Paul Charles Morphy

22.2.1837 - 10.7.1884

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. He was a chess prodigy. Morphy was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to a wealthy and distinguished family. At just 12 years of age, Morphy defeated visiting Hungarian master Johann Löwenthal.

In 1857 he won the First US Chess Congress in New York City. 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 travelled to Europe to play H. Staunton. Morphy played every strong player in Europe, usually winning easily. 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. Despite appeals from his chess admirers, Morphy never returned to the game, and died in 1884 from a stroke at the age of forty-seven.