The Origin of the Huntsville (Alabama) Chess Club

(Researched by David Hayes, 2017)

The first mention of the HCC was in “The Chess Monthly: An American Chess Serial, Volume 2, 1858.”  On page 383, it reports, “The Chess Club at Huntsville, Ala., numbers seventy-two members and is established upon the most liberal basis.  Its Corresponding Secretary is Mr. E. L. Antony.”  (Purchase the book here.)

Mr. E. L. Antony was a meteorologist in Huntsville.  His weather reports are on file at the Smithsonian Institute as stated on page 85 of the “Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian …, Volume 27, dated 1873.” (Purchase the book here.)

The Chess Monthly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chess_Monthly) was edited by no less than famous American chess player Paul Morphy.

Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) was a child prodigy of chess.  He defeated European Master Johann Lowenthal in his home town of New Orleans at the age of 12.  Like the 20th century World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer, Morphy dominated world chess by defeating the best players of his day Paulsen (inventor of the Sicilian Dragon opening), Lowenthal, Harrwitz, and Anderssen.  His record against Anderssen (the Champion of London, 1851) was 7 wins, 2 losses, and 2 draws.  He was declared the World Champion in Paris, London, and New York.  Morphy was the first world champion to be acclaimed at the time he was actively playing.

Also like Fischer, Morphy retired from serious competitive chess at the height of his fame, after the American civil war ruined his personal family fortune.  He had played only 75 competitive games.  His sudden retirement at the height of his genius added to his reputation as a super player.  Quite possibly Morphy and Fischer are the best human players the game has ever known.  Fischer reportedly described Morphy as “perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived” in Fischer, Bobby (1964), “The Ten Greatest Masters in History (as told to Ben Hickey)”, Chess World, vol. 1 no. 1, pp. 56–61.

The Morphy Defense of the Ruy Lopez  (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6) is named after Morphy.  It is the most popular variant of the Ruy Lopez opening.  He preferred playing open games, but could handle closed positions also.  Morphy was a player who intuitively knew the best move to make in both open and closed positions.  He played quickly and was hard to defeat.  Time control was not used in his day.  Still, Morphy would often use less than one tenth of the time his opponents would use to make all of his moves.