The Chess Players is a historical novel based on the life of Paul Morphy, who is considered to have been the first world chess champion and possibly the strongest chess player in the history of the game. Paul Charles Morphy was born on June 22, 1837 in New Orleans Louisiana. His father was Alonzo Morphy. His mother was Louise Thérèse Felicite Thelcide Le Carpentier. He learned the moves of chess simply by watching his uncle and father play. Nobody taught him the rules. By age 9 he was regarded as the best player in New Orleans. By age 21 he was regarded as the best chess player in the world. The author carefully researched the subject. All of the people mentioned in this book were real people. In preparing to do a reprint of this book, the reviser discovered that Paul Morphy was Black. His grandmother was born in Haiti. Since Haiti is 99.99% Black and since under the law at that time anybody more than 3/16ths Black was Black, therefore Paul Morphy was Black. The paternal grandmother of Paul Morphy was Louise Peyre (1776-1826). She was from the area of Gonaïves in the Artibonite Department of Haiti.