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Paul Morphy Quotes

Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he was called "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess" because he had a brilliant chess career but retired from the game while still young. Bobby Fischer ranked him among the ten greatest players of all time, and described him as "perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived".Morphy was born in New Orleans to a wealthy and distinguished family. He learned to play chess by simply watching games between his father and uncle. His family soon recognized the boy's talent and encouraged him to play at family gatherings, and by the age of nine he was considered to be one of the best players in the city. At just twelve years of age, Morphy defeated visiting Hungarian master Johann Löwenthal in a match of three games.

After receiving his degree in 1857, Morphy was not yet of legal age to practice law and found himself with free time. At his uncle's urging, he accepted an invitation to play at the First American Chess Congress in New York City. After winning the tournament, which included strong players such as Alexander Meek and Louis Paulsen, Morphy was hailed as the chess champion of the United States and stayed in New York playing chess through 1857, winning the vast majority of his games. In 1858, Morphy traveled to Europe to play European Champion Howard Staunton. Morphy played almost every strong player in Europe, usually winning easily. The match with Staunton never materialized, but Morphy was acclaimed by most in Europe as the world's best player.

Returning to the United States in triumph, Morphy toured the major cities playing chess on his way back to New Orleans. By 1859, on returning to New Orleans, Morphy declared he was retiring from chess to begin his law career. However, Morphy was never able to establish a successful law practice and ultimately lived a life of idleness, living off his family's fortune. Despite appeals from his chess admirers, Morphy never returned to the game, and died in 1884 from a stroke at the age of 47. Wikipedia  

✵ 22. June 1837 – 10. July 1884
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Paul Morphy: 16   quotes 0   likes

Famous Paul Morphy Quotes

“It [chess] is not only the most delightful and scientific, but the most moral of amusements.”

Paul Morphy

As quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859

“Anderssen voiced it well when asked why he did not play as brilliantly as usual in his game with Morphy, when he replied: "Morphy will not let me."”

Paul Morphy

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Source: As quoted in Lasker's Chess Magazine https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lasker%27s_Chess_Magazine/Volume_1

“It [chess] is eminently and emphatically the philosopher's game.”

Paul Morphy

As quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859

“"… Morphy, the master of all phases of the game, stronger than any of his opponents, even the strongest of them…" ~ Alexander Alekhine, in Shakmatny Vestnik, January 15, 1914”

Paul Morphy

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“…Morphy was stronger than anyone he played with, including Anderssen”

Paul Morphy

Wilhelm Steinitz, International Chess Magazine 1885.
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“Paul Morphy was 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.”

Paul Morphy

As quoted in Lasker's Chess Magazine
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Paul Morphy Quotes

“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.”

Paul Morphy

José Raúl Capablanca, in Pablo Morphy by V. F. Coria and L. Palau.
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“Chess never has been and never can be aught but a recreation. It should not be indulged in to the detriment of other and more serious avocations.”

Paul Morphy

As quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859 https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=aEZAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA3

“We also remember the brilliant flight of the American super-genius Paul Morphy, who in a couple of years (1857-59) conquered both the New and the Old Worlds. He revealed a thunderous blend of pragmatism, aggression and accurate calculation to the world -- qualities that enabled America to accomplish a powerful spurt in the second half of the 19th century.”

Paul Morphy

Garry Kasparov (2003). On My Great Predecessors. Gloucester Publishers plc. Vol. 1, p. 6. ISBN 1857443306.
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World

“Let the chessboard supercede the card table, and a great improvement will be visible in the morals of the community.”

Paul Morphy

As quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859

Communication

“After the passage of a century, Morphy still remains the most glamorous figure that has ever appeared in the chess world.”

Paul Morphy

Edward Lasker (in The Adventure of Chess, 2nd Edition, New York, 1959)
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World , Appearance

“I am more strongly confirmed than ever in the belief that the time devoted to chess is literally frittered away. It is, to be sure, a most exhilarating sport, but it is only a sport; and it is not to be wondered at that such as have been passionately addicted to the charming pastime should one day ask themselves whether sober reason does not advise its utter dereliction.”

Paul Morphy

From Morphy's letter to Daniel Fiske, February 4, 1863 https://web.archive.org/web/20150722050734/http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/Morphy_to_Fiske_Feb4.html

Sport , Passion , Time

“Genius is a starry word; but if there ever was a chess player to whom that attribute applied, it was Paul Morphy.”

Paul Morphy

Andrew Soltis (in Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess, New York, 1977)
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“So still was he, that but for the searching intellect which glittered in his full dark eye, you might have taken him for a carven image as he pondered his moves. His bearing was mild and that of a refined gentleman, and he dealt the most crushing blows on his adversary with an almost womanly ease and grace.”

Paul Morphy

Hugh Alexander Kennedy, quoted in The Westminster Papers: A Monthly Journal of Chess, Whist, Games of Skill and the Drama, Volume X https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Bs9eAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.RA1-PA40
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“It has been truly said that Morphy was at once the Caesar and the Napoleon of chess. He revolutionized chess. He brought life and dash and beauty into the game at a time when an age of dullness was about to set in and he did this at a stroke. Then he quit forever. Only two years from the beginning to the end. The negotiations for some modern matches have taken that long!”

Paul Morphy

J. A. Galbreath (American Chess Bulletin, October, 1909)
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Life , Age , Beauty , Game

“What was the secret of Morphy's invincibility? I think it was a combination of a unique natural talent and brilliant erudition. His play was the next, more mature stage in the development of chess. Morphy had a well-developed 'feeling for position', and therefore he can be confidently regarded as the 'first swallow”

Paul Morphy

the prototype of the strong 20th century grandmaster."
Garry Kasparov (2003). On My Great Predecessors. Gloucester Publishers plc. Vol. 1, p. 43. ISBN 1857443306.
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Secret , Feeling , Confidence , Nature

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