Alexandre Deschapelles
Alexandre Louis Honoré Lebreton Deschapelles (1780-1847)
Alexandre's primary interest as a very young man was in having a military career. Unfortunately, he was wounded early on fighting for the Allies against the Austrians in the Battle of Fleurus (1794). He was injured so badly he lost his right arm, leaving him with just a stump for the rest of his life. Losing his dominant arm did not disqualify him from further service in the Republican armies; however, it did confine him to administrative roles. He had a reputation as an arrogant hothead who knew no fear. Deschapelles would occasionally engage in duels fighting with a sword able to use only his left arm.
Due to various internal intrigues, Deschapelles was eventually forced out of the French military entirely, whereupon he turned his interest to chess. He probably learned or mastered chess at the Café de la Regénce at the end of the eighteenth century, becoming so good he could earn a living from his chess play. It’s doubtful he ever met Philidor, who had fled France for England in December of 1792 for political reasons (family ties to the out-of-favor side in the Revolution). Philidor during his life played at a level about 200 rating points higher than his nearest rival. Deschapelles must have made an at least minimal study of his games. Deschapelles is also known to have studied, no one knows how closely, Greco’s games and analyses from the year 1620. Deschapelles had a history of making braggadocio claims of learning to play master level chess in three days solely from observing others’ games. He tended to deny having ever formally studied the game at all.
In 1806 Deschapelles traveled to Germany and defeated all of the best players while there, giving them odds, either of a pawn and move, or two moves. At this time (1806) Deschapelles came to be considered without dispute the best player in the world. In 1807 Deschapelles extended his Germany visit to Berlin where he defeated all comers at the Berlin Chess Club (founded 1803) at the odds of a Rook. He then spent a good portion of 1807-1814 exiled in England or in hiding for political reasons.
From 1815 to 1820, Deschapelles returned to France and reigned at the Café, defeating all of the strongest players at odds of pawn and two moves, sometimes giving even more generous odds. Games during this period were not recorded, sadly. Many brilliancies have no doubt been lost as a result.
In 1820 Deschapelles took on as his student Louis-Charles Mahe de la Bourdonnais (1795-1840). Later that year, Deschapelles played a two-game match against Hyacinthe Boncourt (1765-1840). Deschapelles won one and lost one. This might cast doubt on Deschapelles’ claim to be the strongest player in the world except the games were played at odds of pawn and two moves.
In April 1821, strong British players John Cochrane and William Lewis visited Paris. William Lewis was the first to challenge Deschapelles, who gave Williams odds of pawn and move. Deschapelles lost the first game, but drew the last two, thus losing the match by a small margin. George Walker claims that Deschapelles did not seem himself in the match games, that he made uncharacteristic mistakes. Walker provides the score of one of the drawn games. I found it interesting, especially Walker's comment on the game. In this game I looked for evidence of Deschapelles perhaps deliberately holding back in order to perhaps “hustle” Lewis into a subsequent higher stakes match, but I could not find any evidence for that. What do you think?Black's f7-pawn is removed.
After Williams won his match, John Cochrane took up the gauntlet. Deschapelles played a match giving Cochrane odds of pawn and move and defeated him soundly 6-1, La Bourdonnais refereeing. Here's a game from that match that clearly shows Deschapelles' flair:
La Bourdonnais was then given the same odds terms for a match, but the result this time was a shocking 7-0 defeat of Deschapelles. La Bourdonnais and his supporters then challenged Deschapelles to a match with no odds, a standard chess match played from the standard position. Deschapelles demurred. Instead, he accepted defeat at the hands of his one-time student and retired from chess altogether. He then took up professional whist (a forerunner of the card game that came to be known as bridge), which turned out to be much more profitable for Deschapelles financially. He graciously declared his one-time student, La Bourdonnais, to be his successor as world’s best chess player, thus ending his 1800-1820 unofficial reign as world chess champion.
In 1835 Deschapelles was elected president of the Paris chess club. Consequently he came out of retirement and played the following year another match against La Bourdonnais, probably giving odds of two pawns and a move again, after not having played tournament chess for fifteen years. The result was a draw (1-1-1). He also played a one game match at odds of two pawns and a move against John Cochrane, defeating him. It would be a mistake to consider John Cochrane a weak chess player. His name actually features on our 2400+ strength list. Sometimes one player just has another’s number.
Deschapelles the same year (1836) played a three game match against St. Amant managing to draw (1-1-1) the match in which St. Amant “enjoyed” the odds of pawn and two moves.
In November of 1842 Deschapelles defeated Piere de Saint Amant 3-2, probably giving the same odds. The next month he defeated John Schulten (another name that makes our 2400+ list) in Paris with two wins, two draws, and a loss. This match with Schulten was at odds of pawn and two moves. Deschapelles was sixty-two when he scored these final two victories and sadly had less than five years left to live.
In 1843, Staunton came over from England to play matches against France's best. He succeeded in winning his matches and thereby claimed (unofficially) the title of world chess champion, taking it away from Paris where it had been maintained for more than half a century, but that’s a story for another time.
Deschapelles died October 27, 1847, in Paris of “hydropsy.” This malady we would normally today call edema tends to afflict the obese. It’s what La Bourdonnais died from in 1840. Deschapelles though was “delicate, spare, thin, and bilious,” according to Howard Staunton. He instead had “defective circulation arising from ossification of the auricles of the heart.” Maybe he simply needed a valve replacement or a stint. In any event, Deschapelles was bed-bound and considered terminally ill for twenty months before succumbing to death. At his request, he was buried as a pauper with no religious rites and no announcements in newspapers. He did not want to be mourned.
Deschapelles left history very few examples of his chess prowess. It appears to me this may be because Deschapelles tried to keep records of moves of his games secret, that he actively sought not to have them made public. Staunton claims to have played Deschapelles, always informally, some thirty or forty times, and to have come out about even. But Staunton was always given odds of a pawn and move, or two moves. Staunton argues that these odds actually conferred to Deschapelles’ an advantage over his opponent. Deschapelles had no interest in studying opening theory, and wanted his opponent on his own immediately. Giving the opponent pawn and two moves was one way of doing this. Deschapelles was believed to have developed personal, private theory on positions that could result from such odds, and used that knowledge to his advantage.
To prove his claim, Staunton writes in his Memoriam of Deschapelles that in one instance Cochrane gained the right to play a match against Deschapelles on standard, that is to say, oddless terms. Deschapelles, as a result, would quickly find himself ensconced in Giuoco Piano or King’s Gambit theory, invariably getting a disadvantage as a result since he didn’t know theory, and it would often take him as much as twenty moves to claw his way back into the game. Once anywhere near equal, Deschapelles’ middlegame and combinative vision was without peer, and he would often win in short order. Deschapelles thus lost about a third (according to Staunton) of his standard games to Cochrane in their matches and offhand games, due mostly to not adequately surviving the opening. Deschapelles is not known to have ever lost more than one game to Cochrane in which he “gave” him odds.
My assessment is that it is fair to consider Alexandre Deschapelles to be the chess world champion from 1800-1820.
