He was very polite and courteous and had a good sense of humor.
Yes, he was short and frail but my god, what a brain!
Was Paul Morphy a Mama's Boy?
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The "women's shoes" story is just slanderous BS; it's not true that "they" wouldn't let him fight in the Civil War since they were desperate for resources, especially from a genius; he did not withdraw from society; and I doubt the horse story and whatever other crap you've read.
He was very polite and courteous and had a good sense of humor.
Yes, he was short and frail but my god, what a brain!
He was very polite and courteous and had a good sense of humor.
Yes, he was short and frail but my god, what a brain!
Master_Po wrote:
I super admire his playing ability and study his games. But coming from a rich family in New Orleans, had plenty of 'spare' time to play chess, tried to be a lawyer, probably only about
5' 4" tall, was he sort of a dandified Mama's boy?
He just didn't cut it as a lawyer. People didn't take him seriously. Wonder why? He got paranoid about eating food at restaurants, afraid of being poisoned and people were out to get him, so he would only eat his Mama's cooking.
He DID seem to have impeccable manners and dressed very well (rich upbringing) but was he a dandified male priss? Is all this what caused him to go around the bend? Being short, spoiled and dandified? Failing as a lawyer? Withdrew from society, becoming a recluse and died in a bathtub at age 47?
I read many years ago, he was inept at most things other than chess, tried to ride a horse, couldn't handle it and fell off. He arranged women's shoes around his bed at night?!?! They wouldn't let him fight in the Civil War, perhaps because they saw he was, a 'dandy'? Typical genius at one thing, chess, but couldn't do most other things?
Great chess genius still.
Is "dandified" your favorite word in the English language?
urk wrote:
The "women's shoes" story is just slanderous BS; it's not true that "they" wouldn't let him fight in the Civil War since they were desperate for resources, especially from a genius; he did not withdraw from society; and I doubt the horse story and whatever other crap you've read.
He was very polite and courteous and had a good sense of humor.
Yes, he was short and frail but my god, what a brain!
He was very polite and courteous and had a good sense of humor.
Yes, he was short and frail but my god, what a brain!
Agreed.
The story about womens' shoes didn't surface until years after his death, and is based on no evidence whatsoever (AFAIK).
Falling off the horse? That's not unusual. Manfred von Richthofen (the famous Red Baron of WW-I) joined the military as a cavalryman, but had to switch to the new Air Force when he turned out to be a terrible horseman... his mount threw him off again and again.
Short and frail? Have you ever met GM Karpov in person?... I have. At the time (1980s) he was built like a teenage girl.
George W Bush (phony tough guy) is scared to death of horses but I really doubt that the fearless Morphy was.
He definately withdrew from society and became a recluse like BF. How do you know story about the shoes is not true? Anatoly seems always the good guy. Body like teenage girl?? Do you know what 'dandy' means? It is not a bad word, Wild Bill Hickok was deemed a dandy. I'm sure he was sensitive about his height, but he wasn't far from a midget. In 99% of the photos of him, he was sitting down to now show his height. Look at the photo of him and Arnous Riviere. I guess he was heart broken that he couldn't make it as a lawyer, was only known for the achievement of being the best chess player in the world; a past time that he considered 'frittering away your life', and became the recluse.
The honorable George W. was a man's man. He was genuine tough guy as he flew some kind of F jet in the military back in the day. Hey Urk, he was from Texas. Nuf said. Five foot four is short but yes, big and genius brain. Can mate you in 7 moves. Oh well, just trying to get a line on his true personality. Maybe @Batgirl knows more about him.
He might be proud and honored that so many hold him in high esteem for his chess acumen and skill, so long after he played.
Master_Po wrote:
"... How do you know story about the shoes is not true? ..."
monkeywithgun wrote (~6 days ago):
... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Morphy
Some authors claim Morphy "arranged women's shoes into a semi-circle around his bed",[18] and that he died in his bath "surrounded by women's shoes".[19]Edward Winter contends that this is not chess history but merely "lurid figments" stemming from a booklet written by Morphy's niece, Regina Morphy-Voitier.[20] She wrote:
Now we come to the room which Paul Morphy occupied, and which was separated from his mother's by a narrow hall. Morphy's room was always kept in perfect order, for he was very particular and neat, yet this room had a peculiar aspect and at once struck the visitor as such, for Morphy had a dozen or more pairs of shoes of all kinds which he insisted in keeping arranged in a semi-circle in the middle of the room, explaining with his sarcastic smile that in this way, he could at once lay his hands on the particular pair he desired to wear. In a huge porte-manteau he kept all his clothes which were at all times neatly pressed and creased.
Therefore, because they were his own shoes, it is concluded that these "seedy anecdotes" (as Winter puts it) are untrue.
The sad truth is that one can not trust everything that has been put in a book by some random writer. Yes, this women's shoe story has been claimed, but no primary source has been found. The best guess is that, many decades after Morphy's death, the myth started with a mistake by Reuben Fine, incorrectly remembering what he had read in the pamphlet by Morphy's niece.
Lol. I dont blame him for not wanting to be part of the thing Americans call society, guns, drugs, gangs, CORRUPTION, BOMBING, ETC...
BUILT LIKE A TEENAGE GIRL. LOL.
The OP is a retired teacher, no wonder why Mexico is about to erase USA out of the map both economically and academically. lol.
I don't think it was that he failed as a lawyer really, just that he never really got the chance to be one. Too young at first to practice, later all anyone wanted him to do was play chess when he really didn't want to.
I agree with Martin. People are delusional some times, we are not zoo seals designed to entertrain them, nor the seals are, but thats another story.
Yeah, it reminds me of the proverb, You might not want to let people see you have a skill because once they find out you have it they'll expect you to use it for them.
In another incarnation (permutation?) it might be don't let people know you have a truck or they'll call on you to help them pack up and move their old furniture to their new place when they move and it will be difficult for you to refuse them without them resenting you.
What the hell is happening here. Everyone is becoming a mod.
Is this an attempt to abolish trolling?
ERIK TOLD ME HE WOULDNT DO THIS TO US.
Master_Po wrote:
Typical genius at one thing, chess, but couldn't do most other things?
Apparently Fischer was much the same. Except Morphy sounds like a nicer person.
Hey. Fischer could play ping pong and swim.
Let people rest in peace, for God's sake...
I thought i read somewhere, a long time ago, that Morphy was very enamored with a woman who told him she could never allow herself to fall for a mere chess player. Supposedly this, combined with having trouble being taken seriously in the legal profession due to chess not generally accepted as a serious endeavor at the time, created a disdain within for chess playing. Also, his smallish physical stature might well have played a role in both women and profession. So very sad.
And add to all that, certain severe psychological problems tend to appear around one’s mid-thirties…
ed1975 wrote:
Master_Po wrote:
Typical genius at one thing, chess, but couldn't do most other things?
Apparently Fischer was much the same. Except Morphy sounds like a nicer person.
ed1975: Morphy had the benefit of being raised with social graces. And he looked at chess as a serious academic persuit, as with all his studies. Fischer, on the other hand, looked at chess as a way to prove himself by crushing egos.
I super admire his playing ability and study his games. But coming from a rich family in New Orleans, had plenty of 'spare' time to play chess, tried to be a lawyer, probably only about
5' 4" tall, was he sort of a dandified Mama's boy?
He just didn't cut it as a lawyer. People didn't take him seriously. Wonder why? He got paranoid about eating food at restaurants, afraid of being poisoned and people were out to get him, so he would only eat his Mama's cooking.
He DID seem to have impeccable manners and dressed very well (rich upbringing) but was he a dandified male priss? Is all this what caused him to go around the bend? Being short, spoiled and dandified? Failing as a lawyer? Withdrew from society, becoming a recluse and died in a bathtub at age 47?
I read many years ago, he was inept at most things other than chess, tried to ride a horse, couldn't handle it and fell off. He arranged women's shoes around his bed at night?!?! They wouldn't let him fight in the Civil War, perhaps because they saw he was, a 'dandy'? Typical genius at one thing, chess, but couldn't do most other things?
Great chess genius still.