All Comers Welcomed

Happy holidays, whichever cultural holidays you may be celebrating! A shout-out to all chess riddle solvers. Every one welcome to challenge your skills at resolving seemingly unsolvable chess games. Newspapers often made typesetter errors in chess columns, and while many minor typesetter errors within games can be resolved with minimal effort, others, not so easily. This icon will appear throughout the Chess Columns blog with any games that were not fully transliterated from its original Descriptive notation to the modern Algebraic form (after much brainstorming to find the right moves). Can you solve these mysteries? A helpful Chess Notation Conversion app is provided to any who would like to try, as well as an opportunity to become fluent in reading and recognition of Descriptive notation. Hundreds of long lost games by history's greatest chess experts have already been given a second life on the web... and entirely here, in honor of the great Robert J. Fischer.

The featured game appears in The Los Angeles Times Chess by Herman Steiner Sunday, October 7, 1951 Los Angeles, California, Harry Borochow vs. Sr. Eleazar Jimenez, Capablanca Chess Club of Havana and the Hollywood Chess Group tournament.

Robert Fischer and Real Life Reason to Be Cautious and Suspicious

On the 1972 television show, Dick Cavett, Bobby Fischer describes recurrent dreams, of “detective mysteries” and laughs, “…I don't even read those kind of books.” Dreams are a universal phenomenon and many experts, including Sigmund Freud gave credence that dreams are clues to the very real problems in our waking life. According to the numerous “dream dictionaries” on the web, the meaning of such dream as Bobby Fischer described: “Mystery: To read or watch a mystery in your dream indicates that you need to be on the lookout for something that is out of place or out of the ordinary. Something is not what it appears to be. Be careful in your dealings.”

Shadow of Suspicions Surround the Unanticipated Death of Young Paul Morphy

If they genuinely believe it increased interest in chess beyond diehard connoisseurs, they're sadly mistaken.

Paul Morphy's life was ended in 1884. After 1865 (at the close of the Civil War, he was driven out of chess by former Northern associates who threatened “cutting” Morphy “so dead”. And why? other than Northern newspapers making up a sordid assortment of absurd rumors. While the North had Morphy supposedly on the staff of the Confederate General Bureaugard, Morphy was on his way to Havana and Paris! What started the ruckus what that the Richmond paper announced Morphy was to attend a Richmond Chess Club, then Northern extremists attached the words “Rebel” and “Bitter Secessionist” to the story, insinuating their plot to ruin him for his “Bad Move”. Accusations by the Yankees which are founded on no actual evidence and for lack of spinal fortitude, could never muster the courage to admit they made a Bad Mistake.) For Northern errors, in 1865, Morphy, to his face, was blackballed, ostracized, driven out from Chess. They rewrote his history, in coverup, claimed a “mystery malady of the mind” was to blame for the why Morphy disappeared. Refusing to admit their bad judgment, their hateful, petty rumors were entirely to blame for the ruin of Morphy's chess career.

Then, Morphy was mystified, vilified and written about as if only a mere "ghost," literally. Right up until the end of his life, sporadic reports still surfaced amidst a Northern campaign of defamation in news columns, false reports of his death, again and again, false tales of his admission to an asylum, fully unfounded and in spite of the defamation, visitors to New Orleans still reported encounters with Morphy's masterful play during private sessions, giving odds of a knight and still winning. Reported in “good health” and “independent circumstances”.

The World Expo would not come to New Orleans until after Paul Morphy was dead. The big national and international events steered far away from the home town of the Bright and Shining Son of the South, Paul Morphy... the North couldn't allow the spotlight shine on a Southerner, after all, upon whom all the blame for evil is heaped.

Why couldn't they have brought the World Expo to New Orleans in 1880 or 1875 for that matter, to draw the media and people of the world, to see Mr. Morphy on the streets of New Orleans and to verify he was in no ‘insane asylum” as his friends, associates, family, even himself personally, had vouched so many times in Newspapers. No? Not possible?

The two players, Steinitz and Zukertort, salivating as though in a cat fight over the world title, both visit New Orleans, 1882 and 1884, just prior to the death of Mr. Morphy at the YOUNG age of 47. Now, Mr. Morphy all this time has been being reported from 1870s-1880s in good health, of sound mind and body, and could be seen daily on Canal street! Why not bring the people there for Steinitz and Zukertort to duke it out while Morphy yet lives and allow the throng of people, to judge for themselves... since so many reports were being made of the matter.

Zukertort visited in April 1884 and Paul Morphy death occurs on July 10, 1884, but this is published, just weeks before in The Tennessean Nashville, Tennessee Monday, June 23, 1884 — A letter from Cincinnati says: “Yes, I guess Zukertort is very sore over my comparison. Do you know my little article so excited him, that he came all the way from New Orleans to show us how much better than Morphy he is? Bah! It makes me laugh, to think how we stirred up the menagerie.”

After the death of Morphy, Steinitz also couldn't get his fill of bashing, berating and vilification of Paul Morphy. Steinitz joined in on the Northern Yankee campaign to defame Paul Morphy... and as though Karma herself had visited the very fate of Steinitz to repay a lifetime of misdeeds, Steinitz DID ACTUALLY go into an Asylum!

Says, The Age Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Saturday, June 19, 1897—“The happiness of “the Bohemian Caesar,” as Steinitz fondly called himself, was not unalloyed. Paul Morphy was his bête noire. He attempted to undermine the pedestal upon which Morphy's glory is everlastingly established. But he did not succeed. If Blackburne makes a brilliant combination, he calls it a “bit of Morphy.” But no one ever heard anybody call a brilliant finish a bit of Steinitz…”

Suspicion Still Surrounds Steinitz 19 Jun 1897, Sat The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) Newspapers.com

The Times Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Sunday, January 11, 1885 — The Chess Board. — Herr Steinitz's long-looked for “International Chess Magazine” is now before the public and we are glad to find its “Introduction” that it has earned its title by having subscribers in almost every country in the world. Its first article is on “Paul Morphy and the play of his time,” the burden of which is that Mr. Morphy, through the champion of his era, was, in the highest sense of the chess mastership of to-day, neither original, correct nor brilliant. Let us go over the counts separately.
In proof that Morphy was not an original player Herr von der Lasa is cited as saying that he (Morphy) had made no inventions in the openings. Well, who, in the strict sense of the term has invented anything? The idea of 1. P to K4, P to K4 2. P to K B 4, P x P, 3. P to Q 4, Q checks, 4. K to K 2 has come down to us from the Middle Ages (see our report of April 25, 1880,) and yet, with a Q Kt attachment, it now poses as the “Steinitz Gambit,” and is considered by its “author” as the most “original” opening in chess. Lack of space, we presume, alone prevented Mr. Steinitz from also quoting Von der Lasa's more important opinion, namely, that Paul Morphy was the greatest practical chess genius the world had ever seen!
Next, Mr. Morphy is declared to be not very correct and some little errors are magnified to support this assertion. Thus Herr Steinitz asks, “What would be said nowadays if any first-class player would compromise his game so early in the opening to the extent of losing a piece for two pawns on the twelfth move?” Well, we don't remember just now what it was we said on hearing that a distinguished chess champion in the Vienna tournament was virtually beaten on the tenth move by Dr. Zukertort and also beaten in the same tourney by Mr. Ware, to whom Morphy successfully gave the odds of knight! and who hasn't visibly improved since that time. Again, Mr. Steinitz says: “In the second game (with Anderssen) Morphy is a clear rook ahead on the twenty-third move, in consequence of unsound sacrifices. Morphy fails to take advantage of the position and allows his adversary to escape with a draw.” On looking for the supposed burly blundering we discovered that Morphy was indeed a rook ahead at that particular moment, but that he was, in consequence of Anderssen's “unsound sacrifices,” in a critical position and that winning was, to say the least, a very delicate question to decide at the moment. All of which apparently necessary explanation was also, no doubt, crowded out by Mr. Steinitz for lack of room. Of course, the learned critic, who was smashed up in almost the very opening of his own gambit by Englisch and Tschigorin in two of those “brilliant games of the London Congress,” would have avoided such a mistake.
Then, again, Mr. Morphy is decided not to be brilliant in a match sense. In the first place Steinitz appears to give the term brilliant a peculiarly limited signification and under it narrows down Morphy's brilliant match games to two, and even these are not very brilliant in his opinion. As appreciation of brilliancy is purely a matter of taste we have no fault to find with his opinion and can only add that in this connection he informs an ignorant chess world that the celebrated Morphy-Paulsen game, wherein the former so wonderfully sacrificed his queen, was not “as commonly supposed,” a match game, but a “casual, off-hand encounter.” The error of supposing it a match game, however, is very pardonable, for the players themselves labored under this error, also the spectators, and the delusion was carried to such an extent that the editor of the book of the First American Chess Congress blindly printed it on page 252 as the sixth game of the Morphy-Paulsen match!
There are also minor points in the article which betray ignorance of the commonest facts in Morphy literature. Thus it is said on page 5 that the preliminary Morphy-Harrwitz game “is not recorded at all;” whereas, in point of fact, the aforesaid game has been printed in almost every edition of Morphy's games (except Lowenthal's) for the last quarter of a century!
Herr Steinitz, however, admires a few points in Morphy's game which dimly resemble his own. “Really,” said a learned serpent, “the eagle is a very unscientific creature. I can't bear to have it highly thought of. Its flying quite disgust me, for I long ago demonstrated that it couldn't be safely done! Yet there are some points about its walk I quite admire, and I think that if it had its wings clipped and its legs pared I could school it into a highly respectable crawl.”

Steinitz Envy and Vindictive Remarks 23 Nov 1884, Sun The Times (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com

Paul Morphy, Sound Mind and Body, 1882

While this report of Morphy's most eloquent, and humble response to a request for materials to produce a biography about notable Louisianians, was being circulated and published in The Baltimore Sun Baltimore, Maryland Wednesday, September 06, 1882 — “Paul Morphy, the chess-player, having recently been asked to furnish materials for a biographical notice in a proposed volume, writes to the New Orleans Bee that his father having left him an estate “ample enough to allow me to decently defray all my expenses, I have followed no calling and have given no cause for a biography. I have received a diploma as a lawyer.” He, however, adds, with pardonable pride: “A Louisianian by birth and in heart, a son of a father who acquired a reputation of jurisconsult at the Louisiana bar, who was a member of the Legislature, attorney-general and judge of the Supreme Court, and a grandchild of a grandfather who had the honor of representing Spain in New Orleans during a part of the first quarter of this century, I could but approve of a work that would bring to light the services, recent or old, rendered to our Louisiana.”

Simultaneously, on November 20, 1882 of the same year, the false report was being circulated that Morphy “has died at the early age of 45.” and most absurd of all, “For the last six years he [Paul Morphy] had entirely lost his memory.”

As everyone here probably knows, Paul Morphy died under mysterious circumstances in 1884, without benefit of a autopsy! Although the scurrilous news reports lied to the public, claiming a postmortem had been carried out. In a final mockery of the dumbfounded readers, proclaimed the imaginary autopsy (which was never done) confirmed ‘beyond any reasonable doubt’ that Paul Morphy died from a stroke as a result of having a “cool bath on a hot day”. Consider that!! because it's what the papers then circulated: “A cool bath on a hot day, killed Paul Morphy,” but a cool bath is the very thing recommended by modern medicine to PREVENT stroke.

However, we see above from the Baltimore Sun, Mr. Morphy was certainly suffering no “loss of memory”!

Coverup of How Chess Associates in New York and Washington, DC Blackballed Paul Morphy From Chess... Then, Blame It On Morphy!

(Now seeing what was unjustly done to Paul Morphy… recall what was done to Robert Fischer!) Documentation is preserved, how Paul Morphy, was the darling of the Chess World until … the Civil War between North and South erupted. Followed by overzealous Northern fanatics lashing out with baseless rumors accusing Morphy of being a “rebel” and “bitter secessionist” in spite of claims and actions to the contrary, in spite that Morphy didn't care to stick around and returned to Europe during the first year of the war! For a “bitter secessionist” that's the kind of behavior, we'd LEAST expect. The vindictive Yankee North could never muster the guts to admit it made very serious errors. So Morphy is forced to live with the burden of Northern mistakes on his shoulders for the rest of his days. It was not that Morphy chose to “end his career in 1860” no … no. It was former associates in Washington, DC who threatened “cutting him so dead” and former New York associates who would go on to “write Morphy out of chess history” (like this guy, Charles Alexander Gilberg) for their overreaching abuse and mistakes! Morphy was back in New York and Washington in 1865, according to papers in great spirits and ready to travel abroad! Reports were published how he was back playing games at his old haunts and winning every game! Even set on publishing a book with annotation of his games. Morphy was on a roll until those Yankee bullies from Washington showed up! making their intent quite clear: To drive Paul Morphy out of the chess world… ostracized… blackballed… and due to their political fanaticism and based entirely on false rumors they concocted in their newspapers and spread far and wide! Here, once again, one of those Northern fanatics attempts to rewrite Morphy's history, then pin the blame on Morphy with that oft REFUTED “mystery malady of the mind” more of Northern Civil War, false rumors that had been refuted again, and again, and again by Morphy's friends, family and associates and on some occasions, Morphy himself from 1865-1884.

Approaching The End of Chess Champion Paul Morphy's Life

The Times-Picayune New Orleans, Louisiana Friday, May 16, 1879 — “As regularly as new moons come, Northern papers state regularly that Paul Morphy is reported insane. Mr. Morphy is a quiet little gentleman, engaged in minding his own business, which fact is perhaps sufficient reason for meddling correspondents to call him crazy.”

Friends, family, associates were aware the onslaught of false defamatory allegations of “madness” and “asylums” were generated from NORTHERN… FEDERAL UNION… CIVIL WAR PROPAGANDA… grudges and bitter animosities that would not rest until Morphy was dead. Some publications amidst the bitter defamation campaign over the years had literally incorporated the word “death,”. The North had a yearning desire to remove Paul Morphy from his status of an immortal icon of American greatness. How could a “son of the South” be permitted even a glimmer of his former status as a shining star?

The Northern newspapers have worked diligently to erase how they violently abused Paul Morphy in 1861, falsely accusing him of being a “rebel” and a “bitter secessionist” while he was on his way to Havana, Cuba and Paris, France to remove himself from a war between the North vs. South factions, neither of which he supported! Their wild rumors steeped in paranoia, pegged Morphy as supposedly working on the staff of not one General, Johnstone, but the staffs of TWO Generals! including Bureaugard.

Morphy's closest friends and associates set Morphy's history correct at the end of the war. Papers were then flooded with reports those rumors were false, but bitter union fanaticism die hard. Former Chess associates in Washington, DC and New York blackballed Morphy, swearing their intent of “cutting (Paul Morphy) so dead”. Decades of bitter, cruel and petty slander, defamation and ostracization followed, till the day of Morphy's death. It is no secret in New Orleans, Louisiana that “Northern Newspapers” are the source behind the campaign of slander.

I welcome everyone to read the public outcry from Mr. Morphy's network of supporters; family; one submission even suspected by The Ottawa Free Trader Ottawa, Illinois Saturday, May 12, 1877, to be a letter in the New York Sun, “…apparently written by Paul Morphy himself, flatly contradicting the reports which had such a wide circulation in the newspapers, that Mr. Morphy, through his intense devotion to the game of chess, had become insane…”, friends and associates came forward in written protest to newspapers, from 1865-1884, to vouch for Mr. Morphy health and mind, by an outpouring of written defense against the flood of libel. But the North, the U.S. Federal Power and its fanatics, do not listen to “reason” nor has it ever been “reasoned” in its unyielding conquest for absolute power!
https://century-in-chess.blogspot.com/p/1877.html

Mr. Morphy is a quiet gentleman, which fact is perhaps sufficient reason for meddling correspondents 16 May 1879, Fri The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana) Newspapers.com

Contradictory Accounts in the Defamation Of Paul Morphy

This is one example of the flagrant contradictions in Northern “Yankee” reports, circulated in national newspapers to defame, belittle, humiliate and harass the great chess celebrity Paul Morphy. Because he retired from Chess, Paul Morphy's retirement supposedly implied, Paul Morphy suffered a “malady of mind”? That, dear friends, is what the Northern papers claim and do omit, how Paul Morphy was given no other alternative by his aggressive, former associates in Washington, DC and New York, threatening they were “cutting him so dead” (1865). Northern agitators forced Morphy out of chess, all the while refusing to tattle tale on themselves. Now, having achieved forcing Morphy to retreat back to New Orleans, they declare his absence in the game must be the result of his??? “mystery mental malady”.

In this set of reports, from the same newspaper, no less! out of one side of their mouth, claim that Paul Morphy has ‘not seen a chessboard in ten years!!’ Then, from the other side of their lying mouth, claimed Paul Morphy yet plays in private! conducting exhibitions of his skill among friends in New Orleans, and the source confessed witnessing Morphy playing! In other words, it is possible for Northern Newspapers to criminalize a person for simply the way they breathe but, everyone is guilty for doing that… it's all in the subtle and not so subtle way they frame the words that ruin the man for doing, absolutely nothing wrong all the while, talking out of both sides of their mouth. Now that's what I call multi-tasking!

Abusive Campaign of Stalking and Defamation and Endangerment to the Life of Paul Morphy

This is one of many efforts of Paul Morphy's friends, business and casual associates attempting to put at rest the Northern newspapers' campaign of defamation. The Northern fanatics did claim that a defective “malady of mind” in Paul Morphy led to the untimely ruin of his chess and legal career. But that is not so. The record of Northerners, guilty for years of flagrant harassment was preserved. Morphy was threatened in 1865 by former associates in Washington, D.C., to “cut him so dead,” forcing the abdication of Paul Morphy from chess. THAT, is why Morphy retired.

Regularly, Northern Newspapers were unleashing an organized scourge of defamatory news reports about Paul Morphy. Made up. Fiction! I ask anyone of rational mind: How does one succeed in any business or professional sport when a national, organized smear campaign of spying, stalking, defamation, and even… foul “comedy” published in national newspapers, making light of one's “accidental” death, for years... 1873…1874…1875…1876…1877…1878…1879…1880…1881…1882…1883… right up until Paul Morphy's mysterious death in 1884… humiliating defamatory accusations to eternally ruin his good name.

Absurd claims are made from Northern Newspapers that Morphy has been committed to asylum … and even committed took his own life (1877) in an asylum! But official asylum records from New Orleans confirm it is untrue. Again and again, contemporary friends and associates of Morphy step forward, confirming the sordid reports are cruel, untrue accusation and exasperating to Paul Morphy!

One false report states Morphy never made it as a lawyer and lives in poverty … while another, with haughty self-righteous “unlike the Yankee” lives an idle life of leisure … then, in another reported claim is made that reports Morphy as deceased, while he yet lives! Then he is reported again alive, but an inmate in an asylum and on and on and on the circus of defamation went, round and round, a circle of madness targeting Paul Morphy from Northern Newspapers and their influence creeping nationwide, then, into international chess history books to bury the memory of the great man.

The Truth About Morphy. He Has Never Been Insane, But Is Still The Best of Chess Players. ([They dare not mention a thing about the Civil War.])

The Tennessean, Nashville, Tennessee, Saturday, May 05, 1877
— New Orleans correspondent of the New York Sun.
The Sun of the 24th instant contains a repetition of that off-told lie about the insanity of Paul Morphy— that he has not played chess for a long time, and so forth, ad nauseam. Will you have the kindness to publish the following, which contains all the facts concerning Paul Morphy with which the public have anything to do?
He is now practicing law in this city; and has never been insane, or spoke of in that relation by his family or friends.
As to chess, he is unquestionably to-day the best chess player in the world, although he does not play often enough to keep himself in thorough practice. He gives the odds of a knight to our strongest players, and is seldom beaten, perhaps never when he cares to win.
His disappearance from public view as a chess player has just this explanation—no more, no less.
“The publicity and lionizing which attached to him for a time, both in this country and Europe, were always distasteful to his family, and especially so to his mother. On his return from his European triumphs, he entered into an engagement with his mother never again to play for a money or other stake; never to play a public game or a game in a public place, and never again to encourage or countenance any publication of any sort whatever in connection with his name. This last clause in the agreement has been so strictly construed as to prevent any denial by him or his family of the numerous silly publications that have been made concerning him. It is now time, however, that the thing should be stopped.”

Paul Morphy, Auctioneer Attorney, At Law

The Times-Picayune New Orleans, Louisiana Tuesday, May 23, 1871 — Paul Morphy, the chess player, has turned corner grocer at New Orleans.

The Burlington Free Press Burlington, Vermont Wednesday, January 17, 1872 — Paul Morphy, of chess celebrity, is practicing law in New Orleans.

The Daily State Journal Alexandria, Virginia Monday, March 25, 1872 — Paul Morphy, the chess player, now keeps a grocery store in New Orleans.

Buffalo Courier Buffalo, New York Saturday, March 23, 1872 — Paul Morphy, the chess-player, now keeps a grocery store in New Orleans.

It's not absurd that “a grocery store” is managed by a lawyer. After a review of D.E. Morphy's business, “…Particular attention paid to real estate, succession, stocks, scripts, cargoes, underwriters, portwarden sales…” et cetera. The Morphy family also owns “a general store” with groceries.

Google Maps reveals exactly where “47 Magazine Street” is located, and there is a “corner” there just as described. The article says, Paul Morphy (1872-1873) had turned 'corner' grocer. Therefore Paul Morphy was gainfully employed. Not a “poor, destitute” barely eking out an existence, as some of his northern detractors claimed. Nor the “idle aristocrat” as described by others among his vindictive northern detractors. Morphy retired from chess and carried on with his legal business, and as reported from New Orleans could be seen on the street daily. All the while, till his death was viciously slandered in national newspapers with such an onslaught of absurd, abusive and contradictory hearsay.

Paul Morphy In Paris and His Bitter Rivals

They will claim that the “problem” with the great chess genius Paul Morphy was “all in his head,” but the radical factions of the White Supremacist Imperialists of the United States, North vs. South, were tearing each other apart during the Civil War with Morphy as a pawn to be torn between them. Morphy's actions proved he was neither supportive of the South nor the North, for early during the war, he slipped his way back to Havana, Cuba and then into Paris, France, refusing to participate in a senseless war that had nothing to do with ending slavery — but everything to do with Racist White man's dominating grasp on absolute power in Washington, DC. News reports demonstrate the close associates of Paul Morphy utterly deny Morphy was in any way connected as a “bitter secessionist,” or any of the other sordid rumors dripping in vitriol, invented and circulated by vindictive editorials from Northern Newspapers.
As the tragic smear campaign was still underway by overzealous Union fanatics in 1864, efforts were also made by loyal friends in behalf of Morphy to counter the false reports and clear Mr. Morphy's name. After doing so, Mr. Morphy ONCE AGAIN attempted to resume his chess activities in New York and Washington, D.C.!! but only to find himself threatened by former Northern chess associates whom, making a long story short, verbalized their intent to ruin his celebrity status and drive him into obscurity from chess.

Mr. Morphy, upon seeing he was unwelcomed in Northern chess circles, returned to New Orleans by the end of 1865. Two years later, after the rumors and campaign of defamation had seemingly quieted down, in 1867-1868, invitation was extended to Morphy to attend the Paris Chess Congress, and from there, the smear factory went into full swing, again, starting with these foul rumors purposely circulated in syndicated press to target Mr. Morphy's prowess as a chess player. As one can see, the ‘problem’ does not rest within Morphy, but persons in the chess world from the United States and to some extent, worldwide.

It was after his trip to Paris and further defamation that ensued, including biting reports that Morphy supposedly “cheated” a certain Lichtenhein during match play, further besmirching the honor and integrity of Mr. Morphy's character and gamesmanship, that Morphy publicly states he shall NEVER participate in any public chess exhibition, again.

Those who attempt to rewrite history, and cover up their predecessor's misdeeds, devious schemes and political plots, may claim “Mr. Morphy lost his mind,” or “Mr. Morphy simply retired without a shred of reasoning,” these contemporary reports will not be ignored now that we have recovered them, and the world can better understand the circumstances and predicament forced upon the great Paul Morphy.

(Defamatory syndicated report to belittle Morphy's chess abilities) The New Orleans Crescent New Orleans, Louisiana Friday, March 13, 1868 — The chess champion of the world, Paul Morphy, has emerged from his retirement. He played, in Paris, four games with Mr. Steinitz, losing one and drawing three. (just one of many syndicated reports published and put into circulation and made its rounds, nationally).

Thus came this reactionary report to the defense of Mr. Morphy:

The Times-Democrat, New Orleans, Louisiana, Sunday, March 15, 1868 — It is stated that Mr. Paul Morphy, the chess champion, recently played in Paris four games, beating his opponent, Mr. Steinitz, in each game.

The Era London, Greater London, England Sunday, March 15, 1868 — Mr. Paul Morphy. — The following, for the truth of which we cannot vouch, is taken from Wilkes (New York) Spirit of the Times. If true, we shall be glad to see the games:— “Chess In Paris.—It gives us much pleasure to announce that the champions of the world, Mr. Paul Morphy, has emerged from his retirement. Rumour says that he has played four games with Mr. Steinitz, losing one and drawing three. It is impossible that he will remain satisfied with that result with a player who was beaten by Mr. Kolisch at the Paris Tournament; therefore, we confidently expect to see him contest a series of games either with Mr. Steinitz, or some other chess champion of equal strength, without fear that the laurels which he has earned will be wrested from him.”

“The happiness of “the Bohemian Caesar,” as Steinitz fondly called himself, was not unalloyed. Paul Morphy was his bête noire. He attempted to undermine the pedestal upon which Morphy's glory is everlastingly established. But he did not succeed. If Blackburne makes a brilliant combination, he calls it a “bit of Morphy.” But no one ever heard anybody call a brilliant finish a bit of Steinitz…”
— The Age Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Saturday, June 19, 1897

The Reported Death of Steinitz 19 Jun 1897, Sat The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) Newspapers.com

The Source of the Petty Rumors About Paul Morphy

As was pointed out earlier (with documentation), the great chess icon, Paul Morphy, motivated by disillusionment with war, went to Paris, France. It is written in Morphy's home-town newspaper, The Times-Picayune New Orleans, Louisiana Sunday, March 22, 1863 — “Mr. Paul Morphy is in Paris, and in excellent health. He is staying at the Grand Hotel, which, by the by, is filled with people from New Orleans. Mr. Morphy has not played a game of chess since he reached Paris; he has not even entered the Cafe de la Regence; he says the course of events in America engross his thoughts so entirely, and painfully, he cannot play his favorite game.” Mr. Morphy is reported in a STATE OF MORAL GRIEF for the tragic war-time events playing out, back in America. Ask any Psychiatric Professional if this is anything but normal. They will tell you, “Yes, it is normal under the circumstances!” In fact, I dare say, it is not the behavior one would witness from a “radical secessionist” nor a “radical Union loyalist” driven on their greed for power. It would seem, rational men could comprehend Morphy's reported “Grief” during war time! That is, if they were humans with a soul to wrap their minds around it. But are small, petty men, grasping desperately for power and dominion as they trample over the lives of millions, “rational”? Of course not. So reports the Northern newspaper, Evening Star Washington, District of Columbia Friday, May 15, 1863 — “Paul Morphy, the chess-player, has deteriorated since he became a rebel. They are beating him at chess in Paris. Let him stay a rebel a year longer, and we will challenge him to a chess match ourself, giving him knight and pawn, playing with our back to the board, and at the same time dictating editorial articles against the rebellion.”

Who made up the false rumors, alleging Paul Morphy was a “rebel,” and so-called “bitter secessionist”? Who was it that persecuted Paul Morphy with a flood of defamation in contemporary media to eternally besmirch the character of Paul Morphy and extinguish any hope that Mr. Morphy should return to Chess after the close of the war? Does Washington D.C. condemn Morphy over the matter of slavery? No, of course not. It is only the matter of the “rebellion” against the elite group White Supremacists holding the reigns of Federal power in (Northern) Washington, D.C. that are the concern of the day. These vindictive, petty souls, operating in Northern newspapers, would go on to wage a vitriolic campaign of defamation that Morphy had supposedly “lost his mind” and even falsely reported as locked away in an asylum, although contemporary asylum records till 1884 record no such admission of any Morphy while many public statements were issued to the press over the ensuing years by friends and associates of Paul Morphy confirming his good health, both physically and mentally!

As was done again almost a century later to Robert J. Fischer, the papers printing lies upon d**** lies.

The organized campaign of brutal persecution carried out against Robert J. Fischer from 1956-2008, was old-school for the political powers-that-be, behind the scenes of the White Man dominated empires.

Bittersweet Taste of Karma

Not a word is breathed about slavery, only loyalty to the White Supremacists in Washington, DC and their grasp on Imperial power over millions of lives and the taxes reaped from it. Ah, Morphy was “loyal” in yesteryear… but now, fanatics in NORTHERN NEWSPAPERS… bitterly persecute Morphy for the things he has not done.
Never mind little things like GRIEF. It's an all-out defamation campaign against an innocent man to utterly ruin him!
Cleveland Daily Leader Cleveland, Ohio Wednesday, April 13, 1864

Northern Newspapers Persist to Falsely Label Paul Morphy a "Rebel" 13 Apr 1864, Wed Cleveland Daily Leader (Cleveland, Ohio) Newspapers.com

This was the Campaign of Defamation which drove Paul Morphy out of Chess by the pens and gossip of bitter, vindictive men hellbent on grasping absolute power.

In the Words of Joseph Sobran, 'We Didn't Deserve You'

Both Robert James Fischer and Paul Charles Morphy rose to great status as American chess icons and some of their own country-men maliciously turned against them with orchestrated campaigns of defamation, stalking, spying and slander motivated by their political prejudices. When our champions refused to advocate those political agendas, the history books were rewritten and attempts to write them out of history and defame their character. We were raised to believe in America you have the right to dissent, but do celebrities have that luxury? Did Fischer or Morphy? What really happened after the close of the Civil War? Did Morphy by some inexplicable mystery “malady” fade into obscurity? Or, as the record shows at the close of the Civil War, Morphy made quick work to get back to his chess business as usual, but certain former Northern associates close to the Federal government had no intention of allowing him to do that! Why were these details erased by the chess establishment in their books and magazines? After 1865 had passed, things would eventually grow much worse for Morphy as his enemies would not let him rest. During the decade of 1873-1884 a long, drawn-out campaign of vicious defamation, targeting Morphy began with some going so far as to hint at an ‘untimely death’ for Morphy. Publications with a touch of foul “comedy” making light of Morphy's “accidental” death appeared regularly in papers. Harmful rumors, targeting the state of Morphy's mind played a regular part in syndicated news reports. Such publications flooded American newspaper, only for the contagion to later spread to Europe by Morphy's political rivals. Numerous efforts were made by Morphy's family, friends and associates to put a stop to the public defamation, but to no avail. Numerous cruel reports of his death surfaced in the newspapers while he yet lived in New Orleans. He was hounded, and persecuted, and forced into retirement. He died at a relatively young age, under mysterious circumstances in 1884.

The Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, July 12, 1865
Among the passengers from New Orleans by the steamship Evening Star, arrived today, is the famous chess player, Paul Morphy. He is in excellent health, and talks about going abroad.

Chicago Tribune Chicago, Illinois Friday, July 14, 1865
Paul Morphy, the celebrated chess player, has turned up at Washington. He has been a rebel during the war. (Again, they repeat those absurd, Northern rumors, spread by political fanatics.)

The Times-Picayune New Orleans, Louisiana Thursday, July 20, 1865

Our accomplished young townsman, Paul Morphy, the chess king, is announced as having arrived at New York on the 8th inst.

Quad-City Times 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”.

Paul Morphy, the Chess Player 28 Jul 1865, Fri Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa) Newspapers.com

The Atchison Daily Free Press Atchison, Kansas Monday, August 21, 1865
Paul Morphy, the champion chess player, is in New York, preparing an annotated volume of his games. It is denied that he was a member of Beauregard's staff.

The Charleston Daily Courier Charleston, South Carolina Friday, September 01, 1865
Paul Morphy, the chess player, has arrived in this city, from New Orleans. He comes to super-intend the publication of his new book of games.

Bangor Daily Whig and Courier Bangor, Maine Saturday, September 02, 1865
Paul Morphy is preparing a standard work on chess, with a collection and analysis of his own games. It will supercede Staunton's and Lowenthal's works on the game. Paul says he has been and is loyal.

The Louisville Daily Journal Louisville, Kentucky Tuesday, September 12, 1865
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 secession sympathizer. We are glad to know that the report of Mr. Morphy's disloyalty, that has been so extensively circulated, is unfounded.

The Bradford Observer Bradford, West Yorkshire, England Thursday, October 19, 1865
Mr. Paul Morphy, the celebrated chess-player, has returned to New York from Paris, and it is his present intention to prepare an annotated volume of his most successful chess games. Our informant says, it must not be inferred from this that Mr. Morphy has given up the practice of the law, as he prides himself more upon his proficiency in that than in chess. He was for some time a member of one of the first law firms in New Orleans, and will shortly open an office in New York.

The Richmond Times Richmond, Virginia Wednesday, December 13, 1865
The original Chess Club of New Orleans has been re-organized, and Paul Morphy chosen President.

Northern U.S. Rumormongering Defamation of Paul Morphy: General Beauregard "Wishes He Had" The Chess Master With Him To Plot His Military Moves

This casual remark by a General Beauregard got poor Paul Morphy in all sorts of trouble. Northern rumor-mongering newspapers got too far ahead of their own “rumors” about Paul Morphy and had him working on the staff of BOTH Beauregard AND Johnston, while Morphy's friends in Europe are actually reporting he's (secretly slipping around a blockade) and on his way to Europe! Reported arriving in Havana, Cuba just a few months later.

The Daily Delta New Orleans, Louisiana Wednesday, April 23, 1862 - Page 2 — The Battle of Shiloh - A Night of Anxiety — “Thus the night passed—a night of continual rain. We were aroused before daylight by a rapid and irregular fire, extending along the whole line and over the whole area occupied by our troops. We soon learned that this was the firing of our own men, whose guns had become wet and foul from exposure during the rain. We now proceeded to the front, to learn what was to be the order of the day. Repairing to the headquarters of Gen. Beauregard, we found that ever cool and vigilant chief sitting in front of one of the enemy's tents, with his aids, Col. Jacob Thompson, Col. Jordan, Col. Chisholm and several of his staff. The General was receiving reports from couriers and scouts. It was obvious that he intended to renew the fight. It was cheering and inspiring to observe his calm self-possession and thoughtful precision and alertness. There came to him every minute the most conflicting accounts of the enemy's movements. First, it was reported the enemy was flanking our right. The General quickly gave an order to send a brigade in that direction. The order had hardly issued before another courier contradicted this report, and stated that no enemy was visible in that direction. The General, smiling, remarked to one of his aids: “This is one of Morphy's blind games. I wish I had him here to help me play it out.”

The Battle of Shiloh: A Night of Anxiety 23 Apr 1862, Wed The Daily Delta (New Orleans, Louisiana) Newspapers.com Great London Chess Meeting. 07 May 1862, Wed The Derby Mercury (Derby, Derbyshire, England) Newspapers.com

The Derby Mercury Derby, Derbyshire, England Wednesday, May 07, 1862 — Great London Chess Meeting. —We would remind our foreign friends intending to play in the various tourneys connected with the pending chess festival… Anderssen, from Breslau, has promised to attend; and, unless Morphy runs the blockade from New Orleans in safety, is not unlikely to carry off the first prize.—Bell's Life

Paul Morphy. 14 Sep 1865, Thu The Evansville Daily Journal (Evansville, Indiana) Newspapers.com

Northern rumor-mongering newspapers got too far ahead of their own “rumors” about Paul Morphy and had him working on the staff of BOTH Beauregard AND Johnston, while Morphy's friends in Europe are actually reporting he's on his way to Europe!

Mr. Paul Morphy 26 Sep 1862, Fri The Nottinghamshire Guardian (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England) Newspapers.com

Reported arriving in Havana, Cuba just a few months later.

Morphy In Havana 13 Nov 1862, Thu The Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, Kansas) Newspapers.com

The Chess Establishment does not want you to know, that during this time, some in the Northern United States were crying out for the execution of Paul Morphy!!!! for things he had never done. Their newspaper rumors got so far ahead of the truth, they were tripping over their own wagging tongues. Out of political prejudices, they unleashed a flood of patently false rumors about Robert Fischer too.

Frederick Douglass and Lincoln's Emancipation 'Sham' and Creole Paul Morphy, Likely Mixed Descendant of Africa

“…Douglas persuaded President Lincoln to use Negroes in the Union Army during the Civil War and then employed his eloquence to recruit them. His two sons were among the first to join. But, when the war ended, Douglass quickly became disillusioned at the course of events and soon was calling emancipation a ‘sham’.”

Frederick Douglass 16 Nov 1969, Sun Asbury Park Press (Asbury Park, New Jersey) Newspapers.com

In the midst of nineteenth century chess, 1861 https://century-in-chess.blogspot.com/p/1861.html around the time period when treacherous Northern chess associates, under their bizarrely polarized extremist political influences and allegiances to the very racist North, read in the Richmond Dispatch from Thursday, October 24, 1861 “A meeting of the members of the Club will be held at their Room, over J.P. Duval's Drug Store, THIS EVENING, (Thursday) 24th inst., at 8 o'clock. Mr. Morphy has kindly consented to be present.”.

From there, the wild accusation grew and multiplied. Mr. Paul Morphy, the national superstar of chess was rewritten as Public Enemy #1, and soon to be written completely out of history as a “mad man” by Northern chess circles, and those suckers who believed them. Who says that White Supremacists do not mix Chess (or any sport for that matter) with their bitter political biases?

Richmond Chess Club 24 Oct 1861, Thu Richmond Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia) Newspapers.com

Richmond Dispatch Richmond, Virginia Thursday, October 24, 1861:— Richmond Chess Club. — A meeting of the members of the Club will be held at their Room, over J.P. Duval's Drug Store, THIS EVENING, (Thursday) 24th inst., at 8 o'clock. Mr. Morphy has kindly consented to be present.

This tiny reference to Mr. Morphy attending a so-called “confederate” chess club… but there's not a thing printed therein, associated with “politics”! So how this got blown out of proportion by Northern Newspapers polarized by extremist Civil War propaganda, from attending the “Richmond Chess Club” … to labeled a “rebel” and “bitter secessionist” is utterly beyond reason!

The report soon made it's rounds in Northern newspapers and the grapevine of war vendetta gossip.

Hence reads The Buffalo Commercial, Buffalo, New York, Saturday, November 02, 1861:— A Bad “Move.” — It is reported in a Richmond paper that Mr. Paul Morphy, the famous chess-player, “has kindly consented to be present” at the meeting of a rebel chess-club in the Confederate capital. The Evening Post thinks that this is the worst movement that Mr. Morphy has made, and he need not be surprised to find himself check-mated at the end of the game. It is not a safe “opening.”

Threats and cruel defamation against Mr. Paul Morphy ensued for the following decades by his own so-called countrymen. Till the modern day, history books are littered with false reports of a supposed, so-called mental madness of Paul Morphy who more rationally speaking, escaped from the bitter vitriolic harassment of the Unionist mob and retired to a quiet life in New Orleans.

Some would claim the “righteous North” led by Abe Lincoln, fought the Civil War to “end slavery.” But Frederick Douglass became quite disillusioned with the white man's self-righteous fables,… as it always is, white men fight wars for wealth, high power maneuvers and plunder of real estate and natural resources. Never justice.

The Northern Chess Associates found themselves a disgruntled bunch that Morphy refused to throw his blind support to, and aggressively back Northern political agendas… over Lincoln's overreaching grasp on tax revenue and territory, while the war on the pitiable Indigenous first nations tribes continued for years after the war ended! And, millions of former slaves would die of starvation and disease, post-war. Certainly, Lincoln's intent for the war was neither to end slavery, nor “spread democracy” but rather, to hold the territory and its tax revenue, aka, the “Union” together.

Mr. Paul Morphy 24 Nov 1861, Sun The Era (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

So read the long ensuing threats on Paul Morphy by Northern associates, from The Era London, Greater London, England Sunday, November 24, 1861:— Mr. Morphy, of whose whereabouts so much curiosity has been expressed, has turned up at last, apparently in attendance of the rebel Court at Richmond. The Richmond Dispatch of the 24th inst. invites the members of the Chess Club to meet on that evening, at their room, as Mr. Morphy has kindly consented to be present. We hope we shall soon have Mr. Morphy “en prise.” —Philadelphia Evening Bulletin

White supremacist Chess elitists won't tell their readers the real reason why the rumors about Mr. Morphy began and continue to circulate by White Supremacists.

How Noisy Was The Noisy Chess Stadium in Reykjavik, 1972?

It's almost as though "Paid for State Propaganda" took a breather, and Julie Flint, who covered the tournament in 1972, now blurts out the reality about how NOISY the Reykjavik stadium was! According to the biased media blitz from 1972, Chester Fox and his sound engineers (sik) Fischer was to enjoy a perfect silence in Reykjavik, replete with “hidden” cameras.

“…On 11 July, the show got on the road 10 days behind schedule. … after discovering that the television cameras he had reluctantly accepted were not unseen and unheard, ‘like candid camera’, but towered behind the players' chairs. 😲 … And it was noisy. Because Reykjavik had no tournament hall, a sports stadium had been converted for the championship. Fold-up benches clacked. Corrugated iron walls twanged. Kids scrunched sweet papers. Adults yakked. It wasn't ideal for Spassky, who liked crowds; it was hell for Fischer, who didn't. Midway through the match, Fischer complained of snoring. Schmid tiptoed down to catch the sleeper in flagrante, but failed. Rattled at last, Spassky fell steadily behind until, in the 17th game, the Russians accused the Americans of using chemical and electronic aids ‘to unbalance Mr. B. Spassky and make him lose his fighting spirit.’ ([In 1985, Spassky confirmed that job was done by Moscow.]) This was surely not poor Spassky's doing. He, better than anyone, knew that the Americans needed no such aids: they had the dream aid — Fischer."
— The Observer London, Greater London, England Sunday, August 02, 1992