Morrison's father was an admiral, Morphy's was a judge: both positions of respect and great responsibility. Both men showed early promise and precocity. I suspect each grew up with others expecting impressive things from them.

And both had last names that started with "Mor..." :)

Well, the parallels are not all that great, but certainly interesting.

They certainly both died too young, and one wonders what works of artistry they might have created had their lives not been interrupted.

(: ♗ Bishop Berkeley ♗ :)

(: ♗ Bishop Berkeley ♗ :)

"We also remember the brilliant flight of the American super-genius Paul Morphy, who in a couple of years (1857-1859) conquered both the New and the Old Worlds. He revealed a thunderous brand of pragmatism, aggression, and accurate calculation to the world -- qualities that enabled America to accomplish a powerful spurt in the second half of the 19th century...."

[From the book "On My Great Predecessors", Part I, Introduction: p.5-6; ISBN: 1857443306, http://tinyurl.com/l93v4 ]

(: ♗ Bishop Berkeley ♗ :)

Did Kasparov write these books in English himself or were they translated by a third party?

I was happy to learn in watching a video of Garry Kasparov that his spoken English is really quite good. This, along with the fact that Mr. Kasparov has very actively promoted these books (including the translated versions), gives me a greater comfort in regarding these has his authentic thoughts (and at the very least, his "official" thoughts).

If the books had been released only in Russian and someone other than Mr. Kasparov had arranged for their translation, I might feel a bit less comfortable regarding them as authentic.

Hope you are in good spirits!

(: ♗ Bishop Berkeley ♗ :)

<Ken Neat did the translating>

That's Neat. Thanks.

<I thought about you when I read that they were getting rid of Larry Evans.>

I had nothing to do with it.

<have you ever thought of submitting any of your historical work to Chess Life?>

Have you considered contributing an article of the art of odds giving?

.

<BishopBerkeley>

Of course, Nabokov was a pretty good Chess-puzzle-crafter, too, from what I've heard! One of the first Chess prizes I ever won was a copy of Nabokov's novel "The Defense" ( http://tinyurl.com/l6swd ), a story many believe was based on another of Caissa's glorious-yet-tragic figures, Akiba Rubinstein . (This novel was later adapted into the film "The Luzhin Defense" http://imdb.com/title/tt0211492/ , with talented actor John Turturro in the role of Grandmaster "Aleksandr Ivanovich 'Sascha' Luzhin", presumably the fictional version of Rubinstein.)

There is a passage from Garry Kasparov 's "Predecessors" that I'd like to quote here, but I can't find it! I don't own all the volumes, and I came across the passage while passing a few hours in a bookstore. The force of the passage (subject to the considerable vagaries of my memory) was that while Europe has dominated the game of Chess, it has often fallen to the Americas to provide the paradigm-shifts in the Royal Game. As I recall, Kasparov specifically mentions the triad of Paul Morphy, Harry Nelson Pillsbury , and Jose Raul Capablanca as examples of this. (Capa, in addition to being from the Americas by birth, was also partly educated in the United States, as I recall.)

In the Passages-I-can't-find Department, Sarah Beth, I seem to remember a passage somewhere within your cornucopic Paul Morphy website in which one of Morphy's great contemporaries ( Johann Jacob Loewenthal ??) states that when playing against Morphy, he felt as if he was in the grip of some daemonic power. He was speaking metaphorically and good-naturedly, I suspect.

Do you recall this passage? Or has it been manufactured and spliced into my "reality" by my over-eager imagination?

Thanks!

(: ♗ Bishop Berkeley ♗ :)

An interesting chess variant is Odds Chess.

Overview

During the 18th & 19th centuries, it was common to give odds in chess games, which means the practice of giving some advantage to the player with lesser skill. Odds giving can also be an interesting way to play with a computer program whose skill level differs from your own. You can also play the games in pairs, with the winner being the player who checkmates in fewer moves.

Types of Odds

These are various handicaps I have seen in actual games or chess books. They are in rough order of severity.

Move
Weaker player plays White.

Draw
The weaker player wins if the outcome is a draw under the usual rules.

Time
Weaker player receives more time on his clock.

2 Moves
Weaker player plays White and starts the game with 2 moves, which may not cross the 4th rank.

6 Moves
Weaker player plays White and starts the game with 6 moves, which may not cross the 4th rank

Pawn & Move
The stronger player takes Black and removes the pawn at F7. This was the most commonly given odds during the 19th century.

Pawn & 2 Moves
The stronger player takes Black and removes the pawn at F7. White makes 2 moves, neither of which may cross the 4th rank.

Knight
The stronger player takes White and removes his Knight at B1.

Rook
The stronger player takes White and removes his Rook at A1. His Pawn at A2 is moved to A3.

Rook & Move
The stronger player takes Black and removes his Rook at A8. His Pawn at A7 is moved to A6.

Rook & Pawn & Move
The stronger player takes Black and removes his Rook at A8 and his pawn at F7. His pawn at A7 is moved to A6.

2 Minor Pieces
The stronger player takes White and removes 2 of his Bishops or Knights, of his choice.

Rook & Knight
The stronger player takes White and removes his Rook at A1 and his Knight at G1. His Pawn at A7 is moved to A6.

2 Rooks
The stronger player takes White and removes both his Rooks

Capped Knight
The stronger player takes White. He must deliver mate with his Knight that started at B1 or lose. The loss of the Knight or any normal draw situation results in a loss for the stronger player.

Queen
The stronger player takes White and removes his Queen.

Capped Pawn
The stronger player takes White. He must deliver mate with his Pawn that started at F2 or lose. The loss or promotion of the Pawn or any normal draw situation results in a loss for the stronger player.

Round 1 resulted in a draw.

Lowenthal himself later admitted "After the first game, I went home saying to myself, 'Well, this Morphy is not so terrible after all!'

Round 2 was a win by Morphy

Lowenthal in his later admittions commented "The second partie failed to channge my opinion" as formed after the first game.

Round 3

Lowenthal himself later admitted "but during the third game, I saw all my combinations twisted and then turned against me, and i felt myself in a grasp against which it was almost vain to struggle.

and was another win for Paul.