Andre Danican Philidor
Franois-Andr Danican Philidor was born on September 1, 1726. He came from an extraordinary musical family, one with many musicians. He was regarded as the best single chess player of his age, and the book he wrote on chess was viewed as a standard manual for at least a century.
In 1732 at the age of 6, Philidor joined the Royal choir of Louis XV. At age 11, he made his first attempt to compose a song. It was said that Louis XV wanted to listen to the choir almost every day, and the singers played chess to relieve their boredom while waiting for the king to arrive. This may have been what sparked his interest in chess. He was a leading opera composer in France from 1750 to 1770, and during his music career produced 21 music comedies and 1 opera. However, when he felt that he was being surpassed by other composers, he decided to concentrate on chess.
Philidor started playing chess regularly around 1740 at the Caf de la R gence, the chess Mecca of France. Legall de Kermeur, who was the best player in France at the time, taught him. At first, Legall could give him rook odds, but after only 3 years, Philidor was his equal, and then surpassed him. In 1747, he visited England and decisively beat the Syrian Phillip Stamma despite the fact that Philidor let him have white in every game.
In 1749, Philidor published his famous book Analyse du jeu des checs. The book was such an advance in chess knowledge that by 1871, it had gone through about 70 editions, and had been translated into English, German and Italian. In the book he analyzed 9 different types of game openings. Most of the Philidor's openings are designed to strengthen and establish a strong defensive center using pawns. He was the first one to realize the new role of the pawn in the chess game, and his most famous advice was the saying "The pawns are the soul of chess". He also included analysis of certain positions of rook + bishop vs rook, and such analysis is still current theory even today. He is most famous for showing an important drawing technique with a rook vs a rook and pawn, in a position known as the Philidor position. The Philidor Defense (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6) is named after him.
On May 9, 1783, Philidor suprised his peers by playing three blindfold games simultaneously at the St. James Street chess club in London. He let all 3 opponents play white and gave up a pawn for the 3rd player. Blindfold chess means playing without sight of the board; his opponents' moves and his replies to those moves were communicated orally using a recognized form of chess notation. Some affidavits were signed because the people involved doubted that future generations would not believe such a fear was possible. Nowadays, 3 games would be fairly unremarkable among many chess masters. Even during his late years when he was 67 years old (1793), he played 2 blindfold games simultaneously in London and won.
When the French Revolution occured, Philidor was stuck in England and the Revolutionary Government put him on the banned list. He died on August 31, 1795 in London and was buried in St. James, Piccadilly. His relatives succeeded in getting his name removed from the list just a few days too late.
Download 5 chess games by Francois Danican Philidor
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