Was Lawson duped by some unscrupulous source? I'm starting to have some serious questions about his "finds".
Once is a mistake.
Twice is a coincidence.
Thrice is a pattern.
Four times is looking like intentional deception.
Perhaps these all come from the mysterious Czech book <Mene Znamy Partie z Paul Morphy>, Moritz Porges, 1900, and then "found" by Lawson??
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J McConnell vs Morphy, 1849
Jay Whitehead found this game in the <Tallapoosa Gazette> for 1847 with neither player identified (i.e. NN for both).
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Morphy vs J McConnell, 1849
Another game "found" by Lawson, but it was first published in <La Régence>, v1 n10, October 1849, p302, as being played by "M. M....." vs "M. N....." some 14 months before the first verifiable Morphy game was published.
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Morphy vs NN, 1850
Again, another game "found" by Lawson. This game is actually Cochrane vs Moheschunder, 1852 and given by Cochrane in his unpublished MS, <Loose Indian Chess Leaves>, v1, game 133, p98, pdf p52, with the Morphy version removing the a1-rook to pass it off as an odds game.
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Morphy vs H Kennicott, 1857
The earliest source I can find for this game is in <Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper>, 1859.02.26, p193, along with the additional move of 19.Nc3 and Kennicott's annotations. It seems to me that the termination should be <19.Qg5+ Kd6> 20.Nc3 which makes far more sense in regard to Kennicott's last note: "and Black cannot save the game, though he has still an apparently won game."
Kennicott also makes no mention of his opponent being Paul Morphy, just "Mr. M.". He also gives no location or year for this game.
Lawson is apparently the one who dates this game as being played in New York 1857 by Morphy in the <British Chess Magazine>, v98 n8, August 1978, p354. Is there any evidence to support this additional data?
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Kibitzing
