Archived Morphy

Via the still-Scottish John Henderson, current resident of Seattle, I've had a glimpse of the massive online digital archives of the Scotsman newspaper, which go back to 1817. There's quite a bit of chess in there, including tidbits on Morphy's visit to Europe. There's even an announcement of a 21-game match between Morphy and Staunton. Oh well. (John also figures that Morphy's grave is currently deep underwater. So an item on New Orleans' greatest is appropriate today.)

In one item, a columnist chides a French paper for misspelling the American's name "Murphy" among with other inaccuracies. But 15 years later in their long obituary of Howard Staunton, the Scotsman multiplies this tenfold by both calling him "Murphy" and stating in passing that Staunton was his conquerer! Maybe there was a match only the Scotsman knew about?

The below snippets are from an item reviewing Loewenthal's book on Morphy's games in the January 26, 1860 paper. The item is written by the accomplished author, scholar, and publisher Henry George Bohn, who had put out some of Staunton's books, including the legendary "The Chessplayer's Handbook". (Bohn's editions of the classics were so well known at the time that his name gave rise to the expression "to bone up" on something. At least according to the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins.)

There is a great deal more high praise of Morphy, and though Bohn mentions Morphy's intent to play Staunton he never discusses the aborted match(es) at all. But impressive from someone who still had a professional relationship with Staunton.