Café de la Régence - the chess capital of the world

The famous Parisian Café de la Régence was in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries a Mecca for fans of the royal game. The chess elite of Europe met here. The regulars of the institution were, among other things, the encyclopedist Jean Jacques Rousseau, the radical politician Maximilian Robespierre and Napoleon Bonaparte, the future emperor of the French. Every day during the day and evening, several high-class chess players hung out in the restaurant.

For the agreed rate, "chess professors" played with everyone or gave them lessons. The cafe on the Palais Royal, near the Louvre, was founded in 1681 by a burgher named Lefebvre. At first it was called Café de Palais-Royal, and in 1718 it changed its name to Cafe Regency.

Legend has it that the reason for the change of name was the frequent visits of the regent, Prince Philippe d'Orléans, fascinated by the beauty of the wife of the new owner of the cafe, who occupied the premises after Lefebvre. Philip Orlyansky was regent during the infancy of Louis XV, in the years 1715-1723 his reign was a time of magnificent flowering of French architecture, painting and sculpture. Philip was also known for his behavior, which violated all conventions and court etiquette.

Chess Capital of the World

The chess elite used to gather and spend their days in cafes, including Kermer de Legal and his student François Philidor. For many leading chess players, games in cafes were a significant source of income, because they were most often played for money. Therefore, we can venture to say that a person's propensity for gambling contributed to the development of chess. The cafe not only played for money, but also staked the results of individual games.

In those days, the term "cafemaster" had a completely different meaning than now. He was a strong player who made his living playing chess. Such a "champion" had the ability to quickly assess the strength of an opponent when he offered a game for money, but at the same time demanded forums. Until the end of the XNUMXth century, the master Cafe Regency usually he was the strongest player in the country, and sometimes even in the world.

In 1750, the French chess player Kermer de Legal, considered the strongest player in France until his student François Philidor defeated him, played one of the most famous miniatures in chess history at the Café de la Régence. This movement was the subject of the operetta Der Seekadett (Navy Cadet) written by Richard Genet in 1887.

The position shown in Diagram 1 was created in just four moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Bg4 4.Nc3 g6? Black is convinced that the white bridge f3 is pinned, but this is a fake pin 5.S: e5! G: d1?? Black should accept the loss of a pawn and protect the king from checkmate with 5… Be6 or 5… d: e5, but still do not see the danger of 6. G: f7 + Ke7 7. Nd5 # (diagram 2).

1. Kermeur de Legal - Saint-Brie, Café de la Régence, 1750; position by 4… g6?

2. Kermeur de Legal - Saint-Brie, Café de la Régence, 1750; Matt Legal

3. François-André Danican Philidor is a French composer and the greatest chess player of the XNUMXth century.

Legal's student and frequent visitor to the café was (1726-1795), the most prominent chess player of the 3rd century (XNUMX). In his book "L'analyse des Echecs" ("Analysis of the game of chess"), which went through more than a hundred editions, he revolutionized the understanding of chess. His most famous thought is contained in the well-known saying "pawns are the soul of the game", emphasizing the importance of the correct play of pawns in all phases of the game.

W Cafe Regency his regular partners on the board were Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Even during his lifetime, he was appreciated as a musician and composer, he left twenty operas! In opening theory, the memory of Philidor is preserved in the name of one of the openings, the Philidor Defense: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6. Philidor's level of play was so superior to that of all his contemporaries that from the age of 21 he only played his opponents on the forums.

Representatives of the Parisian intelligentsia - writers, journalists and politicians - met in a cafe. The aforementioned Voltaire and Rousseau, as well as Denis Diderot, often stayed here. The latter wrote: "Paris is the place in the world, and the Café de la Régence is the place in Paris where chess is played at the highest level."

The cafe was also visited by chess lover Benjamin Franklin and the Austrian Emperor Joseph I, who traveled incognito through France under the assumed name of Prince Falkenstein. In 1780, Russian Tsar Paul I, the son of Catherine the Great, visited here. In 1798 in Cafe Regency Napoleon Bonaparte. The marble table, at which the future emperor sat, occupied a place of honor in the cafe for many years with a corresponding annotation.

4. The famous chess match played in 1843 at the Café de la Régence with Howard Staunton and Pierre Charles Fourier Saint-Aman.

In the first half of the XNUMXth century, chess players who were considered unofficial world champions performed at the Café de la Régence: Alexandre Deschapelles, Louis de la Bourdonnet and Pierre Saint-Amand. In the XNUMXs with the best chess players in the world Cafe Regency the British began to compete.

In 1834, an absentee match began between the cafe representation and the Westminster Chess Club, founded three years earlier.

In 1843, a match was played in the cafe, which ended the long-term dominance of French chess players. Pierre Saint-Aman lost to Englishman Howard Staunton (+6 -11 = 4). The French artist Jean-Henri Marlet, a close friend of Pierre Saint-Amand, painted in 1843 the painting "The Game of Chess", in which Staunton plays with Saint-Amand in the cafe "Regence" (4).

5. Crowds of chess lovers in the Café de la Régence

In 1852, in connection with the construction work around the Louvre, the cafe was moved to the Dodun Hotel at 21 rue Richelieu, and then, in 1855, returned to the vicinity of the historical site (rue Saint-Honoré 161), retaining its specifics. character and former clientele (5). At that time, the cafe received a new interior, including chess motifs such as the bust of Philidor.

Cafe Regency witnessed many significant sporting events. On September 27, 1858, Paul Morphy played a simultaneous blindfold session with eight strong Parisian chess players, achieving an excellent result - six wins and two draws (6).

6. Paul Morphy plays blind with eight strong Parisian chess players.

Simultana lasted 10 hours, during which time Morphy did not eat or drink anything. When he left the building after completion, the enthusiastic crowd cheered the chess genius so much that the Imperial Guard was convinced that a new revolution had broken out. The next morning, Morphy dictated from memory the moves of all eight games played, along with hundreds of possible variations that arose in the course of a two-hour game. In April 1859, a farewell banquet was held in the cafe in honor of the American master who defeated most of the best European chess players.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the cafe gradually lost its importance as a chess center, although it was still the site of important chess events and hosted many prominent chess players. It was converted into a restaurant in 1910 and most of the chess players decided to move in 1916 to the Café de l'Univers.

7. The building that used to house the Café de la Régence.

Today at Cafe Regency chess is no longer played, the bust of Philidor and the table at which the young Bonaparte competed have disappeared. The former "temple of chess" houses the National Tourism Office of Morocco (7). There are many cute cafes nearby, but none of them are like chess players used to gather.

17-year-old Jan-Krzysztof Duda is the vice-champion of the world under 20!

Jan-Krzysztof Duda achieved another big success when he won a silver medal at the World Junior Chess Championship U20, which was held from 1 to 16 September in Khanty-Mansiysk, a Russian city in Siberia. The Pole led several rounds and was close to winning throughout the tournament.

As a result, in thirteen games played, he scored 10 points, the same number as the winner Mikhail Antipov from Russia (8).

8. Before the game of the two best players of the World Chess Championship U20

Duda met Antipov a year older than him in the 9th (8th) round. The Russian respected the Pole and, playing with Black, tried to achieve a draw. Duda got a slight advantage, but the Russian defended well and the game ended in a draw.

In the last round, Antipov successfully won the lost game and won back 0,5 points from the Pole, who only drew. The championship was decided only by the third auxiliary score, which, unfortunately, was not in favor of our chess player from Wieliczka.

The Pole, however, has not lost a single game in this championship, winning seven and drawing six. After the tournament ended, he said: "I have three more years to play in this age group and I'm not going to miss it."

Currently, Jan-Krzysztof Duda ranks third in the world in the FIDE ranking among juniors under 17, ahead of him only by the Chinese Wei Yi and the Russian Vladislav Artemiev.