It is not said, at least not by any chess historian, that 2 are authenic.
Napoleon Bonaparte.....
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Thanks for showing the reference to the lack of authenticity, Batgirl. I wonder why the "apocryphal" Napoleonic games would emphasize galloping Knights.
Thanks for posting! They were great games!
Chess is a war game essentially. The recorded chess games of famous war leaders are revered because they display the tactical temperament that would undoubtedly be mirrored on the battlefield.
It would make much sense for a recorded chess game to be 'constructed' in such a way as to create the desired impression. An early form of propoganda? either way fascinating historical documents.
I'm not a chess historian, but Murray certainly was, possibly the greatest ever.
"An early form of propoganda?"
I don't believe so. Though I believe both Hitler and Stalin did something like that. None of the games appeared in Napoléon's lifetime. In fact recording of game moves at that time was very rare which is why so few exist and the fact that none of these games' sources point back to Napoléon's time surely raised a big, big red flag. Where did the publishers 50 and 100 years later find the game scores?
In it's February. 1929 issue British Chess Magazine noted that Capt. Kennedy, who first published the Bonaparte-Bertrand in 1862 in a fictional biography, "afterwards admitted that the game was really won by himself from the Rev. John Owen."
The Mme de Rémusat game was first published by the French chess periodical, Le Palamède , in 1845.
I think it wasn't until 1905 that the Automaton game appeared in Lasker’s Chess Magazine.
It seems more likely that people simply needed neat stories and created them around Bonaparte who couldn't confirm or deny them.
wow! Napoleon was a good player. he knew how to go for the King. PS: where's the 4th game?
Like in the King of England or the king on the chess board? Ha! If it's the latter, you would be kidding me right? More like somebody didn't want to get shot or beheaded wining a game against the midget General. Games !& 2 are exactly the same games played from different ends of the board. Did you see how long that Queen sat in the center of the board with that little pun watching over it in Game 3? If these games do not define FIXED then I wouldn't know how you spell the damn word!
thanks for the games
batgirl wrote:
I'm not a chess historian, but Murray certainly was, possibly the greatest ever.
"An early form of propoganda?"
I don't believe so. Though I believe both Hitler and Stalin did something like that. None of the games appeared in Napoléon's lifetime. In fact recording of game moves at that time was very rare which is why so few exist and the fact that none of these games' sources point back to Napoléon's time surely raised a big, big red flag. Where did the publishers 50 and 100 years later find the game scores?
In it's February. 1929 issue British Chess Magazine noted that Capt. Kennedy, who first published the Bonaparte-Bertrand in 1862 in a fictional biography, "afterwards admitted that the game was really won by himself from the Rev. John Owen."
The Mme de Rémusat game was first published by the French chess periodical, Le Palamède , in 1845.
I think it wasn't until 1905 that the Automaton game appeared in Lasker’s Chess Magazine.
It seems more likely that people simply needed neat stories and created them around Bonaparte who couldn't confirm or deny them.
You may not consider yourself a chess historian, but you definitely know more than anyone i've ever met
napolean wasn't actually good, see what moves you would have done in that position, if you didn't let him win they'd chop your head of or once he sent on eof his military genius's and generals into front line infantry
whom ever played them both stunk it up. I'm disappointed in all kind of ways.
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According to Murray's, A History of Chess, even back in 1913:
‘Napoleon was a persistent but a very weak player. Three games purporting to be played by him are in existence. One of these (a Scotch Game) said to have been played in St Helena between Napoleon and Bertrand, and first printed in Capt. Kennedy’s Reminiscences in the Life of Aug. Fitzsnob (Waifs and Strays, 1862), is certainly fictitious. The second game, said to have been played with Mme von Rémusat, 29 March 1804, and a third game (I.L.N., 1844, 352), played against the Automaton in Vienna, are also of very doubtful authenticity.’
The two Mme. von Rémusat games commonly bandied about are simply close versions of the same game with the colors reversed. All of the purported games by Napoléon Bonaparte lack authenticity.
Thanks for posting this! I had seen those games before, and always thought that Napoleon was a strong player. I had no idea there was any question about their authenticity. It's nice that chess.com has a resident chess historian!