Paul Morphy (1837 – 1884)
"The Pride and Sorrow of Chess", is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his time, an unofficial World Champion 1858–1960 and is considered by many, including some grandmasters as the greatest chess player who has ever lived.
"[I play in] the style of Morphy, they say, and if it is true that the goddess of fortune has endowed me with his talent, the result [of the match with Emanuel Lasker] will not be in doubt. The magnificent American master had the most extraordinary brain that anybody has ever had for chess. Technique, strategy, tactics, knowledge which is inconceivable for us; all that was possessed by Morphy fifty-four years ago." ~ José Raúl Capablanca
"Morphy, I think everyone agrees, was probably the greatest genius of them all." ~ Bobby Fischer, 1992
"Checkers is usually for tramps."
"It has been truly said that Morphy was at once the Caesar and the Napoleon of chess. He revolutionized chess. He brought life and dash and beauty into the game at a time when an age of dullness was about to set in and he did this at a stroke. Then he quit forever. Only two years from the beginning to the end. The negotiations for some modern matches have taken that long!" ~ J. A. Galbreath (American Chess Bulletin, October, 1909)
"If the distinguishing feature of a genius is that he is far ahead compared with his epoch, then Morphy was a chess genius in the complete sense of the word." ~ Max Euwe
"To this day Morphy is an unsurpassed master of the open games. Just how great was his significance is evident from the fact that after Morphy nothing substantially new has been created in this field. Every player- from beginner to master- should in this praxis return again and again to the games of the American genius." ~ Mikhail Botvinnik