The Exploits and Triumphs, in Europe, of Paul Morphy, the Chess ChampionEdge, Frederick Milnes
History
The Exploits and Triumphs, in Europe, of Paul Morphy, the Chess Champion
Edge, Frederick Milnes
Chess; Morphy, Paul Charles, 1837-1884
What wonderment he has caused with his omnipotent memory! I have seen him
sit for hours at the Divan and the Régence, playing over, not merely his
own battles, but the contests of others, till the spectators could
scarcely believe their senses. It will be remembered by many of my
readers, that when Mr. Staunton published the eight blindfold games played
at Birmingham, he omitted some twenty or thirty of the concluding moves in
the game with the Rev. Mr. Salmon. When we had been two months in Paris,
Herr Löwenthal wrote me to request that I would forward him the remaining
moves, as there was a desire to have the _partie_ complete. It was nearly
midnight, and Morphy had gone into his bedroom after dictating me some
games played during the day, and, mindful of Herr L.'s request, I called
to him, asking whether he was coming back, when he replied that he was
already in bed. I said I should be obliged if he would let me bring him a
board and light, in order that he might dictate me the required moves,
when he answered "There's no necessity for that: read me over what
Staunton published, and I'll give you the remainder." He called over the
omitted moves as fast as I could write them down.
Going into Morphy's bedroom one morning at ten o'clock, whom should I find
sitting there but Herr Anderssen? He had arrived by a late train the night
previous, and his first visit was to his young challenger, whom he was
indeed sorry to find ill in bed, especially as his absence from Breslau
was limited to two weeks. Morphy assured him that he should be well enough
to play the following week; but Anderssen replied that he should not like
to commence a match until Morphy was in a fit state to undergo the
fatigue. They then agreed that the match should consist of thirteen games;
in other words, he should be victor who first scored seven; and, as
neither of them desired any stake but honor, the preliminaries were
quickly arranged. From that we got to talking on various subjects, and
Anderssen informed us, greatly to our surprise, that the German papers had
published a statement to this effect: "Mr. Morphy has finally decided on
remaining in Europe until spring, in consequence of the pressing
solicitations of his friend, Herr Harrwitz." How we roared!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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