AThe Times San Mateo, California Saturday, June 24, 1972 - Page 32
Bobby at the Summit; Will He Topple?
In just one week, Bobby Fischer of the USA will play Boris Spassky of the USSR for the chess championship of this planet.
If Bobby wins it he will be the first American ever to win the title. He is already the first American to win the right to play for the title and that in itself is a great accomplishment.
But Bobby Fischer is not the first great American chess player. That honer went to one of the greatest chess-masters and one of the most flamboyant players who ever lived. His name was Paul Morphy and he conquered the entire chess world long before there was an organized or recognized championship. Paul Morphy did it all and was finished at the age of twenty-eight.
Morphy came from a cultured family background in old New Orleans. He was born in 1837 of an Irish-Spanish father and a French-Creole mother. As a young boy he was studious and reserved and he learned to play chess at about age ten.
The young Morphy first came to the attention of the serious chess world when only thirteen. He defeated a well known international master by the name of Johann Lowenthal. Lowenthal was so taken by the boy that he remained his friend for life and published a collection of Morphy's games.
After his initial triumph, Morphy stayed away from chess to concentrate on his studies. At the age of nineteen he received his degree and was admitted to the bar on the condition that he would not actually practice law until he became twenty one.
His first major chess tournament followed when he defeated fifteen other players with only one loss in the New York Congress Tournament.
Victory followed brilliant victory until Morphy dominated the entire chess world. His skill was so great that he gave the master, James Thompson, the odds of a knight and won the match. Later, he made the standing offer to any American player to give odds of a pawn but not a single player would accept the challenge.
Morphy was absolutely great, but the story does not have a happy ending and Morphy became a tragic figure. He returned to New Orleans and opened a law office ([after these foul plays perpetrated against him by his own fellow country men
Davenport Democrat, Davenport, Iowa, Friday, July 28, 1865
Paul Morphy, the chess player, is in New York, playing chess with his old associates. It will be remembered that he was a bitter secessionist, and on a recent visit to Washington his former friends let him know that they remembered that fact, by “cutting” him so dead that he left in disgust, completely “checkmated.”
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33258269/paul_morphy_the_chess_player/
Evansville Daily Journal, Evansville, Indiana Thursday, September 14, 1865
Paul Morphy.—The Round Table states authoritatively that Paul Morphy the chess king, was never on the staff of General Beauregard, and was never a secessionist nor a southern sympathizer.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33685960/paul_morphy/
Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, Saturday, May 5, 1877
Every once in a while a newspaper paragraph appears, in which it is asserted that Paul Morphy, the chess-player, is i.n.s.a.n.e. in New Orleans, but he is only practicing law there. The repeated republication of the paragraph is exasperating to the great man.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34013963/paul_morphy_is_only_practicing_law_in/
et cetera; years followed with libelous statements published openly throughout national newspapers, mocking, berating, dehumanizing stalking slander, even going so far as making light humor of potential killing of Paul Morphy at a young age. The papers sometimes reported the death of Paul Morphy, years before his suspicious and untimely death, but not soon enough for some, such as Steinitz who rejoiced and revelled in the removal of the world champion who refused further competition in the public whom were guilty of years of harassment and stalking.
Tragic fate. Yes. But this is how America has treated it's world-class chess champions.)]
He died under mysterious circumstances —suicide ([perhaps death, by poisoning)] was suspected but never proven — at the age of forty-seven.
Paul Morphy left a mark forever on the game of chess and his games are still replayed with wonder. Until now, he has been the one American chess player to scale the heights.
And now it is up to Bobby Fischer, a young man who has devoted his life to the game. Bobby has put together the greatest string of victories of any modern master. It would do a great deal for chess in this country if he could win the title and, for that reason, we wish him luck (an element that supposedly does not exist in chess).
