Saturday, June 18, 2005

Napoleon Bonaparte's Chess Games


Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Monarch with the crazy mission to rule over the whole world, was a good fighter not only in the battlefield, but also over the chess board. In the earlier days chess was considered a royal game and so it is no wonder that Napoleon I was a good chess player and brilliant in tactics as is evident from the following games.

Game 2
[Event "St.Helena,1818"]
[White "Napoleon I"]
[Black "General Bertrand"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C44"]


1. Nf3 Nc6
2. e4 e5
3. d4 Nxd4 (3... d5 ? 4. Nxe5 {4. Bb5 exd4 5. Nxd4 dxe4 =} 4... Nxe5 5.dxe5 dxe4 6. Qxd8+ Kxd8 7. Nc3 Bb4 8. Bg5+ Ne7 9. O-O-O+ Ke8 10. Nxe4 with a winning position for white)
4. Nxd4 exd4
5. Bc4 Bc5
6. c3 Qe7
7. O-O Qe5
8. f4 !! dxc3+
9. Kh1 cxb2
10. Bxf7+ !(10. fxe5 bxa1=Q 11. Qd5 Kd8 12. Qxc5 Ne7 13. Rxf7 Re8 with a winning position for Black)10... Kd8(10... Kxf7? 11. fxe5+ Ke8 12. Bxb2 and white wins.)
11. fxe5 bxa1=Q
12. Bxg8 Be7 (12... Rxg8 13. Qd5 Re8 14. Qxc5 d6 15. Bg5+ Re7 16. Rf8+ Kd7 17. e6+ Kxe6 18. Qf5#)
13. Qb3 a5 (See Diagram)



Position After Black's 13th move
White to play and mate in 5 moves.


(13… Qxe5 14. Bb2 Qg5 15. Qf7 d6 16. Bxg7 Be6 17. Qxe6 Qxg7 18. Rf7 and white wins).
14. Rf8+ ! Bxf8 15. Bg5+ Be7 16. Bxe7+ Kxe7 17. Qf7+ Kd8 18. Qf8#
1-0

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