The Napoleon games which can be found are all made up, which has already been demonstrated some 150 years ago. In general, chess games in Europe weren't recorded until the later years of Philidor, with the exception of a few Italian authors from the 16th century onward. There are a few extant medieval games from the Arabic world but not from players which are widely known in our culture.
Historical Chess Games?
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Mar 12, 2015
0
#3
Do you happen to know who demonstrated that they were made up? Philidor had passed away by the time Napolean was around ten, so perhaps some French historian could have recorded at least 2 or 3. And if he did end up playing a general in exile, that would be an important game that people would want to know about.
I've seen from several sources that he did in fact play the Mechanical Turk or Automaton that was popular in Europe during that era, which is listed in the database.
The only genuine Napolean game is versus the Turk, which N lost quickly. By his own admission, he was a weak player. And, although we know that they played each other, there are no games surviving between Franklin and Jefferson.
If you care to search them, both batgirl and billwall have blogs devoted to stuff like this. There's some great stuff there.
Mar 13, 2015
0
#5
The alleged game with Bertrand was a literary fiction of 1860. It was clear from the outset that this game had never been played.
Napoleon's game with Mme de Rémusat might be semi-historic. The date and the place could be correct (it was an important moment in history) but the opponent is unwarranted and the moves of the game (first published in 1845) are clearly fictious (just read the article in the Palamède).
There might be a better case for the automaton game but there are so many different versions of the event (the number of games played is unclear), and even the purported operator Allgaier, who wrote on chess, seems to have been unaware of the game. It is hard to believe for me that anyone who did at least a little bit of research thinks that he game is authentic.
I had recently come across Napoleon Bonaparte's chess games and was thrilled to view them in the archives here on the site. I also saw Josef Stalin, but unfortunately couldn't find Benjamin Franklin despite knowing he was fond of the game.
Anyone know of some famous pre-20th century figures that had recorded their games (such as maybe Galileo, Newton, da Vinci, Genghis Kahn, perhaps a pope or two, etc.) and that might be available to view on the website?