his uncle, Earnest Morphy. But he did not learn in the traditional way. Morphy very young (estimates that he was around 6) would watch his uncle play afriend. One time, his uncle agreed to a draw in what Morphy thought was a won positon. After his uncle had already put the pieces away, Morphy brought the pieces back out, and set up the ending position according to memory...from there he showed his uncle the win he missed.
Earnest Morphy later wrote about Morphy's talent:
"This child has never opened a work of chess... In the opening he makes the right moves as if by inspiration; and it is astonishing to note the precision of his calculations in the middle and end game."
Articles about the Prodigy:
In
1846, before the age of nine... The EveningPost relates this story:
"Gen. Winfield Scott (famous hero of the Mexican War and first Commander-in-chief
of the Union forces during the American Civil War) had many aquaintances there
(at a chess club on Royal St.), some of them quite intimate, and knowing the
habits of the members he repaired to their very comfortable rooms within a few
hours after reaching the city. It may be said to have been one of his vanities
as well. He was in the front rank of amateurs in his day....he turn to Chief
Justice Eustis and asked whether he could play a game of chess in the evening...."I
want to be put to my mettle!" "Very well," said Justice Eustis,
"We'll arrange it. At eight o'clock tonight,if that will suit you."
At eight o'clock, dinner having been disposed of, the room was full. Gen. Scott,
a towering giant, was asked to meet his competitor, a small boy of about 10
(actually, he was eight and a half) and not by any means a prepossessing boy,
dressed in velvet knickerbockers, with a lace shirt and a big spreading collar
of the same material.
At first Gen. Scott imagined it was a sorry jest, and his tremendous dignity
arose in protest. It seemed to him that his friends had committed an incredible
and unpardonable impertinence. Then Justice Eustis assured him that his wish
had been scrupulously consulted; that this boy was....quite worthy of his notice,
So the game began with Gen. Scott still angry and by no means satisfied. Paul
won the move and advanced his Queen's rook's pawn. In response to the General's
play he advanced other pawns, Next he had two knights on the field; then another
pawn opened the line for the Queen, and at the tenth move he had the General
checkmated before he had even begun to develop his defense. There was only one
more game. Paul Morphy, after the sixth move, marked the spot and announced
the movement for the debacle - which occurred according to schedule - and the
General arose trembling with amazement and indignation. Paul was taken home,
silent as usual, andthe incident reached the end.
The few survivors of that era still talk of Paul Morphy's first appearance in
public, but only by hearsay. Gen. Scott lived to wonder that should have ever
played with the first chess genius of the century, or for that matter, of any
other century."
From the New Orleans Times-Democrat :
"...Well do we remember seeing him (Morphy) from the street playing chess
with his grandfather, Mr. Le Carpentier, in the latter's countingroom, situated
in the lower story of his residence. The boy was small, and the ledgers or other
of grandpa's commercial books had to be piled under him to enable him to sit
at the required height to the table; and when we thus saw him we did not know,
but learned afterwards, that the grandson was all the time giving grandpa the
odds of a rook and beating him like Old Harry."
From Bretano's Chess Monthy:
"Paul, he says, was a little fellow and stood up to the table. Mr. Morphy
and his brother, Judge Morphy, the father of Paul, and Rousseau, were lookers-on.
Lowenthal was one of the most noted and scientific players in the world, and
a finished, courteous gentleman. He at first supposed that the game would be
a baggatelle, but Mr. Morphy told me that as he, Lowenthal, got into the game
and felt Paul's force, his startled look and upraised brows after each move
of Paul's was perfectly ludicrous or as Mr. Morphy in his French vernacular
expressed it, comique ."
These
quotes were found at the
Sarah's Serendiptious Chess page which has a wonderful section of the site
dedicated to Paul Morphy.
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