Editing Paul Morphy (section)

===Retirement from chess and later life===
{{Wikisource|Paul Morphy: His Later Life}}
After returning home in 1859, Morphy intended to start a career in law. He did not immediately cease playing serious chess; on a visit to Cuba in 1864, he played a number of games with leading players of that country, including [[Celso Golmayo Zúpide]], the champion, all at odds of a knight. For the rest of his life, Morphy would not compete in another tournament or serious match without odds, a stipulation he would stress repeatedly.{{sfn|Lawson|2010|pp=272, 290-294, 300}}

Morphy was late to start his law career,{{sfn|Lawson|2010|pp=251, 294-298}} not having done so by the time the [[American Civil War]] broke out in 1861. His brother Edward had joined the army of the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] at the very beginning of the war, while his mother and sisters had emigrated to Paris.<ref>Thomas Eichorn, Karsten Müller and Rainier Knaak, ''Paul Morphy: Genius and Myth'', 2003 ChessBase, Hamburg</ref> Not much is known about Morphy's Civil War service; David Lawson cites contemporary reports that Morphy had briefly been on the staff of [[Pierre Beauregard]], as well as being seen at the [[First Battle of Manassas]]. Lawson also recounts a recollection by a Richmond resident in 1861 describing Morphy as being "an officer on Beauregard's staff".{{sfn|Lawson|2010|p=280}} Other sources indicate that Beauregard considered Morphy to be unqualified, but that he had indeed applied for a staff position.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Taylor Kingston, ''Morphy: More or Less?'' |url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review410.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206213239/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review410.pdf |archive-date=December 6, 2010 |access-date=June 21, 2010}}</ref> During the war, he spent time both in New Orleans and abroad, spending time in [[Havana]] (1862, 1864){{sfn|Lawson|2010|pp=282-283, 293-294}}<ref>Andrés Clemente Vázquez, ''La odisea de Pablo Morphy en La Habana'', La Propaganda Literaria, Habana 1893.</ref> and [[Paris]] (1863).{{sfn|Lawson|2010|pp=285-291}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Neistadt |first=Jakov |title=Shakhmaty do Steinitza |publisher=Fizkultura i sport |year=1961 |location=Moscow |pages=184 |language=ru |oclc=2821562}}</ref>

After the war, Morphy remained unable to build a successful law practice.{{sfn|Lawson|2010|pp=294-295, 301-303}} According to records, Morphy attempted at least three times to open and advertise a law office, with each endeavor ultimately being abandoned.{{sfn|Lawson|2010|pp=294-298, 301-303}} It has been speculated that his celebrity as a chess player worked against him, overshadowing his attempted practice.{{sfn|Sergeant|1916|p=25}}{{sfn|Lawson|2010|p=303}} Financially secure thanks to his family's fortune, Morphy essentially spent the rest of his life in idleness. When asked by admirers to return to chess competition, he refused. In 1883, Morphy encountered [[Wilhelm Steinitz]] on the street while Steinitz was visiting New Orleans, but declined to discuss chess with him.{{sfn|Lawson|2010|pp=322–323}}