NAILING ANOTHER BRENNEN SMEAR   In sharp contrast to the explanation invented by GM Evans, I have read that the shoes so often talked about by pundits like our five-time U.S. Champ were in reality, Morphy's own (very small size) shoes, (and not in the bathroom).  The bath only comes up in discussions of Morphy's death, as that is where they found him dead.   Now the one problem here is that the phrase women's shoes was used, and in addition to there being a big difference in size between women's and men's shoes (Morphy's excepted), there must also have been a difference in _style_.  In sum, talk about the shoes might be better left to those who know what they are talking about, to Morphy's close relatives, perhaps.  OTOH, it is interesting to speculate that Morphy may have liked to have his shoes at-the-ready, laid out for *rapid deployment*, just the way he liked his chess pieces during play.    

  In sharp contrast to the explanation invented by GM Evans, I have read that the shoes so often talked about by pundits like our five-time U.S. Champ were in reality, Morphy's own (very small size) shoes, (and not in the bathroom).  The bath only comes up in discussions of Morphy's death, as that is where they found him dead.   The story about Morphy and women's shoes is a perfect example of how one small fact (or presumed fact) is enlarged and embellished into a large myth that becomes common knowledge, a process seen many times in chess history. For a debunking, page 305 of Lawson's biography of Morphy serves well:   A story that has had wide circulation in recent years about Morphy and shoes would seem to have little substance in fact. As Dr. [Reuben] Fine tells it [i.e. in The Psychology of the Chess P_layer_

 BTW, the pamphlet mentioned, by Morphy's niece Regina, was not published until 1926, i.e. 42 years after Paul's death. It's _base_d largely on things she saw when just a little girl, and so is regarded as a dubious source in many ways. Therefore it's something of a thin thread on which to hang any claims about Morphy's shoes, let alone the weird legend her account has morphed into. If our own Inspector Louis who first mentioned the shoes actually had bothered to call the Morphy relative whose phone number I provided him, then maybe we would have understood more about the Creole mistranslation of the shoes, and other Morphistocelism. PI

Taylor Kingston < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it wrote in message  BTW, the pamphlet mentioned, by Morphy's niece Regina, was not published until 1926, i.e. 42 years after Paul's death. It's _base_d largely on things she saw when just a little girl, and so is regarded as a dubious source in many ways. Therefore it's something of a thin thread on which to hang any claims about Morphy's shoes, let alone the weird legend her account has morphed into. If our own Inspector Louis who first mentioned the shoes actually had bothered to call the Morphy relative whose phone number I provided him, then maybe we would have understood more about the Creole mistranslation of the shoes, and other Morphistocelism. PI   Yes, Phil, you can't trust those Creoles