1804 – 2004 : 200 years
anniversary of Correspondence Chess
Two hundred years ago
the first correspondence chess games on records were played
in the Netherlands. There is no doubt that games have been
played by correspondence before that date, but none of them
seem to have been published in a journal or a chess book.
So far no CC games prior to 1804 have been discovered and
this may still be true in the future.
The official start
date of Correspondence Chess history is therefore 1804!
Friedrich Wilhelm Von
Mauvillon
The man who played the
first CC games known in history is Friedrich Wilhelm von
Mauvillon (1774 – 1851). As his name indicates, von
Mauvillon family came from France and immigrated to Germany.
Jacob, Friedrich’s father was a military instructor of
William V of Orange, and he followed the King in the
Netherlands where his son enlisted in the Dutch army.
In 1804, Friedrich
Wilhelm was stationed in Den Haag and he played several CC
games during his spare time, against another army officer in
Breda. Von Mauvillon kept the scores of these games several
years and published them only 23 years later.
There is no doubt that
the regular postal service between different regiments in
the Army was a key factor that enabled the development of
these CC games.
At that time, Von
Mauvillon was also playing OTB chess. On May 15th
1803, a chess club was founded in Den Haag, named the
« Haagsch Schaakgenootschap » and Von Mauvillon was one of
the founding members with the well-known Elias Stein as
President.
In 1827, Von Mauvillon
retired from the active service as lieutenant – colonel and
started a new career devoted to chess literature. He wrote
his famous “Anweisung zur Erlernung des Schach-Spiels mit
besonderer Rucksicht auf diejeningen denen das Spiel
durchaus unbekannt ist ,” published in Essen in 1827.
But Von Mauvillon was
not a very strong player, as can be seen from his CC games.
In the introduction to his book (page vi) he writes
“I cannot pretend that I am a chess master, I
am only of average strength and I can only report what I
have learned from one of the first chess master, E. Stein *)
during a whole year when I played in the Club where he was
president.”
*) Elias Stein , was born in Vorbach
(probably Forbach in Lorraine, E. Ruch) near Strasburg in
1748 and died in Den Haag in 1812. He was the strongest
player in the Netherlands at the end of the 18thcentury
and the beginning of the 19th century, but also
one of the strongest players in Europe and his strength can
be compared to that of Philidor and Stamma and other chess
masters.
The Games of Von
Mauvillon
The CC games played by
Von Mauvillon have been published in his chess book in 1827.
Chapter 11 of this book is devoted to the analysis of
several games, and these CC games can be found in pages 373
to 375.
There are different
versions of these games in the modern literature, some
authors stating that only two games have been played, some
other given three games. There is another opened question:
which colors was playing Von Mauvillon in his games ? And
were these games played against a single opponent or not ?
I have the chance to
have this book in my library as a piece of CC history, and I
can answer some of these questions.
The first game is
preceded by an introductory text, that provided some insight
to the game:
“Games
played by the author in the year 1804, in garrison in Den
Haag, with one of his friends in Breda by exchange of
letters.”* (The position of the pieces are indicated on Fig.
2 No 1. Tab 1. with the sole difference that Black has the
position of White and the letter has those of Black in all
three games.
* The author strongly protests, if one was
thinking that he considers these games as master games,
since he has found that they contain many mistakes. They are
only published as really played games."
The
“historical “ page where can be found the
first CC known CC game
As the reader will
recognize himself, the games are of poor standard, and are
only important from a historical point of view.
One can wonder why Von
Mauvillon has published these games, among those played by
Philidor and those played by correspondence between
Amsterdam vs Rotterdam and Edinburgh vs London, both matches
started in 1824. Maybe he just wanted to show to the reader
the difference between master and average player since his
book was mainly intended for beginners.
The introduction text
clearly demonstrates that Von Mauvillon played his three
games against the same opponent, but no clear indication is
given concerning the colors.
At the end of the book,
several tables are given to illustrate the most important
positions reached during the games. Von Mauvillon refers to
the following table:
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
|
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
|
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
32 |
|
33 |
34 |
35 |
36 |
37 |
38 |
39 |
40 |
|
41 |
42 |
43 |
44 |
45 |
46 |
47 |
48 |
|
49 |
50 |
51 |
52 |
53 |
54 |
55 |
56 |
|
57 |
58 |
59 |
60 |
61 |
62 |
63 |
64 |
|
The notation used by Von Mauvillon in his
CC games is explained in the
upper left corner diagram
We have to consider
that Black was playing at the bottom of the board, with the
men on squares 49 to 64 and White on the top on squares 1 to
16 at the beginning of the game.
Black was playing
first in the three games which was not unusual at all,
during those days. The first games starts:
Black White
1) P a 36 P a 28
2) P a 37 D a 19
3) P a 29 L a
30
which corresponds to
1.e4 e5 2.d4 Qf6 3.d5 Bc5 ….
This rather unusual
notation (in the early 19th century, the
descriptive notation was much more usual, except perhaps in
Germany) and the color inversion may be the cause of many
transcription errors that can be found in the books that
have reported these games.
Although there is no
absolute certitude about the colors, one may suppose that
Von Mauvillon has published his wins and that he played
therefore first with Black.
Now the games!
Friedrich Wilhelm Von Mauvillon - NN
[C21]
(1), 1804
1.e4 e5 2.d4 £f6 3.d5 ¥c5 4.¤h3 d6 5.f3 ¥xh3 6.gxh3 c6 7.c4
a5 8.¤c3 ¤a6 9.a3 h6 10.£d3 ¥d4 11.¤a4 ¤e7 12.¥d2 ¤c5
13.¤xc5 ¥xc5 14.¥e3 ¥xe3 15.£xe3 c5 16.£b3 0-0 17.£e3 ¤g6
18.¦g1 ¤f4 19.0-0-0 ¤g6 20.¦d2 £f4 21.£f2 h5 22.¢b1 ¤h4
23.£g3 g6 24.¦d3 a4 25.¥e2 ¢h7 26.¢a2 ¦fb8 27.¦b1 b5 28.cxb5
¦xb5 29.¥d1 ¦b6 30.b3 axb3+ 31.¥xb3 ¦ab8 32.£xf4 exf4 33.¥c2
¤g2 34.¦db3 ¦xb3 35.¦xb3 ¦xb3 36.¢xb3 ¤e1 37.¥d1 ¤d3 38.h4
¢g7 39.¢c3 ¤e5 40.a4 ¤d7 41.a5 ¤b8 42.¢c4 ¤a6 43.¢b5 ¤b4
44.e5 ¤xd5 45.exd6 ¤c3+ 46.¢xc5 ¤xd1 47.d7 1-0
Friedrich Wilhelm Von Mauvillon - NN
[C23]
(2), 1804
1.e4 e5 2.¥c4 ¥c5 3.d3
This opening was surely not unusual to the
players in 1804. In fact, this is the first opening analyzed
by Elias Stein in his book « Nouvel Essai sur le jeu des
Echecs avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu »
published in Den Haag in 1789.
In his notes, Stein indicated that he favors
3.c3 :
“Although this move opens lines for your
pieces, because it clears the diagonal for your Bishop and
gives a square to your Knight and Queen, the move of the
Queen Bishop Pawn was better....”
3...¤f6 4.£f3 ¤c6 5.c3 d6 6.h3 a6 7.b4 ¥b6 8.g4 ¥e6 9.g5
¥xc4 10.dxc4 ¤g8 11.h4 £d7 12.a4 ¥a7 13.a5 b6 14.b5 ¤xa5
15.bxa6 ¤xc4 16.¤e2 ¤e7 17.¤g3 g6 18.h5 ¤c6 19.£f6
And in this position
19...0-0-0
??? has been played.
It is rather strange
that none of the players noticed that casting was illegal
and it is even more surprising that Von Mauvillon gives no
explanation about this moves in his book, intended for
beginner players!
The game went on:
20.h6 d5 21.¤d2 de4 22.¤gxe4 ¤4a5 23.£f3 £d3 24.c4 £xf3
25.¤xf3 ¤xc4 26.¤c3 ¦d3 27.¤xe5 ¤4xe5 28.¤b5 ¦d5 29.¤xa7+
¤xa7 30.¢e2 ¦he8 31.¥e3 ¤c4 32.¦hc1 ¤exe3 33.fxe3 ¦xg5
34.¦ab1 ¦e6 35.¦f1 f6 36.¦h1 ¦a5 37.¦a1 f5 38.¢f3 g5 39.¦xa5
bxa5 40.¦h5 ¦g6 41.e4 fxe4+ 42.¢xe4 ¦xa6 43.¢f5 ¦g6 44.¦xg4
¦xh6 45.¢e4 ¦a6 46.¢d3 a4 47.¢c2 a3 48.¢b1 a2+ 49 ¢a1
½-½
Von Mauvillon
indicates that the game continued over the board, but the
moves were not written. Black made several mistakes allowing
White to win some pawns. White drew the game but they should
have normally lost it.
Friedrich Wilhelm Von Mauvillon - NN
[C26]
(3), 1804
Notes by L.C.M Diepstraten
Published in “Tweehonderdvijftigjaar
Correspondentieschaak in Nederland” 1991 (page 45)
1.e4 e5 2.d3 d6 3.f4 h5 4.¤f3 f5 5.fxe5 fxe4 6.dxe4 dxe5
7.¥c4
7.£xd8+ ¢xd8 8.¤xe5 is more
natural.
7...£xd1+ 8.¢xd1 ¤f6 9.¤c3 ¤g4 10.¢e2 ¥c5 11.h3
11.¦f1 ¤c6 12.¥b5 0-0!
11...¤f2 12.¦f1 ¤c6 13.¥e3 ¥xe3 14.¢xe3 ¤xh3 15.gxh3 ¥xh3
16.¦f2 ¦f8 17.¤b5 0-0-0 18.c3
18.¦g1!?
18...¤a5 19.b3
19.¥e2
19...a6 20.¤a3 b5 21.¥e2 ¤c6 22.¤g5 ¥d7 23.¦xf8 ¦xf8 24.¥xh5
b4 25.¤b1
25.cxb4 ¤xb4 26.¥e2 a5 27.¤f3 ¥g4 28.¤xe5 ¥xe2 29.¢xe2 ¦e8
30.¤ac4
25...¦f4
25...¦f1 had to be tried.
26.¥f3 bxc3 27.¤xc3 ¤d4 28.¦h1 ¦f8 29.¥e2 ¢b7
29...¤xe2 seems better.
30.¤f3 ¤c6 31.¦h7 ¦g8 32.¥c4 ¦f8 33.¦xg7 ¥e8 34.¥d5 ¥h5
35.¤xe5 ¦f6 36.¥xc6+ ¦xc6 37.¤xc6 ¢xc6 38.e5 ¥e8 39.¢d4 ¢b6
40.a3
More convincing was:
40.¤d5+
A)
40...¢c6? 41.¦xc7+ ¢b5 42.a4+
(42.¦c5# Eric Ruch.)
42...¢a5 43.¦c5+ etc.;
B)
40...¢b5? 41.¤xc7+
40...c5+ 41.¢c4 ¥b5+ 42.¤xb5 axb5+ 43.¢d5 ¢a6 44.e6 c4 45.e7
1-0
The beginning of the
great Correspondence Chess story ....
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