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Part one of this article introduced the biggest loser in chess history,
Colonel Moreau, who lost every one of his twenty-six games at his
only known tournament, Monte Carlo 1903. Besides that event, little
or nothing has been uncovered about his life or what kind of man
Moreau was, until now. Here in part two, we find out just who the
mysterious colonel was, and why he deserves more respect than his
chess record might indicate.
New Stories A search of chess magazines available through Google Books turns up
some earlier references to a player named Moreau. Both the Westminster
about Old Papers and Nordisk Skaktidende of 1878 mention a Moreau playing in a
blindfold simul given by Simon Rosenthal; the longer (and non-Danish) The Life & Games of
Chess account is as follows, from the Westminster Papers of March 1, 1878, Akiva Rubinstein
page 194: by John Donaldson &
Players Nikolay Minev
Mr. Rosenthals Chess sance on the 10th ultimo, when he played
eight games simultaneously, sans voir, was remarkably successful in
Jeremy P. Spinrad several senses. In the first place because the Parisian champion
came out of the melee without the loss of a game, and in the second,
because three hundred spectators actually paid an admission fee of
ten francs, to witness a display of his power of playing Chess
without seeing the boards and pieces. Mr. Rosenthals adversaries
on the occasion were MM. Madrazo de Bourier, Mismer, Vie,
Givot, Bidray [Nordisk Skaktidende calls this player Ridray],
Feisthamel, and Captain Moreau, and he defeated all of them save
MM Bidray and Moreau, whose games were drawn.
The play commenced at nine oclock in the evening, and did not Essays in American
terminate until two in the following morning, the blindfold player Chess History
by John Hilbert
throughout the five hours, dividing his attention impartially between
his eight opponents and his friends, a teapot, a bottle of eau de
Play through and download cologne, a list of the adversaries names, and a well stocked cigar
the games from case.
ChessCafe.com in the
DGT Game Viewer. We thus have at least a possibility that the chess amateur Captain Moreau
of 1878 has been promoted to Colonel by the time of Monte Carlo 1903. I
The Complete wish I had the score of Moreaus game from the Rosenthal simul, to give
him at least a half-point to stand against the ignominious 0-26 record in
DGT Product Line
the databases. Instead, I can only further the embarrassment, with another
Moreau loss.
Common Sense
in Chess
by Emanuel Lasker
Caf de la Rgence
7.d4 Nh6
8.Nc3
8fxg2+ 9.Kxg2 d6
10.Nd3?!
10...Bg7 11.Be3?
14.Rhg1
Much better chances for counterplay lay in 18.Be3 Qxe4 19.Ng3 Qe7 20.
Re1.
18...Rxf7 19.exf5
Not much better was 19.d5 Ne5 20.Ng3 f4 21.Nxf4 Nc4 22.Qe2 Qxe2 23.
Ngxe2 Bxb2+.
19...Bxf5 20.Ne1??
20...Qf1+ 21.Ng1
29h5
Arnous de Rivire
However, the more important ties to the chess world are not through chess
problems, but to a chess player. Moreau is linked several times in the
mathematical literature to Arnous de Rivire, the former opponent of
Morphy who directed the Monte Carlo tournament. Rivire enjoyed
posing mathematical problems about games; for example, in
Lintermediaire des mathematiciens, volume 11 (1904) page 166, Rivire
asks about variants on bishop tours of the chess board. Revue Semestrielle
des Publications Mathematique was a journal that gave a quick overview
of contents of various mathematical journals. In volume 8 (October 1899-
April 1900) pg. 66, there is a summary of an article from Lintermediaire
des mathematiciens volume 6, pg. 257 that reads as follows:
He was not the sort of person who focused on a single area of research,
instead enjoying solving specific problems, often posed by others, in a
variety of different fields. Thus, I will limit myself to one other
remarkable result. The famous mathematician Legendre had stated a
theorem in 1785, that every relatively prime pair of numbers defines an
arithmetic sequence containing an infinite number of primes. Legendres
proof lacked rigor, in that a step he called obvious was by no means so.
Dirichlet (another extraordinarily famous mathematician) showed that the
truth of this obvious step would in fact imply the truth of a conjecture
that is still unknown today. Dirichlet was able to prove the statement on
arithmetic sequence without using Legendres step, but it was Moreau
who showed that the statement Legendre gave as obvious was actually
false (Nouvelles Annales 1873, pg. 323).
The crucial facts about Moreau can be found in the Revue dArtillerie.
Some of the most interesting results are in the 1873-1874 edition, where
we find that Captain C.P.N Moreau was made a Chevalier of the French
Legion of Honor on November 20, 1872 (p. 47). It is also reported that
Captain C.P.N. Moreau has been named a member of the Commission
dExperiences in Calais. Skipping to 1879, we find C.P.N. Moreau named
Adjutant to the Director for a practical course in Bourges (this
appointment is also in the 1879 French National Almanac). The 1888-89
Revue dArtillerie has Moreau named president of the Commision
dEtudes Pratiques du Tir, and the 1890 Revue gives Moreaus promotion
to Lieutenant Colonel. The importance of this position can be seen from
its description on page 486 of the Livre du Centenaire 1794-1894 of the
Ecole Polytechnique, where they say that the Cours pratique du tir
(practical gunnery course) was created in 1878, and directed successively
by General Barbe, General Andre, and Colonel Moreau.
From this information, I was finally able to find the full name of C.P.N.
Moreau. The Journal officiel de la Republique francaise, 1879, page
3,187, says that Charles Paul Narcisse Moreau, captain in the 29th
regiment, is named director of a cours pratique dartillerie. From this
website, I was able to verify that Charles Paul Narcisse Moreau was a
member of the Legion of Honor, and that he was born September 14,
1837 in Paris.
Eventually, I would like to look to know more about what led to his
Legion of Honor award, and whether his file on the award, which is given
on the website as on library shelf LH/1927/19, has other biographical
information such as parent names, and date and location of death. I fear
that I may have made a serious mistake in my email request on the subject
by posing my questions in English rather than in my garbled French; in
any case, I received no answer. Perhaps some reader in Paris will have an
easier time accessing this information, and could inform either me or
Edward Winter (I am indebted to Mr. Winter for starting me on this quest,
and summarizing the known information on Moreau) of details on its
contents.
I should also discuss a person whom some have thought might be our
Colonel Moreau, but I believe is not. The Westminster Papers of March 1,
1872, citing La Stratgie, describe one C. Moriau of Lyons as a new star
in the chess French firmament. Moriau is listed as being in Lyons 1872-
74. His article on the Bishops Gambit in the Deutsche Schachzeitung
around this time (advocating the line 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 Nc6)
receives considerable attention. Nordiske Skaktidende January 1875 notes
that Moriau visited the Copenhagen Chess Club; he is said to be from
Lyons, but now living in Hamburg where he is the strongest player after
Alexandre. In 1875, Moriau wins a game from Hoffer in a simul at the
City of London Chess Club. The British Chess Magazine of 1885, page
274, says Moriau is from Lyons when discussing a chess problem he
composed; a Moriau problem in the English Mechanic of September 23,
1892 is highly praised. English Mechanic calls him the City of London
Club champion on December 16, 1892. The same issue describes an
interesting point from a blind simul of Moriau; he plays six boards, and
has two of the games given to him in French, two in German, and two in
English. I believe the multiple languages were used as an aid to Moriau,
to help him from confusing the different games, which is said to be one of
the hardest parts of playing these exhibitions. The English Mechanic says
Moriau scored 4-2 in the simul; the London Times of October 2, 1893
says Moriau (actually, it calls him Morian, but it is almost certainly the
same player) scored 4-1-1 in another blind simul. A game Moriau plays
against Kaiser in the North vs. South of England match of 1893 receives
considerable attention. He appears at various City of London events in
1896. The American Chess Magazine of 1897-1898 lists Moriau as an
officer of the British chess club. The British Chess Magazine of 1898
reports that Moriau is dangerously ill, and that his career is almost
certainly over. Three Moriau games appear at chessgames.com; losses to
Steinitz and Zukertort in London in 1874 and 1875, and a win over
Lasker in an 1891 simul.
Oh no! The famously bad defense chosen by the Duke of Brunswick and
Count Isouard against Morphy in the renowned Opera Box Game, played
in Paris just two years earlier! News must have traveled slowly back then,
for Geake not to know this lines reputation, or perhaps he simply didnt
read much chess literature.
7.Bxf7+??
One can imagine Geakes thoughts, something like Darn, it turns out that
bishop on g4 was defended after all. I should have noticed that sooner.
0-1
Little is said about Geake, except that he came from London. I would
imagine that he is Edwin Geake, who contributed a number of problems
to the Chess Players Chronicle in 1860. Tim Harding informs me that he
has several Edwin Geake games in his collection, even including two he
won, but I will leave it to readers to ponder the mystery of this man. We
can only speculate whether his success in life was greater than his success
in chess. At least now we can be reasonably confident that such was the
case for Colonel Moreau, who I am now obliged to view with profound
respect.