About Paul Morphy
Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. During his brief career in the late 1850s, Morphy was acknowledged as the world's greatest chess master. Later commentators have concluded that he was far ahead of his time. A prodigy, Morphy emerged onto the chess scene in 1857 by convincingly winning the First American Chess Congress, winning each match by a large margin. After observing Ernest and Alonzo abandon what had been a lengthy game, conceding that it was a draw—Paul spoke up, stating that Ernest should have won. He proceeded to spend an additional year on campus studying mathematics and philosophy, and in May 1855 was awarded a master's degree with the highest honors. That year, he received an invitation to participate in the First American Chess Congress, to be held from October 6 to November 10, 1857, in New York.
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