Napoleon Marache
Encyclopedia
Napoleon Marache was born in France
and moved to the United States
at about age 12. He learned the game of chess
around 1844, and immediately became a devotee. He began composing chess problem
s and writing about chess the following year. In the mid-19th century, he was both one of America's first chess journalists
and one of its leading players. In 1866, he published Marache's Manual of Chess, which was one of the country's first books on chess, and also one of its first books on backgammon
. He is perhaps best known today for losing a famous game to Paul Morphy
.
Marache was born in Meaux
, France in June 1818, three years to the month after his namesake
Napoleon Bonaparte's
final defeat at Waterloo
. Marache moved to the United States at about age 12. He learned the game around 1844 and immediately became a serious student of the game. He learned so quickly that he was able, three weeks after his first lesson, to give his tutor rook
odds
.
In 1845, Marache began composing chess problems. In 1846, he became the "first chess editor in America", publishing the periodical The Chess Palladium and Mathematical Sphinx. At approximately the same time, Charles Stanley started another American chess periodical, The American Chess Magazine. The two publications feuded shamelessly, Stanley calling Marache's publication "a most ridiculous jumble of unintelligible nonsense" and "sixteen pages of soiled waste-paper". Only three issues of The Chess Palladium and Mathematical Sphinx were published, dated October, November, and December 1846. The American Chess Magazine ceased publication in 1847. At various times in the 1850s and 1860s, Marache was the chess editor or chess columnist for the New York Clipper
, Porter's Spirit of the Times, and Wilkes' Spirit of the Times
.
In 1865, Marache wrote the chess section for a new edition of Hoyle's
guide to games. Shortly after the end of the Civil War
, Morphy traveled to New York
to work on an annotated collection of his games, with Marache acting as secretary and Charles A. Gilberg working closely with Morphy. Unfortunately, the book was never published, since prospective publishers "asked that he enrich the collection ... with new games", which Morphy refused to do.
In 1866, Marache published Marache's Manual of Chess, one of the first chess books in the United States. At the end of the book, Marache also gave the rules and discussed strategy for backgammon
, Russian backgammon, and dominoes
. The book was also one of the earliest books on backgammon in the United States. It was still in print in 1928, the publisher's name having since been changed to "Fitzgerald Publishing Corporation", New York.
. On August 30, 1856, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper published a challenge issued by Ernest Morphy to "Mr. Stanley
or Marache (and we presume any player in the country)" to play a match against his nephew, Paul Morphy. No one accepted the challenge.
In 1857, Marache was one of the sixteen leading American players who participated in the First American Chess Congress, Morphy's triumphant first (and only) tournament. Marache defeated Daniel Fiske in the first round, losing his first two games but winning the remaining three. In the second round, he lost to Benjamin Raphael, winning two games, drawing two, and losing three.
Marache and Morphy did not meet in the tournament, but played five games in 1857 in which Morphy gave odds of pawn and move, with Morphy winning three and drawing two. In 1859 Morphy, who could successfully give odds of a knight
to almost any player in the country, beat Marache in a game at those odds, after Marache blundered away his extra piece to what is today a well-known trap in the Max Lange Attack
.
In 1858, Marache was one of the players who represented the New York Chess Club in the second game of a two-game telegraph match with its Philadelphia counterpart, which resulted in a win for New York. Marache substituted for Fiske, who had been one of the New York players in the first game, which had ended in a draw.
:
Marache-Morphy, New York 1857 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.e5? d5! 8.exd6 Qxd6 9.O-O Nge7 10.Ng5? Better was 10.Ba3, although White's attacking prospects would not be enough to compensate for the sacrificed pawn
. O-O 11.Bd3 Bf5! Sacrificing an exchange
, for which Black gets three pawns and a strong attack. 12.Bxf5 Nxf5 13.Ba3 Qg6 14.Bxf8 Qxg5 15.Ba3 dxc3 16.Bc1 Qg6 17.Bf4 Rd8 18.Qc2 Ncd4 (position at left) 19.Qe4 The alternatives were no better: 19.Qd3 Ng3!! wins the queen
for two knights after 20.Qxg3 Ne2+; 19.Rd1 Ne3! 20.Qxg6 Ne2+ 21.Kh1 Rxd1#
; 19.Qa4 b5! 20.Qxa5 Ne2+ 21.Kh1 Nxf4 22.Rg1 (or 22.g3 Qc6+ 23.f3 Qxf3+!!) Rd1! 23.g3 Qc6+ and mate
next. Ng3!! (position at right) 20.Qxg6 White has no reasonable alternative, e.g. 20.Bxg3 Qxe4 or 20.Qe7 Nde2+ wins the queen. Nde2# 0-1
calls it, "An interesting problem with a Zugzwang
theme." The key move is 1.Bf7! (see diagram at right).
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
at about age 12. He learned the game of chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
around 1844, and immediately became a devotee. He began composing chess problem
Chess problem
A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by somebody using chess pieces on a chess board, that presents the solver with a particular task to be achieved. For instance, a position might be given with the instruction that White is to move first, and checkmate Black in two...
s and writing about chess the following year. In the mid-19th century, he was both one of America's first chess journalists
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
and one of its leading players. In 1866, he published Marache's Manual of Chess, which was one of the country's first books on chess, and also one of its first books on backgammon
Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two players. The playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and players win by removing all of their pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...
. He is perhaps best known today for losing a famous game to Paul Morphy
Paul Morphy
Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy...
.
Early life; writing
Meaux
Meaux is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located east-northeast from the center of Paris. Meaux is a sub-prefecture of the department and the seat of an arondissement...
, France in June 1818, three years to the month after his namesake
Namesake
Namesake is a term used to characterize a person, place, thing, quality, action, state, or idea that has the same, or a similar, name to another....
Napoleon Bonaparte's
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
final defeat at Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
. Marache moved to the United States at about age 12. He learned the game around 1844 and immediately became a serious student of the game. He learned so quickly that he was able, three weeks after his first lesson, to give his tutor rook
Rook (chess)
A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...
odds
Chess handicap
A handicap in chess is a way to enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger one. There are many kinds of such handicaps, such as material odds, extra moves A handicap (or "odds") in chess is a way to enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger...
.
In 1845, Marache began composing chess problems. In 1846, he became the "first chess editor in America", publishing the periodical The Chess Palladium and Mathematical Sphinx. At approximately the same time, Charles Stanley started another American chess periodical, The American Chess Magazine. The two publications feuded shamelessly, Stanley calling Marache's publication "a most ridiculous jumble of unintelligible nonsense" and "sixteen pages of soiled waste-paper". Only three issues of The Chess Palladium and Mathematical Sphinx were published, dated October, November, and December 1846. The American Chess Magazine ceased publication in 1847. At various times in the 1850s and 1860s, Marache was the chess editor or chess columnist for the New York Clipper
New York Clipper
The New York Clipper, also known as The Clipper, was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports, and theatre. It had a circulation of about 25,000. The publishers also produced the...
, Porter's Spirit of the Times, and Wilkes' Spirit of the Times
Spirit of the Times
The Spirit of the Times: A Chronicle of the Turf, Agriculture, Field Sports, Literature and the Stage was an American weekly newspaper published in New York City. The paper aimed for an upper-class readership made up largely of sportsmen. The Spirit also included humorous material, much of it based...
.
In 1865, Marache wrote the chess section for a new edition of Hoyle's
Edmond Hoyle
Edmond Hoyle was a writer best known for his works on the rules and play of card games. The phrase "according to Hoyle" came into the language as a reflection of his generally-perceived authority on the subject; since that time, use of the phrase has expanded into general use in situations in...
guide to games. Shortly after the end of the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Morphy traveled to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to work on an annotated collection of his games, with Marache acting as secretary and Charles A. Gilberg working closely with Morphy. Unfortunately, the book was never published, since prospective publishers "asked that he enrich the collection ... with new games", which Morphy refused to do.
In 1866, Marache published Marache's Manual of Chess, one of the first chess books in the United States. At the end of the book, Marache also gave the rules and discussed strategy for backgammon
Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two players. The playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and players win by removing all of their pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...
, Russian backgammon, and dominoes
Dominoes
Dominoes generally refers to the collective gaming pieces making up a domino set or to the subcategory of tile games played with domino pieces. In the area of mathematical tilings and polyominoes, the word domino often refers to any rectangle formed from joining two congruent squares edge to edge...
. The book was also one of the earliest books on backgammon in the United States. It was still in print in 1928, the publisher's name having since been changed to "Fitzgerald Publishing Corporation", New York.
Play
In 1855-56, in a competition among eight of the leading players of the day, Marache won the championship cup of the New York Chess Club. Later that same winter, he finished first in a sixteen-player tournamentTournament
A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:...
. On August 30, 1856, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper published a challenge issued by Ernest Morphy to "Mr. Stanley
Charles Stanley (chess player)
Charles Henry Stanley was the first chess champion of the United States. When the first-ever U.S. championship match took place in 1845, Stanley defeated Eugéne Rousseau of New Orleans and thus claimed the title....
or Marache (and we presume any player in the country)" to play a match against his nephew, Paul Morphy. No one accepted the challenge.
In 1857, Marache was one of the sixteen leading American players who participated in the First American Chess Congress, Morphy's triumphant first (and only) tournament. Marache defeated Daniel Fiske in the first round, losing his first two games but winning the remaining three. In the second round, he lost to Benjamin Raphael, winning two games, drawing two, and losing three.
Marache and Morphy did not meet in the tournament, but played five games in 1857 in which Morphy gave odds of pawn and move, with Morphy winning three and drawing two. In 1859 Morphy, who could successfully give odds of a knight
Knight (chess)
The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
to almost any player in the country, beat Marache in a game at those odds, after Marache blundered away his extra piece to what is today a well-known trap in the Max Lange Attack
Max Lange Attack
The Max Lange Attack is a chess opening that can arise from many different opening lines, including the Two Knights Defense, Petroff's Defense, Scotch Gambit, Bishop's Opening, Center Game, and Giuoco Piano...
.
In 1858, Marache was one of the players who represented the New York Chess Club in the second game of a two-game telegraph match with its Philadelphia counterpart, which resulted in a win for New York. Marache substituted for Fiske, who had been one of the New York players in the first game, which had ended in a draw.
Game against Morphy
Marache is perhaps best known today for losing the following brilliancy against Morphy in 1857, in which Marache played White in an Evans GambitEvans Gambit
The Evans Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the moves:The gambit is named after the Welsh sea Captain William Davies Evans, the first player known to have employed it. The first game with the opening is considered to be Evans - McDonnell, London 1827, although in that game a slightly...
:
Marache-Morphy, New York 1857 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.e5? d5! 8.exd6 Qxd6 9.O-O Nge7 10.Ng5? Better was 10.Ba3, although White's attacking prospects would not be enough to compensate for the sacrificed pawn
Pawn (chess)
The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
. O-O 11.Bd3 Bf5! Sacrificing an exchange
The exchange (chess)
The exchange in chess refers to a situation in which one player loses a minor piece but captures the opponent's rook. The side which wins the rook is said to have won the exchange, while the other player has lost the exchange, since the rook is usually more valuable...
, for which Black gets three pawns and a strong attack. 12.Bxf5 Nxf5 13.Ba3 Qg6 14.Bxf8 Qxg5 15.Ba3 dxc3 16.Bc1 Qg6 17.Bf4 Rd8 18.Qc2 Ncd4 (position at left) 19.Qe4 The alternatives were no better: 19.Qd3 Ng3!! wins the queen
Queen (chess)
The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
for two knights after 20.Qxg3 Ne2+; 19.Rd1 Ne3! 20.Qxg6 Ne2+ 21.Kh1 Rxd1#
Checkmate
Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
; 19.Qa4 b5! 20.Qxa5 Ne2+ 21.Kh1 Nxf4 22.Rg1 (or 22.g3 Qc6+ 23.f3 Qxf3+!!) Rd1! 23.g3 Qc6+ and mate
Checkmate
Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
next. Ng3!! (position at right) 20.Qxg6 White has no reasonable alternative, e.g. 20.Bxg3 Qxe4 or 20.Qe7 Nde2+ wins the queen. Nde2# 0-1
Problem
At left is a chess problem composed by Marache, which he called, "One of the most difficult two-move compositions extant." Edward WinterEdward Winter (chess historian)
Edward Winter is an English journalist, archivist, historian, collector and author about the game of chess. He writes a regular column on that subject, Chess Notes, and is also a regular columnist for ChessBase.-Chess Notes:...
calls it, "An interesting problem with a Zugzwang
Zugzwang
Zugzwang is a term usually used in chess which also applies to various other games. The term finds its formal definition in combinatorial game theory, and it describes a situation where one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make a move when he would prefer to pass and make no move...
theme." The key move is 1.Bf7! (see diagram at right).