Bill Wall's Chess Blog

    In 1834, Jacques Francois Mouret (1780-1837), former operator of the Turk automaton and a French chess master, sold the secret to a magazine ( Le Magasin Pittoresque ). It was the first authentic revelation of the Turk. The article was called “An attempt to analyze the automaton chess-player of M. Kempelen. ”   Mouret became chess tutor of Louis Philippe I, king of France from 1830 to 1848.   On January 4, 1835, the first column to establish itself was that of George Walker (1803-1879) in Bell’s Life in London     It continued for 38 years, until 1873.   Bell’s Life in London was a weekly sporting paper published from 1822 to 1866.   In 1836, the world’s first periodical devoted to chess, Le Palamede , was founded and published in Paris by Louis-Charles Mahle de la Bourdonnais (1795-1840) and Joseph Mery.   It ceased publication in 1839 but was revived in December 1841 by Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant (1800-1872).   I...

  In the 16 th century, a manuscript now in Perugia, Italy described a new chess piece called “Amazon.”   This unorthodox piece combined the powers of a rook, bishop, and knight.   This piece was sometimes used up to the 18 th century as a substitute for the queen.   In Vida’s famous poem, the queen was sometimes called the Amazon, probably the first use of this word to describe a chess piece.   (source: Hooper, p.13)   For the rest of the 16 th century, “Amazon” cropped up as an alternative term for “chess queen” in various European languages.   (source: Yalom, p. 218) Around 1500, the Gottingen manuscript was written.   It is the earliest known work devoted entirely to modern chess.   It is a Latin text of 33 pages (leaves).   The manuscript received its name because it was discovered in the library of the Gottingen university by Professor Oesterley in 1869.   It contains 12 games or openings and 30 problems.   It may ha...