Alexandre Deschapelles

Alexandre Louis Honore Lebreton Deschapelles ( born March 7, 1780 in Ville d' Avray, † 27 October 1847 in Paris ) was the first French chess master who could build on the achievements of François -André Philidor Danican.

Deschapelles was the noble son of a marshal. He attended the famous military school of Brienne, who had once visited the young Napoleon Bonaparte. Due to the revolutionary upheavals, the school was closed and the students dismissed. While his relatives went to the emigration to Desch Appelles the revolutionary army followed. However, the fourteen- year-old soldier of the Sambre -Meuse Army 1794 was seriously injured in the battle of Fleurus.

The loss of the right hand, made ​​the dreams to the ground on a great career; in military service, he could then be used in logistics. According to some reports he reached the end of his career nevertheless briefly the rank of general.

After the fall of Napoleon in 1815 to Deschapelles went into retirement and devoted himself to chess, which he learned in his own words in just four days, the whist game, a precursor of the bridge, backgammon, and billiards.

Soon Alexandre Deschapelles was one of the strongest players in the Paris "Café de la Regence ". Described as haughty and proud, he knew himself superior to all his contemporaries. He is known to have very limited to setting games against his opponents. After lost games he used the preset and use to increase, after which his opponents do not always were getting. His real skill level is therefore difficult to assess. Deschapelles was not a theoretician. He did not read chess books and, in contrast to Philidor or Saint -Amant never written such. His opening skills were not very good, so that he often had to think already in the first few turns long and often worse state.

In 1832 he was arrested because he was suspected of being involved in a plot against King Louis- Philippe.

In 1842, he won a match against Pierre Saint Amant 3-2. As Deschapelles against his pupil Louis -Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais could not win, he retired from chess and was an equally successful fruit and vegetable farmer.