Paul Morphy (1837-1884) was one of the "unofficial" World Champions of the 19th century (the first official World Champion was Wilhelm Steinitz in 1886). He is considered by many to be one of the greatest chess players and chess geniuses of all time. Morphy was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and learned the game from his father, Alonzo. When Morphy grew up, he became a lawyer, following in the footsteps of his father, who was a judge. However, his mark on the world would be his chessplaying ability—he defeated all of the best players in the world who would face him, and in crushing fashion. In fact, Morphy was so far ahead of his contemporaries that most of his games are those where he gave "odds": he played without a knight, or a rook, or pawn and move, to make the game a decent fight!
Morphy later withdrew from playing serious chess, and passed away in 1884.
Morphy's ability to play the Open Games (Games beginning with 1.e4 e5), with both colors, is unsurpassed in the history of chess, even to this day. This is a strong statement, since even in 1900 chess theory was significantly more advanced than it was in Morphy's day.
To see Morphy's games on ChessGames.com, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment