An American prodigy travels across the Atlantic, where he reaches the pinnacle of world chess. His exploits spark an unexpected interest in chess in the United States. But then he withdraws from the game and descends into madness.
That might sound like the narrative of Bobby Fischer, who captured the championship in a Cold War showdown with Boris Spassky in 1972 and vanished from the world stage. But it’s also the story of Paul Morphy, New Orleans-born chess champion of the 19th century.
Morphy, born in 1837 and the son of a Louisiana Supreme Court justice, exploded onto the world chess scene at age 12 when he vanquished a Hungarian chess master who was visiting New Orleans. He earned a law degree in 1857, with a gift for memorization so powerful that he could recite the Civil Code of Louisiana by heart.
Because he wasn’t old enough to practice law, he journeyed to New York to try out his chess skills, and was crowned U.S. champion. Then he traveled to Europe and conquered most of the continent’s renowned masters. While he was widely regarded as the world’s most skillful player, there was at the time no formal system for selecting a chess champion.
Morphy returned to New Orleans and struggled to start a law practice just as the nation was sliding toward the Civil War. He never succeeded at law, and by 1875 his family had become so concerned about his delusions that they tried to commit him to an institution, but Morphy resisted.
On a July afternoon in 1884, he was found dead in his bathtub at age 47. Doctors attributed his death to the imbalance of taking a cooling bath on a hot afternoon.
Morphy has a street named after him in Gentilly and is memorialized in one prominent place: The Royal Street home where he lived and died is now Brennan’s restaurant, and he is remembered on a plaque near the front door.