This month landmarks the birthdays of some great chess players. Yasser Seirawan and Alexander Chernin turn 50; Andras Adorjan will be 60; Bent Larsen, Oscar Panno, and Wolfgang Uhlmann, all 75. Yefim Geller and Abe Yanofsky would have been 85; Geza Maroczy, 140; and Alexandre Deschapelles, 230 years old.
The Deschapelles Coup is an intermediate level card play in whist or bridge. Holding a single high card, often the best play is to lead a low card - or another suit entirely - and let the opposition lead up to you. Sometimes, however, leading and sacrificing the high card can drive out a crucial high card of the opposition, which removes an entry, or establishes an entry to partner. In chess, however, we have precious little to remember Deschapelles by, except the claim that he was the strongest player in the world in the first decades of the 19th century. His student, Louis Charles de la Bourdonnais, was the strongest player from the early 1820s until his death in 1840. Arguably, Deschapelles became the strongest player again on the death of his student, despite advanced years.
There are less than ten extant Deschapelles games, most of them played at odds. In 1821, he had Black against the Scottish player John Cochrane.
1.d2-d4 e7-e6
The French Defence, the best chance when the odds are pawn and move: remove Black's f7-pawn and place the e2-pawn on e4.
2.f2-f4?!
The beginning of a bad plan. White should strive to increase the advantage in development.
2...d7-d5 3.e4-e5 c7-c5 4.c2-c3 Nb8-c6 5.Ng1-f3 c5xd4 6.c3xd4 Qd8-b6 7.Nb1-c3 Bc8-d7 8.a2-a3 Ng8-h6 9.h2-h3?
To put the pawns on h3 and g4 while the knight is on h6 is perhaps overkill for White's needs in this position, but at least it is strategically consistent. However, White's creation of another weakness is careless, and perhaps symptomatic of the play of many 19th-century masters when accepting odds. Cochrane was one of the strongest players in the world for a couple of decades. After 9.Bf1-e2 Nh6-f5 10.Nc3-a4! Qb6-c7 11.O-O, Black has little compensation.
9...Nh6-f5 10.Nc3-e2
White covers d4 and g3, but the cost in mobility is severe. Better is 10.Nc3-a4.
10...Bf8-e7 11.g2-g4?! Be7-h4+?
Better is 11...Nf5-h4 12.Ke1-f2 O-O 13.Bf1-g2 Nc6-a5 with ample compensation.
12.Nf3xh4 Nf5xh4 13.Ke1-f2! O-O 14.Kf2-g3 Nh4-g6 15.b2-b4
Also playable are 15.h3-h4 or 15.Bf1-g2.
15...a7-a5 16.Bc1-d2?
Cochrane fails to find the narrow path: after 16.b4-b5! Qb6xb5 17.Bc1-e3 White has given back the pawn, but caught up in development and Black's pawn at b7 remains a small weakness.
16...a5xb4
To take on d4 is also strong.
17.Bd2xb4 Nc6xb4 18.a3xb4 Qb6xb4 19.Ra1-b1 Ra8-a3+ 20.Kg3-h2 Qb4-e7 21.Rb1xb7?
White's best chance for survival was 21.Bf1-g2, but he did not foresee the sting at the end.
21...Qe7-h4 22.Rb7xd7? Qh4-f2+ 23.Bf1-g2
Diagram: 23...Ra3xh3+! 24.Kh2xh3 Qf2-h4
Checkmate.
A convincing victory, but we also have a game where Cochrane won with brio, accepting no odds. The image that comes to us of Deschapelles is extraordinary: horribly mutilated in war, he won the Cross of Honour. He was an avid duellist, but his rhythm of play at chess was ponderous. Extreme self-confidence found itself in the body of an ectomorph.
He mostly retired from chess to make a good living at whist. We have an echo of that today, with some grandmasters turning their mental talents to poker.
March also brought us the passing of James P. Cairns, 87, of Kingston, Ont. He played important but often behind-the-scenes roles in both the Canadian Correspondence Chess Association and in the Chess Federation of Canada. As a correspondence chess player, he was leading the Nationwide Open with a 2-0 score, but with many games which he will not complete. In real life, he was an economist.
He did have a couple of traits in common with the 19th-century chess masters in today's game. First, he did not publicize his games. Second, in a chess game he put aside some of the strict rational discipline that must come with his profession. Those few games left the impression that he was tinkering, having fun.
Three players divided first place at the Ottawa RA Spring Open with 4-1 scores: Tom O'Donnell, Bator Sambuev, and Roman Sapozhnikov. Fourth place went to Nikita Kraiouchkine, who scored 2-1 against the winning troika, and also dropped a draw against Artiom Samsonkin, who had 3-2. Nikita, aged 15, had a grandmasterly 2630 performance rating.
The Grand Pacific Open takes place next weekend, April 2-5, in Victoria. The Alberta Closed and Reserves take place in Edmonton.