July 1884, 10 When Paul Murphy had a stroke and fell to the ground, he had already appeared a strange and familiar figure on Canal Street in New Orleans: a lanky little man in a sack and a monocle, talking to himself, laughing narcissistically, and someone who dared to get close to him waving a crutch. Sometimes he takes a fancy to a passing woman and follows her for hours at a distance. He is afraid of poisoning and only eats food prepared by his mother or sister. He thinks the barber nearby is plotting to cut his throat. His family tried to apply for asylum for him, but he argued that his reasons were so convincing that the authorities refused to accept him. He has been a world-famous chess champion for 25 years. In the last 10 year of his life, he didn't want to talk about games at all. No one can say exactly what prompted Murphy's slow decline, but his genius discovery in 1846 is still a legend. Nine-year-old Murphy is sitting on his back porch. His uncle and father are judges of the Louisiana Supreme Court, and they are playing chess. A few hours later, these people declared the game a draw and began to clean up the mess. Murphy stopped them. "Uncle," he said, "you should win the game." He manipulated the chess pieces and explained, "This is: check with the car. Now the king must accept it and the rest will be easy. " He's right.

Soon, Major General winfield scott, a highly skilled athlete, stopped in New Orleans for five days on his way to the Mexican War. He invited an acquaintance of the Royal Street Chess Club to find a valuable opponent for him. At eight o'clock that night, Scott found himself sitting opposite Murphy, who was wearing a lace shirt and velvet knickerbockers. Scott thought he was the victim of a practical joke, so he stood up, but his friend assured him that Murphy was not joking. He killed Scott with ten moves.

Murphy has an amazing memory and can record every factor that he thinks is related to the opening, defense and even the whole game, but he also has an intuitive grasp of these possibilities. He can imagine that several major actions of the board of directors, even the smallest mistakes, can be foreseen and utilized. Ernest Murphy, Murphy's uncle, wrote in a letter to the editor of Nature, a chess magazine that published one of Murphy's early games, "This child has never opened a book about chess.". "In the beginning, he made the right action, as if inspired by inspiration, and in the middle and late stage of the game, the accuracy of his calculation was amazing. When he sits in front of the chessboard, even in the most critical position, his face will not show excitement; In this case, he usually whistles with his teeth and patiently seeks the combination of the two to get him out of trouble. Hungarian political refugees are very famous in the European chess world. Murphy described Lowental's failure in his French, using one word: "ique".

Paul Murphy, a chess genius (from Pride and Sorrow of Chess), is registered at Chunshan College in Mobile, Alabama, 1850. Freshman was elected president of Saipan Association and played Portia in The Merchant of Venice. He hates sports and tries to make up for his 5' 4 "figure by learning fencing. In college, he never played chess except in the summer of 1853. In his thesis, he chose to write an article about war. According to an acquaintance, "he limited the conditions for rationalizing the war to a very narrow range. His argument logic will exclude forced division, and deformation is strict logic and even wrong, whether it is game or life. But the consequences of doing so made him very uneasy.

After graduation, I returned to New Orleans to study at the University of Louisiana. He got his law degree on 1857, but legally he can't start his lawyer career until his birthday on 2 1. At the club. To his friend Daniel Willard Fisk, he admitted that he was "extremely anxious" about the fierce civil war. Murphy wrote: "I am more convinced than ever that time spent playing chess is a waste." He returned to New Orleans in June 1864 1 1 and opened a law firm, but it closed a few months later. It seems that potential customers are more interested in talking about chess than their cases. A few years later, he tried again and felt the same frustration.

He began to see no malice. Until 1878, he still received an invitation from Peter, but he seldom played chess and never played chess in public, usually out of some imaginary despair. Murphy once walked into the office of a famous New Orleans resident and said that he needed $200 to resist the coming disaster. This man is an old friend, and he decided to test Murphy's illusion and his dislike of chess.

"It seems that you really want money," he said.

"Yes," Murphy replied. "I have to have it, which is absolutely necessary."

"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do: if you play a game of chess with me, I'll give you 250 dollars."

Murphy thought for a moment, revealing "disdainful lips and obvious disgust." Finally, he agreed and put a chessboard on the table. Murphy asked his friends to beat him in a few steps.

"there!" The former champion sighed. "I have done as you asked, but next time I play chess with you, I will give you the queen!" He turned to go. "His friend shouted, reminding him to forget the reward.

"I'll get it tomorrow!" ! "Murphy promised. But he didn't.

come from

Books: David Lawson and Paul Murphy: Pride and Sorrow of Chess. New york: MacKay,1976; William Ewart Napier, Paul Murphy and the Golden Age of Chess. New york: MacKay,1957; Paul Murphy: C.A. Barker's later life. Newport, Kentucky: Will. H, Lyon,1902; Frederick Mills, Paul Murphy, chess champion. New york: appleton, 1859.

Article: "Paul Murphy is dead: the great chess player is crazy." * * *,1884 July11; "Letter from Paul Murphy to Mr. Staunton in England." * * *,1858165438+101; "Our foreign exchange: Paris." * * *,1858101October 19.