Morphy's victory, considered stunning for someone so young, quickly propelled him to international fame and helped popularize the game of chess in America.

Although scholars still debate the question, chess was apparently invented in India in about 500 A.D. (Some contend that an early version of the game existed in China as far back as 200 B.C.) and soon spread along trade routes into Persia. In the eighth century, armies of Arabs invaded Persia and soon became enthusiastic chess players. When descendants of these Arabs, the Moors, later invaded Spain, they brought the game with them. Soon chess spread throughout Europe, where over the centuries the familiar shapes and names of the pieces were added (most of these changes became permanent in the medieval period, hence the names king, queen, bishop, knight, etc.). By the early 19th Century chess was a popular game among social elites in both Europe and America.

Paul Morphy was born into a prosperous family in New Orleans in 1837. The curious spelling of his last name derived from his unique family history. His great-grandfather Michael Murphy left Ireland in 1753 for Madrid. There he altered the spelling of his name to Morphy, married a Spanish woman, and went on to become the American consul to Malaga (a curious feat, since he was a Spanish citizen -- obviously a persuasive Irishman). One of his sons, Diego (Paul's grandfather), moved to the Caribbean island of San Domingo and married an Irish immigrant named Mollie Creagh. They fled the island after a slave revolt in 1793 and settled in America. Mollie died in 1796 and Diego remarried a year later. It was this marriage that produced Paul Morphy's father, Alonzo, in 1798. The family eventually settled in New Orleans, where Diego held the post of Spanish consul.

Alonzo Morphy became a successful New Orleans attorney and served in Congress from 1822-29, as state attorney general in 1829, and state supreme court justice from 1839-46. He married in 1828 and the couple had four children, Paul being the third, born in 1837. Paul Morphy grew up in comfortable surroundings and received an excellent education. From an early age he stood out as a bright and determined boy. He learned chess by playing and watching his father and uncle, both accomplished players. By age 10, he was known throughout the city as a chess wonder, routinely besting the city's top adult players. In 1850, when he was just 13, he played the renowned Hungarian chess master Johann J. Lowenthal, and while the ultimate result of their series of games remains uncertain, most accounts agree that Morphy won as many as three games.

But chess remained more of a hobby than anything else and in 1851 Morphy headed for Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala. He excelled in his studies, graduated in 1855 and went on to earn his law degree in Louisiana in 1857. Too young to practice law and independently wealthy, Morphy immersed himself once again in the study of chess and gained an invitation to the First American Chess Congress scheduled for October 1857.

Victory in that tournament over the greatest American (and a few European masters) players earned Morphy national recognition and soon an invitation to tour Europe to play the world's best. When none seemed willing to travel to America to play the young upstart, Morphy boarded a ship bound for England, home to Howard Staunton, widely considered the Gary Kasparov of his day. He arrived in London in June 1858 and was soon introduced to Staunton at St. George's Chess Club. The latter greeted him cordially but declined an invitation to play a friendly game. Thus began several frustrating months during which Staunton made and broke a dozen promises to play Morphy, each time concocting an excuse regarding his health or schedule. To make matters worse, Staunton wrote disparaging statements about his American rival in his regular chess column in the London Illustrated News. While he waited for a match that never materialized, Morphy played and defeated England's other top players.

In late August Morphy crossed the Channel to meet the best players France had to offer, most notably the haughty Daniel Harrwitz. When the Frenchman won the first two games, he sneered to the crowd, "Oh, it takes very little trouble to beat this fellow." When informed of this remark, Morphy told a companion, "Harrwitz will not win another game." He didn't as Morphy took five of the last six games (one ended in a draw). In December, despite serious illness, Morphy took on the German chess champion, Adolph Anderssen. After Morphy won the match seven games to two (with two draws), Anderssen remaked to a reporter, "I consider Mr. Morphy the finest chess player who ever existed. He is far superior to any now living. . . . In all his games with me, he has not only played, in every instance, the exact move, but the most exact. He never makes a mistake . . . but, if his adversary commits the slightest error, he is lost."

Morphy remained in France for four months (he'd long given up on getting Staunton to accept his challenge), defeating all comers and giving blindfolded exhibitions to enthusiastic crowds. Concerned for his health and increasingly disillusioned with the world of professional chess, Morphy sailed for America, arriving on May 11, 1859. His every triumph having been chronicled in the American press, he received a hero's welcome. He attended testimonial dinners in New York and Boston and received many valuable gifts. After exhibitions and ceremonies in Philadelphia and Baltimore, he returned to New Orleans and announced his retirement from chess. He was only 22.

Morphy remained true to his word and never played anything but an occasional game in private against a few chess masters. Instead, he opened a successful law practice. Sadly, he seems to have been afflicted with depression and over the years became a recluse. He never married and died in 1884 at age 47.

Today Morphy is remembered as one of the greatest chess players ever and is credited with pioneering many innovative stratagems that have long since become standard features of the modern game. He was inducted as a charter member of the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1986 along with Bobby Fischer and as a charter member of the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2001.

HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK

Nov. 12, 1936: Eugene O'Neill is awarded a Nobel Prize for literature.

Nov. 13, 1775: Gen. Richard Montgomery leads American forces in taking Montreal during the American Revolution.

HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES

Nov. 10, 1879: nationalist Padraic Pearse is born in Dublin.

Nov. 12, 1929: actress and Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly is born in Philadelphia.