1837. Paul Morphy was born into a wealthy Creole family in the French Quarter of New Orleans and became infamous for his fast and positional chess game. At twenty-one he was knighted world champion after defeating the great European masters-the English and Germans-in New York at the First American Chess Congress. In a short-lived blaze of glory, he defeated opponents in an atmosphere that encouraged gambling, drinking and often led to duels for honor. Soon no one dared play the boy from New Orleans-he even offered Pawn and Move to the world! As a young gentleman, Paul embarked on a Grand Tour of Paris and London with his manager-servant, Fred Edge. Part proud spectacle and part reluctant circus act, Paul performed feats of memory and blindfold chess, making records that stand today. He even played Emperor Napoleon III (at croquet and chess) and was praised by Queen Victoria. He returned to New Orleans lionized by high society, but misunderstood....
Morphy was in love with the lights down on Basin Street. Returning home, he developed an obsession for 'crib-girl' Clara Young, a professional working girl from an area off Basin Street known as 'The Swamp.' Clara needed money and excitement. Living in a dangerous world of brothels and barrelhouses, is she just playing with Paul for her ticket out? Who is the social misfit, the chess boy or the trick girl? Who is playing whom?
Based on a true story, The Knight of New Orleans shows you all the honest and brutal moves in a gamble of love and survival. Let the best player win!
Paul Morphy is today remembered as the pride and sorrow of chess. After conquering the chess world so young, he became a recluse, a failed lawyer and sanitarium patient, a dark twist on the American Dream. Paul was a strict amateur playing for honor, Clara a professional working for survival. Was Clara's world too different from Paul's, his background too bourgeois, hers too dangerous? Or will love triumph even when the pieces are checkmate? The Mississippi and the Vieux Carré are calling.... Let the games begin!
Author Bio
Matt Fullerty has been playing chess and writing fiction since his schooldays. After a visit to New Orleans and Paul Morphy's tomb in 2005, he was struck by the story of the only American chess world champion before Bobby Fischer and Morphy's remarkable youth. Matt is currently Lecturer in English at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and recently taught Creative Writing (fiction) and the University of London, Royal Holloway.
Matt is the author of novels The Murderess and the Hangman and the forthcoming American Con Artist. Originally from Warrington and a graduate of Oxford University and the University of East Anglia, he has published reviews, articles and interviews for The Daily Mail, The St. Ann's Review, BBC Radio London and the Discovery Channel's Deadly Women TV series. In 2011 he will attend the Vermont Writer's Studio on an Artist's Grant.
Matt is married with a chessboard and divides his time between Arlington, Virginia and Cambridge, England. Visit him online at www.mattfullerty.com, www.theknightofneworleans.com and www.parkgatepress.com.