Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte) was born on August 15, 1769 in the town of Ajaccio on Corsica. His family were of minor Italian nobility. He was born one year after the island was transferred to France by the Republic of Genoa. He later adopted the more French-sounding Napoleon Bonaparte.

On May 15, 1779, at the age of 9, he was admitted to a French military school at Brienne-le-Chateau. He had to learn French before entering the school. He graduated in 1784.

In 1784, he was admitted to the Ecole Royale Militaire in Paris. He completed the two-year course of study in only one year. He graduated in September 1785.

In 1785, at the age of 16, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant of artillery.

From 1786 to 1789 he served on garrison duty in Valence and Auxonne.

In 1789, he went to Corisca and gained the rank of lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of volunteers.

In June, 1793, he was forced to flee Corisca and went to France. He was appointed as artillery commander in the French forces besieging Toulon. He helped recapture the city and was promoted to brigadier-general at the age of 24.

On August 6, 1794 he was briefly imprisoned in the Chateau d’Antibes following the fall of Maximilien Robespierre.

In 1795, he was serving in Paris. He was given command of the forces defending the Convention in the Tuileries Palace. It was said that Lieutenant Bonaparte often played chess at the Café de Regance.

On March 9, 1796, he married Josephine de Beauharnais. She had a son, Eugene de Beauharnais (1781-1824), from a previous marriage, who became interested in chess.

On March 27, 1796, he took command of the French “Army of Italy.” He led a successful invasion of Italy. At the Lodi, he gained the nickname of “The Little Corporal.” He drove the Austrians out of Lombardy and defeated the army of the Papal States. He marched on Rome and dethroned Pope Pius VI. The pope died while in captivity.

On June 4, 1796, Mantua, Italy was attacked by Napoleon. Napoleon stopped in Mantua to play chess with the commandant of the town, General Beauvoir.

In early 1797, he led his army into Austria and forced that power to sue for peace. The resulting Treaty of Campo Formio gave France control of most of northern Italy. He then marched on Venice and forced its surrender, ending over 1,000 years of independence.

In late 1797, he organized many of the French dominated territories in Italy into the Cisalpine Republic. He returned to Paris in December, 1797.

He supposedly played chess against Joachim Murat (1767-1815), his youngest sister’s (Caroline Bonaparte) husband, and king of Naples (1808-1815).

In March, 1798, he proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt, then a province of the Ottoman Empire.

On June 9, 1798, he seized Malta from the Knights of Saint John.

On July 1, 1798, he landed in Alexandria.

He supposedly played chess in Egypt with his adjudants Matthias Poussielgue (Napoleon’s finance advisor) and Pierre Amedee Jaubert (1779-1847), who was Napoleon’s interpreter.

In early 1799, he led the army into the Ottoman province of Syria. He returned to Egypt in May. He left Egypt for France on August 23, 1799.

On Nov 9, 1799, troops led by Bonaparte seized control and dispersed the legislative councils. He secured his own election as First Counul at the age of 30.

In 1800, he returned to Italy, which the Austrians had reconquered.

In 1801, he negotiated the Condordat of 1801 with the Catholic Church.

In 1803, he sold French assets, the Louisiana Purchase, to the United States.

On March 20, 1804, he supposedly played a game of chess with Madame Claire de Remusat (1780-1821) at the Malmaison Castle in Hauts-de-Seine, France (home of Josephine and Napoleon). It was the day before Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Conde, the duc d’Enghein (1772-1804) was executed. The game was first published in Le Palamede in July, 1845.

Napoleon – de Remusat, 1.Nc3 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.e4 f5 4.h3 fxe4 5.Nxe4 Nc6 6.Nfg5 d5 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Qf3 Nh6 9.Nf6+ Ke7 10.Nxd5+ Kd6 11.Ne4+ Kxd5 12.Bc4+ Kxc4 13.Qb3+ Kd4 14.Qd3 mate 1-0

On Dec 2, 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor at Notre Dame in Paris.

On May 26, 1805, he was crowned King of Italy.

On Oct 20, 1805, his Grande Armee marched to Germany. He defeated Austria and Russia at Austerlitz on Dec 2, 1805.

He defeated Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt on Oct 14, 1806.

In January, 1807, he started his Polish campaign. During the Polish campaign, he supposedly played chess with Joachim Murat, Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne (1769-1834), Louis Alexandre Berthier (1753-1815), and Huges-Bernard Maret, the Duke of Bassano (1763-1839).

In 1807, he invaded Spain.

In 1809, he defeated the Austrians near Vienna.

In 1809, he supposedly played the Automaton (the Turk) three games of chess while he was in Austria. The games was supposedly played at Schonbrunn Castle in Vienna, which was occupied by Napoleon during the Wagram campaign. There are two versions of this match. In one version, Napoleon kept making illegal moves to confuse the Automaton until the Automaton swept the pieces from the board. The other version is that Napoleon swept the pieces from the board after the Turk defeated him. The Turk was created by Johann Maezel.

Napoleon – The Turk, 1.e4 e5 2.Qf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ne2 Bc5 5.a3 d6 6.O-O Bg4 7.Qd3 Nh5 8.h3 Bxe2 9.Qxe2 Nf4 10.Qe1 Nd4 11.Bb3 Nxh3+ 12.Kh2 Qh4 13.g3 Nf3+ 14.Kg2 Nxe1+ 15.Rxe1 Qg4 16.d3 Bxf2 17.Rh1 Qxg3+ 18.Kf1 Bd4 19.Ke2 Qg2+ 20.Kd1 Qxh1+ 21.Kd2 Qg2+ 22.Ke1 Ng1 23.Nc3 Bxc3+ 24.bxc3 0-1

In 1810, he divorced Josephine and married Austrian Archduchess Marie Louise.

In 1811, Napoleon’s stepson, purchased the automaton called the Turk for 30,000 francs. He was interested in how it worked.

On June 22, 1812, he invaded Russia. The French losses were 570,000 men against 400,000 Russians.

On March 31, 1814, Paris was occupied. Napoleon abdicated on April 6, 1814. In the treaty of Fontainebleau, the victors exiled him to Elba. He escaped from Elba in Feb 26, 1815 and returned to the mainland on March 1, 1815. In France, the royalists had taken control and restored Louis XVIII to power. He marched to Paris on March 20 and governed for 100 days.

On June 18, 1815, he was defeated at Waterloo, Belgium by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher.

On July 15, 1815, he surrendered while on board the HMS Bellerophon off Rochefort.

From Oct 15, 1815 he was imprisoned and then exiled by the British to the island of Saint Helena. It was said that he played chess every day in St. Helena. Two of his most common opponents were Count (General) Henri Bertrand (1775-1846) and Charles Tristan, marquis de Montholon (1782-1853).

The Memorial de Sainte-Helene, by Emmanuel, compte de Las Cases (1766-1842), written in December, 1815, stated, ‘Before dinner, the emperor always played several games of chess. After dinner, we reverted to playing reversi…’

During his captivity at St. Helena, he received from the Governor of the Indies, Sir John Elphinstone, a chessboard made by the best Chinese workmen in Canton, China. The set was made of carved ivory, marked with eagles and the initial N surmounted by the Imperial Crown. On arrival at St. Helena, Sir Hudson Lowe (1769-1844), the governor of the island, would not allow the chess set to be delivered to Napoleon as the Kings were crowned with what he maintained was an Imperial Crown. According to one source, the set was returned to Sir John Elphinstone. Other sources say that Napoleon did receive the chess set.

On March 7, 1816, Napoleon played chess with the Grand Marechal.

On May 11, 1816, Napoleon played chess with Madame Skelton. She was the wife of the Lieutenant Govenor.

In 1817, Eugene de Beauharnais sold the automaton Turk back to Maelzel for 30,000 francs.

In 1818, he supposedly played a game of chess with General Henri Gratien, Comte Bertrand (1773-1844). This game was first printed by Captain Hugh Alexander Kennedy (1809-1878) in Reminiscences in the Life of Augustus Fitzsnob, Esq. (Waifs and Strays, 1862, chapter 3). The game was supposedly observed by Captain Lacy, stationed at St. Helena, who afterwards took it down from memory, and allowed Lieutenant Fitzsnob to take a copy of it. The game may have actually been played between Kennedy and Rev. John Owen.

Napoleon – Bertrand, 1.Nf3 Nc6 2.e4 e5 3.d4 Nxd4 4.Nxd4 exd4 5.Bc4 Bc5 6.c3 Qe7 7.O-O Qe5 8.f4 dxc3+ 9.Kh1 cxb2 10.Bxf7+ Kd8 11.fxe5 bxa1=Q 12.Bxg8 Be7 13.Qb3 a5 14.Rf8+ Bxf8 15.Bg5+ Be7 16.Bxe7+ Kxe7 17.Qf7+ Kd8 18.Qf8 mate 1-0

Another chess opponent of Napoleon while at St Helena may have been Major General Anthony Emmett (1790-1872). One source says that 3 games were played between the two.

In April, 1821, Napoleon dictated his last will. There is nothing about chess in it. His last wish was to have his ashes rest on the banks of the Seine.

He died on May 5, 1821 at the age of 51.

When he died, Hudson Lowe, the prison commander, permitted Napoleon’s heart to be extracted and kept separately in a vase, in case Lowe would receive directions from the British government that Napoleon’s heart would be allowed to be transported to France.

In 1824, Eugene de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s stepson, died.

In the March 15, 1884 issue of the Brooklyn Chess Chronicle, it was stated that the son of W.H. Vanderbuilt (George Vanderbilt) had been presented with a set of chessmen and chess table used by Napoleon. The set is displayed at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. The Washington Post, May 4, 1884, stated that Napoleon’s heart was placed on the chess table during the post-mortem and that one could still see the blood stains.