Outside the Paris air was magnificent. Inside, smoke from pipes and cigars curled around the beams of the Opera house ceiling.  Duke Karl and Count Isouard had planned this evening carefully going over Mr. Morphy’s known games, looking for some weakness they might exploit. Both were strong amateurs with perhaps the nod going to Count Isouard in terms of absolute strength. Together, they thought they just might pick off Morphy’s metaphorical scalp tonight. The two men nodded at each other and smiled as Paul Morphy made the theoretically strongest opening, the famous King’s Pawn opening.<br/><br/>“I see you’ve chosen a nice standard opening tonight, Mr. Morphy,” the duke said with a smile. Several of the upper ten thousand had chosen this night to attend the play. And more than a few knew of Morphy’s fame as perhaps the world’s strongest chess player. Several gathered around anxious to witness a series of scintillating moves. Neither of the two men aiming to pick off Morphy tonight particularly cared whether he enjoyed Norma. And no one in the nearby audience cared to irritate a man of the Duke’s power by complaining about the conversation going on so close to the stage one might reach out and touch the players. “What do you say My good friend,” the Duke asked the Count.<br/><br/>Count Isouard de Vauvenargue frowned a moment. “Oui, let us meet fire with fire,” he laughed and then said in a firm voice, “E5.” With that said, the Duke reached out and met Paul’s move with the mirror-like response of black’s own king’s pawn.<br/>