From: ghost_of_morphy@theghostishere.com   
      
   On 10 Nov 2003 02:20:31 GMT, stewartconnor@aol.com (Stewart Connor)   
   wrote:   
      
      
   >Why dont you explain to everyone why you call yourself "Morphy's Ghost". I bet   
   >they would all be interested to hear who "Morphy" is.   
      
      
   About time you asked, Stewie.  I'm happy to educate you on this   
   matter.   
      
   Paul Morphy was born on June 22, 1837 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He   
   had two sisters, Mahrina (5/2-1830), Helena (21/10-1839) and a brother   
   Edward (26/12-1834). His father's nationality was Spanish, but he was   
   of Irish origin. His mother was French. From the age of 8 he played   
   hundreds of games against the best players in New Orleans. By the time   
   he was 13 he was the best chess player in New Orleans and one of the   
   best players in America. At age 17 he won 6 games against judge Meek,   
   President of the American Chess Congress. Apart from this, he only   
   faced relatively weak players.   
      
   In October, 1857 Paul Morphy went to New York to play in the first   
   American Chess Congress. The top 16 players in America was invited.   
   Morphy easily defeated them all and won the event. He refused the $300   
   first place money. Instead, he accepted a silver pitcher, four   
   goblets, and a silver tray. He defeated Charles Stanley, the next best   
   player in America, giving him odds of pawn and move. Morphy gave the   
   $100 prize money to Stanley's wife and children. As a mark of   
   gratitude, she named her next daughter Pauline.   
      
   After Morphy's amazing victory at New York, some suggested that a   
   European master should come to America to play him. When the great   
   British master Howard Staunton heard this (Staunton was considered the   
   best player in the world), he wrote in his weekly paper column, "The   
   best players of Europe are not chess professionals, but have other and   
   more serious things to occupy their minds with." Morphy's friends in   
   New Orleans did send a challenge to Staunton to come to America. But   
   Staunton rejected it. He did say that if Morphy came to Europe, he   
   would find him (Staunton) ready.   
      
   In June, 1858 Paul Morphy went to Europe to challenge their best chess   
   players. The New Orleans chess club suggested to pay Morphy the amount   
   needed for him to participate in the Birmingham tournament, to be held   
   in England, but Morphy declined the offer, as he did not want to be   
   considered a professional chess player. He stayed in England for 3   
   months trying to arrange a match with Staunton. But Staunton claimed   
   he had more serious things to do, albeit he participated in the   
   Birmingham tournament at the same time. Staunton also continued to   
   smear Morphy in his newspaper chess column, claiming Morphy was   
   chasing money, among other things. In the last letter that Morphy send   
   to Staunton, he writes "Allow me to repeat, what I have constantly   
   declared in all the chess circles I have had the honour to   
   participate. That I have never wanted to make any skill I may possess,   
   a tool for making a profit.". Morphy had to give up the idea of a   
   match against Staunton and went to Paris, where he defeated Lowenthal,   
   Harrwitz, and Anderssen within a space of six months. Having defeated   
   Harrwitz, he even rejected receiving the prize of 290 francs. But he   
   was forced to, and later used the money to pay Anderssen's journey to   
   France. When he arrived in Paris to play Anderssen, he was suffering   
   from the flu. His medical treatment consisted of being leeched. He   
   lost four pints of blood and was too weak to leave his hotel bed.   
   Anderssen's friends had told him not to damage the German prestige by   
   travelling abroad and play a match against this young man (Morphy)   
   without official recognition. But Anderssen felt otherwise, and when   
   his friends asked him why he did not play as brilliant as he did in   
   his famous match against Dufresne, Anderssen replied "No, Morphy would   
   not let me." And Morphy himself, was playing the second strongest   
   chess player (Anderssen) in the world from his hotel bed suffering   
   from the flu, and still won the match with a 7-2 score.   
      
   In April, 1859 Morphy played up to 8 blindfold simultaneous games   
   against the top players of each chess club he visited. By December,   
   1859 he had given up serious chess. When Morphy returned to New York,   
   he was greeted by Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Samuel Morse, and   
   John van Buren, the former President's son. Van Buren toasted Morphy   
   as 'The Chess Champion of the World.' It was the first time that   
   expression had been used. An episode during the reception in New York   
   shows what a devastating blow it had been for Morphy that Staunton   
   rejected to play him. Colonel Mead, the chairman of the reception   
   committee, talked in his speech about chess, as a profession, and   
   pointed Morphy out, as this profession's foremost representative.   
   Morphy strongly opposed being described this way, and he was so angry,   
   that Colonel Mead became overwelmed by confusion, and felt so   
   dishonored by his misfortune, that he decided no longer to participate   
   in the Morphy celebration. Morphy's overreaction may be explained by   
   the fact, that Staunton had labeled Morphy as a professional chess   
   player, and thus refused to play him. Morphy was paid $3,000 to write   
   America's first chess column for the NEW YORK LEDGER newspaper. Morphy   
   barely did this for a year and quit.   
      
   Paul Morphy was the first sports figure to issue a commercial   
   endorsement when he declared of a watch, "I have examined the contents   
   of this watch and find it to be made of 100 percent genuine   
   machinery."   
      
   Morphy did not fight for the South during the Civil War and stayed out   
   of the War. He traveled to Cuba, then to Paris in 1863. He returned to   
   New Orleans a year later. In 1867 his mental state was alarming, and   
   his mother persuaded him to go to Paris, hoping that the change of   
   environment would help him. Morphy had now come to hate chess, and he   
   never approached the chess clubs where had earlier celebrated his   
   greatest triumphs. He stayed in Paris for 18 months before returning   
   to his home.   
      
   Morphy withdrew from society and suffered delusions of persecution in   
   his later years. According to his niece, he had in a period the   
   strange habit of walking up and down the porch saying "Il plantera la   
   banniere de Castille sur le murs de Madrid, au cri de Ville gangnee,   
   et le petit roi s'en ira tout penaud." In English "He will plant the   
   banner of the Castille on the walls of Madrid, screaming : The city is   
   conquered and the litte king will have to go." Two years before Morphy   
   died, he was asked if it was okay to include him in a book about   
   famous Louisiana citizens because of his achievements in chess. Morphy   
   was outraged by being connected with chess, and answered, that his   
   father, judge at the surpreme court of Louisiana, Mr. Alonzo Morphy,   
   at his death, had left a sum of 146.162 dollars and 54 cents. But that   
   he (Morphy) did not have a profession at all, and thus had nothing to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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