R.M. Devens

“ ZEST and good humor possessed the public mind, from one end of the country to the other, as the triumphs of Paul Morphy, the chess champion of the world, though scarcely yet attained to manhood, were announced one after the other, in an almost unbroken series at home and abroad, and against such odds as no other person of similar years had ever before encountered. ”

“ His attitude was one of remarkable modesty, evidently quite unaffected,—not a sparkle of triumph in his eye, not a flash of half-concealed exultation on his cheek; nothing but a perfectly motionless and inscrutable impassibility, a gazing calmly and steadfastly onwards to the end in view, as if with a fixed determination to attain that end, and an utter disregard for any small triumph of conquest for doing what he as irresistibly compelled to do. ”

“ The hero of the Cafe de Regence, the successful competitor of Harrwitz and Anderssen, the champion of the world in the profound game of chess, was but a lad in appearance and demeanor, and evidently without the least self-consciousness of his marvelous power. ”

“ Morphy: if there be any difference in the strength between him and Labourdonnais, it is in his favor." Another great player, after trying him, said: "It is of no use; it is uncertainty struggling against certainty."
Such astounding feats as those performed by Mr. Morphy, in Paris, brought the excitement in the chess-playing world of that city up to white heat; and the memorable occasion when he played against and beat, blindfolded, eight of the best players of Paris, at one time, led some to believe that he possessed almost supernatural faculties. ”

“ And, as around each of the eight boards there was a large collection of superior chess players, who gave their advice freely, and who had eight times longer to study their play in than the single player, Mr. Morphy played certainly against fifty men, and they never ceased for a moment making supposed moves, and studying their game most thoroughly, during the long intervals that necessarily fell to each board. ”

“ Game after game was won with a precision truly marvelous, and that not so much by what is called steady play, as by a series of brilliant combinations involving sometimes many moves, and followed out with an unerring certainty that must have been as terrible to his opponent as it was admirable to all the spectators. ”

“ Morphy—Your readiness to engage at all times, and with all comers, in chess contests—your refusal to make the condition of your health an excuse or a reason for declining—your utter rejection of all advantages that might be your due in a contest, and the intrepid spirit you manifested at Paris, induced Mons. ”

“ Morphy always plays, not merely the best, but the very best move; and if we play the move only approximately correct, we are sure to lose. Nobody can hope to gain more than a game, now and then, from him." And again, this great master of chess said of his conqueror, "It is impossible to play chess better than Mr. ”

“ Morphy, with his back to the crowd. Two gentlemen, reporting for the press, kept the game, and two other gentlemen, Messrs. Journoud and Riviere, cried out the moves, or carried them from one room to the other. The adversaries of Mr. Morphy were all either old or middle-aged men, and eminent as skillful players. The boards of the eight players were numbered 1,2,3,etc., and at half-past twelve o'clock the game commenced. Mr. Morphy playing first, and calling out the same move for all the right boards, KP 2. ”