Chapter III: Morphy Prepares to Start for Europe

Arriving in Europe three months before Mr. Morphy, I was in some sort,--not from any consent or knowledge on his part, his _avant courier_; and the fact of my having been one of the Secretaries at the New York Chess Congress, joined to my acquaintance with him, afforded me the opportunity of conversing frequently with prominent English players in reference to this new meteor in the chess firmament.

Shortly after my arrival in London, I called upon the Secretary of the St. George's Chess Club, Thomas Hampton, Esq., and introduced myself to him. Chess is a bond of brotherhood amongst all lovers of the noble game, as perfect as free masonry. It is a leveller of rank--title, wealth, nationality, politics, religion--all are forgotten across the board. Every chess player recognizes this, and none more so than Mr. Hampton, who gave me the warmest of welcomes. He told me that every Saturday there was a full attendance of members, and kindly invited me to visit the club on that day, promising to introduce me to Mr. Staunton. I was but too happy to accept this invitation, being desirous of learning how far the prowess of Paul Morphy was appreciated by one so eminent in the chess world.

My acquaintance with the young American was a passport of general interest to all present on the following Saturday. In addition to Mr. Staunton, I met there Herr Falkbeer, Messrs. Barnes, Bird, "Alter," and other luminaries, and many were the questions asked in reference to Mr. Morphy. But I am bound to say that the feeling with which he was regarded in the United States was not participated in by English players. I was told by one gentleman--"Mr. Morphy's games are very pretty, but they will not bear the test of analysis." Another said--and his opinion was universally endorsed--"It is quite possible that Mr. Morphy may arrive at the highest rank, nay, even that he may become a second Labourdonnais, but he cannot have the strength his admiring countrymen wish to believe. Chess requires many long years of attentive study, and frequent play with the best players, and neither of these your friend has had. Depend upon it he will find European amateurs very different opponents from those he has hitherto encountered." This rather nettled me, but it was reasonable and just. Any one possessing the slightest acquaintance with the game knows that it partakes more of hard, laborious application to arrive at first-rate skill, than of mere pastime. Very few of Morphy's games had been seen in Europe, and his opponents were not, certainly, of a class to rank with the Stauntons, Loewenthals, and Anderssens of the Old World. Was it reasonable to suppose that a youth, just out of his teens, who had devoted but little time to chess, and who was about to meet first-rate players for the first time, should possess the experience and lore of men double his age? At the present time, now that he has unmistakably proved himself the superior of all living players, I feel utterly at a loss to solve the problem of his skill. At college, until eighteen years old, what time could he find there, except out of school hours, for the required practice, and what antagonists worthy of him? From eighteen to twenty, he was engaged in reading for the bar. During that period he was as frequent a visitor at the chess club as circumstances would permit, but certainly not sufficiently so to increase his strength. Who were his antagonists? His father had almost entirely abandoned chess; Mr. Ernest Morphy had settled in "the West," and Mr. Rousseau, absorbed in the sterner duties of life, held the same relation to the game as Mr. Lewis in England. To one and all of his opponents, except these gentlemen, he could give the rook; and playing at odds is somewhat different from contending with even players. He met strong players for the first time at New York. Paulsen, Lichtenhein, Thompson, Montgomery, Marache were all northern players, and new to him, and vastly superior to the antagonists he had previously encountered. There is but one way to account for his annihilation of all precedent. His skill is intuitive, and I doubt much whether his prodigious memory has been of assistance to him. In answer to a gentleman in Paris as to whether he had not studied many works on chess, I heard him state that no author had been of much value to him, and that he was astonished at finding various positions and solutions given as novel--certain moves producing certain results, etc., _for that he had made the same deductions himself, as necessary consequences_. In like manner, Newton demonstrated, in his own mind, the problems of Euclid, the enunciations only being given; and I can think of no more suitable epithet for Morphy than to call him "the Newton of Chess."

But _revenons a nos moutons_. Morphy's achievements at the Congress in New York induced many to believe that America now possessed a champion capable of contending with the proficients of Europe, and it was proposed that he should be backed by the American Chess Association against any player who would take up the challenge. I am sorry to say that the action of certain prominent men prevented the gauntlet being thrown down. These gentlemen said, "He beats us because he is better versed in the openings, but such players as Loewenthal and Harrwitz will be too strong for him. He wants experience, and were we to make this national challenge, we should appear ridiculous when our champion is defeated, which he certainly would be." The proposal, however, got noised abroad, and the following paragraph appeared, in consequence, in the Illustrated London News:

"CHALLENGE TO EUROPEAN CHESS PLAYERS."[B]

"The American Chess Association, it is reported, are about to
challenge any player in Europe to contest a match with the
young victor in the late passage at arms, for from $2,000 to
$5,000 a side, the place of meeting being New York. If the
battle-ground were to be London or Paris, there can be little
doubt, we apprehend, that a European champion would be found;
but the best players in Europe are not chess professionals, but
have other and more serious avocations, the interests of which
forbid such an expenditure of time as is required for a voyage
to the United States and back again."

I would say, by way of parenthesis, that such a being as a professional chess player does not exist in the United States. Paulsen is a tobacco broker, with tendencies to speculating in "corner lots." (Western men know what that means.) Lichtenhein deals in dry-goods, dry wines and Italian opera; Thompson is the proprietor of a magnificent restaurant; Colonel Mead devotes himself to democratic cabals at the New York Hotel; Fiske is an admixture of the Chess Monthly, the Astor Library and Scandinavian literature; Perrin and Marache are bothered daily with banks, "bears" and "bulls." Chess professionals, indeed! they do not grow in the United States.

Mr. Morphy returned to his native city without any further action having been taken, but the New Orleans Chess Club determined that the challenge should be made, and they addressed the following letter to Mr. Staunton, at the commencement of last year:

NEW ORLEANS, _February 4, 1858_.

HOWARD STAUNTON, ESQ.,

Sir,--On behalf of the New Orleans Chess Club, and in
compliance with the instructions of that body, we, the
undersigned committee, have the honor to invite you to visit
our city, and there meet Mr. Paul Morphy in a chess match. In
transmitting this invitation, permit us to observe, that we are
prompted no less by the desire to become personally acquainted
with one whom we have so long admired, than by the very natural
anxiety to ascertain the strength of our American players by
the decisive criterion of actual conflict over the board.

We can see no valid reason why an exercise so intellectual and
ennobling as chess, should be excluded from the generous
rivalry which exists between the Old and the New World, in all
branches of human knowledge and industry. That the spirit of
emulation from which this rivalry arises has not, hitherto,
been made to embrace our chivalrous game, may be mainly
ascribed to the fact that, although the general attention paid
to chess in the United States during the last fifteen years has
produced a number of fine players, yet their relative force
remained undetermined, and none could assert an indisputable
right to pre-eminence. The late Chess Congress has, however,
removed this obstacle, by finally settling the claims of the
several aspirants to the championship; and it must now be a
matter of general desire to fix, by actual contest with the
best European amateurs, the rank which American players shall
hold in the hierarchy of chess.

For this purpose it was suggested that Mr. Morphy, the winner
at the late Congress and the present American champion, should
cross the ocean, and boldly encounter the distinguished
magnates of the transatlantic chess circles; but it
unfortunately happens that serious family reasons forbid Mr.
Morphy, for the present, to entertain the thought of visiting
Europe. It, therefore, becomes necessary to arrange, if
possible, a meeting between the latter and the acknowledged
European champion, in regard to whom there can be no scope for
choice or hesitation--the common voice of the chess world
pronounces your name; and to us it is a subject of
congratulation that the sceptre of transatlantic chess is
wielded by one who, with respect to regularity of communication
between the two countries, and for other reasons, enjoys
facilities for accepting our invitation possessed by no other
European player.

We take the liberty herewith to inclose a series of proposed
"terms of the match," which has been drawn up, not for the
purpose of imposing conditions, but with a view to obviate the
necessity of repeated correspondence. We have been studious to
make these terms as equitable as possible, and to include all
matters upon which contestation was likely to arise. You are
respectfully invited to suggest any alterations which you may
deem advisable, not only in the minor points embraced, but also
as to the amount of the stakes, the time fixed for the
commencement of the match, &c., &c.

Fully subscribing to the wisdom of the proposal made by you in
the introduction to the "Book of the Tournament," we beg leave
to express our entire willingness to insert a clause providing
that "one-half at least" (or even _all_) "of the games shall be
_open_ ones."

In conclusion, Sir, receive the assurance that it will afford
us extreme pleasure to welcome among us a gentleman, who is as
greatly admired for his powers in play as he is esteemed for
his many and valuable contributions to the literature of chess.

Hoping soon to receive a favorable answer, we remain, with
distinguished regard, your obedient servants,

E. W. HALSEY, CHAS. A. MAURIAN, JR.,
FRANCIS MICHINARD, P. E. BONFORD,
E. PANDELY.

TERMS OF THE MATCH.

1. The amount of the stakes, on each side, to be five thousand
dollars, and the winner of the first eleven games to be
declared the victor, and entitled to the stakes.

2. The match to be played in the city of New Orleans.

3. Should the English player lose the match, the sum of one
thousand dollars (L200) to be paid to him out of the stakes, in
reimbursement of the expenses incurred by him in accepting this
challenge.

4. The games to be conducted in accordance with the rules laid
down in Mr. Staunton's "Chess Player's Handbook."

5. The parties to play with Staunton chessmen of the usual
club-size, and on a board of corresponding dimensions.

6. The match to be commenced on or about the first of May,
1858, (or on any other day during the present year most
agreeable to Mr. Staunton,) and to be continued at not less
than four sittings each week.

7. In order that the stay of the English player in New Orleans
be not unnecessarily prolonged, he shall have the right to fix
the hours of play at from ten o'clock, A. M., to two, P. M.,
and from six to ten o'clock, P. M.

8. The time occupied in deliberating on any move, shall not
exceed thirty minutes.

9. The right to publish the games is reserved exclusively to
the contestants, subject only to such private arrangements as
they may agree upon.

10. The stakes on the part of Mr. Staunton to be deposited
prior to the commencement of the match in the hands of ----;
and those on the part of Mr. Morphy, in the hands of Eugene
Rousseau, Esq., cashier of the Citizen's Bank of Louisiana.

* * * * *

On the 3d of April, Mr. Staunton replied to this very flattering communication as follows, through the "Illustrated London News:"--

"PROPOSED CHESS MATCH BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AMERICA FOR ONE
THOUSAND POUNDS A SIDE.--We have been favored with a copy of
the _defi_ which the friends of Mr. Paul Morphy, the chess
champion of the United States, have transmitted to Mr.
Staunton. The terms of this cartel are distinguished by extreme
courtesy, and with one notable exception, by extreme liberality
also. The exception in question, however, (we refer to the
clause which stipulates that the combat shall take place in New
Orleans!) appears to us utterly fatal to the match; and we must
confess our astonishment that the intelligent gentlemen who
drew up the conditions did not themselves discover this. Could
it possibly escape their penetration, that if Mr. Paul Morphy,
a young gentleman without family ties or professional claims
upon his attention, finds it inconvenient to anticipate, by a
few months, an intended voyage to Europe, his proposed
antagonist, who is well known for years to have been compelled,
by laborious literary occupation, to abandon the practice of
chess beyond the indulgence of an occasional game, must find it
not merely inconvenient, but positively impracticable, to cast
aside all engagements, and undertake a journey of many thousand
miles for the sake of a chess-encounter? Surely the idea of
such a sacrifice is not admissible for a single moment. If Mr.
Morphy--for whose skill we entertain the liveliest
admiration--be desirous to win his spurs among the chess
chivalry of Europe, he must take advantage of his purposed
visit next year; he will then meet in this country, in France,
in Germany, and in Russia, many champions whose names must be
as household words to him, ready to test and do honor to his
prowess."

Can this mean aught else than, "Come over to England and I will play you?"

FOOTNOTES:

[B] Illustrated London News, December 26th, 1857.