Samuel Loyd was one of the greatest creative geniuses of nineteenth century puzzles, both on and off of the chess board.
Born on January 30th of 1841, Samuel (Sam) Loyd was a contemporary of Paul Morphy (1837-1884). In fact, Loyd moved from Philadelphia to New York City which means he was occupying the same space as Paul Morphy for much of 1857. They met for the first time that year at the American Chess Congress. There Sam took note of Morphy’s brilliance at the chessboard while Morphy was impressed by Loyd’s creative chess compositions. Though not as strong of a player as Morphy, Sam Loyd established himself as the preeminent chess composer of his era and now is fondly remembered as “The Puzzle King”. This is in stark contrast to Paul Morphy’s legacy who, after proving himself to be the best chess player of his time, is now remembered as “The Pride and Sorrow of Chess.”
Below is a famous Mate in 3 first published by Samuel Loyd in 1857. It is likely one of the chess puzzles Sam would have shown to Paul Morphy or at the least, a problem Morphy would have seen in the newspaper while staying in New York.
