MORPHY'S FIRST GAMES 1 CHAPTER II. THE FIRST AMERICAN CHESS CONGRESS 4 CHAPTER III. MORPHY PREPARES TO START FOR EUROPE 12 CHAPTER IV. CHESS IN ENGLAND 23 CHAPTER V. MORPHY IN ENGLAND 57 CHAPTER VI. THE STAUNTON AFFAIR 86 CHAPTER VII. MORPHY IN FRANCE 140 CHAPTER VIII. THE CAFÉ DE LA RÉGENCE 144 CHAPTER IX. THE MATCH BETWEEN MORPHY AND HARRWITZ 150 CHAPTER X. MORPHY'S GREATEST BLINDFOLD FEAT 159 CHAPTER XI. CONTINUATION OF THE MATCH WITH HARRWITZ 166 CHAPTER XII. MORPHY IN SOCIETY 170 CHAPTER XIII. MORPHY AND THE FRENCH AMATEURS 176 CHAPTER XIV. MORPHY GETS BEATEN 183 CHAPTER XV. MORPHY AND ANDERSSEN 186 CHAPTER XVI. MORPHY AND MONGREDIEU 197 CHAPTER XVII. TROPHIES 200 VALEDICTORY 203 PAUL MORPHY. CHAPTER I. MORPHY'S FIRST GAMES. Paul Morphy's father, Judge Morphy, of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, beguiled his leisure hours with the fascinations of Chess, and, finding a precocious aptitude for the game in his son, he taught him the moves and the value of the various pieces. In the language of somebody,-- "To teach the young Paul chess, His leisure he'd employ; Until, at last, the old man Was beaten by the boy." I have here spoilt a very pretty story. The report in chess circles is, that the young Paul learned the moves from seeing his father play with his uncle, Mr. Ernest Morphy, long ranking amongst the first players in the Union, and one of the brightest living ornaments of American chess. One evening--so runs the tale--this gentleman awaited the arrival of the Judge, when Master Paul impudently offered to be his antagonist. What was the uncle's astonishment at finding the stripling a match for his deepest combinations, and what the father's surprise on discovering a very Philidor in his son of ten years! Deschapelles became a first-rate player in three days, at the age of something like thirty. Nobody ever believed the statement, not even Deschapelles himself, although his biographer declares he had told the lie so often that he at last forgot the facts of the case. But the story about Morphy beats the Deschapelles story in the proportion of thirty to ten. I sorrowfully confess that my hero's unromantic regard for truth makes him characterize the above statement as a humbug and an impossibility.