Anderssen was himself decisively defeated in an 1858 match against the American Paul Morphy (7-2, 2 draws), after which Morphy was toasted across the chess-playing world as the world chess champion. Morphy played matches against several leading players, crushing them all. "Harper's Weekly" (25 September 1858) and "The American Union" (9 October 1858) hailed him as the world champion, but another article in "Harper's Weekly" (9 October 1858; by C.H. Stanley) was uncertain about whether to describe the Morphy–Harrwitz match as being for the world championship. Soon after, Morphy offered pawn and move odds to anyone who played him. Finding no takers, he abruptly retired from chess the following year, but many considered him the world champion until his death in 1884. His sudden withdrawal from chess at his peak led to his being known as "the pride and sorrow of chess".