3. Morphy's First Game in New York City

Paul Morphy arrived in New York City on October 4, 1857 and registered at the St. Nicholas Hotel. On October 5, he visited the New York Chess Club and defeated Frederick Perrin in an offhand game. The game was published in Löwenthal's collection and, in fact, is in all the major works, but nowhere is the exact date given. In January, 1858 (page 30), The Chess Monthly published Morphy's score in New York. The table below is from David Lawson's book (page 86) which presented the data in a more compact form than TCM:

Frederick Perrin (1815-1889)


Morphy, as can be seen, defeated F. Perrin in only one game on even terms. Therefore, we can date following game as Morphy's first in NYC:

[Event "Unofficial Games From the 1st ACC"]

[Site "New York, USA"]

[Date "1857.10.05"]

[Round ""]

[White "Morphy, Paul C"]

[Black "Perrin, Frederick"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "B44"]

[Opening "Sicilian"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Be3 Nf6 6.Bd3 Bb4+ 7.c3 Ba5 8.O-OBb6 9.Nd2 Ne5 10.Be2 d5 11.f4 Nc6 12.e5 Bxd4 13.cxd4 Nd7 14.Bd3 f5 15.g4g6 16.gxf5 exf5 17.Kh1 Nf8 18.Rc1 Ne6 19.Bxf5 Nexd4 20.Bxc8 Rxc8 21.f5Nxf5 22.Rxf5 gxf5 23.Qh5+ Kd7 24.Qf7+ Qe7 25.e6+ Kd8 26.Bg5 1-0

Game Sources:

Löwenthal - page 376

Lange - Game XX

Maróczy - Game 061

Sergeant - Game CLXV

Shibut - Game 112

Date source: TMF 3 , determined by deduction

Wanted - Date of original publication.