The Hall of Fame contains some fascinating chess art work, rare photographs, trophies, books and other memorabilia, such as one of Sammy Reshevsky's famous hats. One prize of the collection is the coin silver beverage set awarded Paul Morphy for winning the First American Chess Congress in New York in 1857, the first U.S. tournament nationwide in scope. Legend has it that the beverage set was specially manufactured with the aristocratic Morphy in mind, because the young Louisiana genius had made it known he would consider it vulgar to accept a cash prize. |
