Café de la Régence

The Café de la Regence in Paris was from about the mid-18th to the mid 19th century, the center of chess in Europe. All important chess players of that time have played there games.

From the Café de la Place du Palais -Royal to the Café de la Regence

The cafe was founded in 1681 as one of the first coffee houses in Paris, the Café de la Place du Palais -Royal. It was located between the Rue Saint- Honoré and the Place du Palais -Royal. Earliest in 1715 it was renamed the Café de la Regence. The new name was referring to the era of the Regency ( Regency La ), which lasted from 1715 to 1723, when the Duke of Orléans in place of the still immature young King Louis XV. the degree of political control. This name kept the café then in later. Since about 1740 it served as a meeting place for the chess player from Paris, who had previously played in the Café Procope in the Rue de l' Ancienne Comédie -. During the reconstruction of the Place du Palais- Royal in 1852, it was temporarily in the hotel Dodun, Rue de Richelieu, housed before 1854 n ° 161 Rue Saint- Honoré moved.

The heyday

Regular visitors to the cafes were celebrities such as Denis Diderot, Jean -Jacques Rousseau, François -André Philidor Danican, Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. The chess master François Antoine de Legall and in later times Lionel Kieseritzky and Daniel Harrwitz worked there as a professional. Diderot describes the café in his book Le neveu de Rameau. Top players of the Café de la Regence authored the 1775 anonymously published Traité des Amateurs, which was understood as a complement of Philidor's textbook. For many years, a chess table made ​​of marble was exhibited at the café, had played at the Napoleon in 1798.

In addition to chess and checkers and billiards was played in the café. In the autumn of 1843 the Café de la Regence was the scene of the duel of the two leading players in the world at that time, Pierre Saint -Amant and Howard Staunton. Staunton won with a 11 to 6 win games, four games ended a draw.

Even Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels first met in this cafe on Wednesday 28 August 1844. During his European trip, also gave Paul Morphy to 1858/59 there frequently on and defeated Harrwitz in a match with 5.5 to 2.5. This was the last major peak in the chess history of the café.

The end of the Café de la Regence

After the show Morphy began a gradual decline, albeit later held some notable chess events, such as 1894 correspondence match against the chess club of St. Petersburg, which ended in a draw. After a change of ownership, the café in 1910 was converted into a restaurant, so it changed its character in the subsequent period. A majority of chess players pulled thereupon during the First World War into the Café de l' Univers. The restaurant, which still preserved historical memorabilia was not until the mid-1950s. Today ( 2012) is located in the building a Moroccan tourist office, without any reference to the former cafe.