Monday, July 29, 2019

Charles Vezin of Philadelphia

     A while back I downloaded Google’s digital copy of a Chess In Philadelphia by Reichhelm and Shipley, a brief history of, as the title suggests, chess in Philadelphia illustrated by charts, tables games and problems. It covers the period from 1802 to 1898. 
    The earliest highlights were the first chess book, Chess Made Easy by James Humphreys, was published in 1802 by a Philadelphia bookseller and the arrival of Charles Vezin in 1813.  
     Charles Vezin (1781-April 8, 1853) was born in Osnabruck, Germany. In 1802 at the age of 21 he moved to Bordeaux, France where he served as a clerk for ten years. Fugal living enabled him to save up 1,500 francs and set sail for America in 1812, the first year of the War of 1812, a conflict fought between the United States and the United Kingdom from June 1812 to February 1815. It was fought over British violations of U.S. maritime rights.  
     Johnny Horton (April 30, 1925 – November 5, 1960) was an American country music, honky tonk and rockabilly singer and musician during the 1950s and early 1960s.  He was best known for his international hits beginning with the 1959 single "The Battle of New Orleans", which was awarded the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country and Western Recording. The song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and in 2001 ranked No. 333 of the Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century". His first No. 1 country song was in 1959, "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)". 
     With apologies to British readers, here's Horton's song about the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812:

     

     Vezin was sailing on a U.S. vessel that was captured by the British and as a result he spent 3 weeks in an English dungeon. He was then exchanged and finally landed in Baltimore flat broke. 
     He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hoping to make a new startand gradually accumulated enough money to enable him to begin a business which he operated until his death importing German, Belgian and French goods. 
     In Philadelphia there were many players of his equal. When Maelzel's Automaton arrived in town in 1827, Vezin practiced by playing against its operator, Wilhelm Schlumberger, with the result that his game improved a great deal. 
     William Schlumberger (1800 – April 1838) was a European master known to have taught Saint-Amant to play chess and to have served as one of the operators of The Turk, a chess-playing machine which was purported to be an automaton. Schlumberger acted as the Turk's director in Europe and in the United States until his death from yellow fever in 1838. 
     The book of the first American chess congress described Schlumberger as a rapid Chess-player, but not particularly strong in the endgame. It also adds some details about his opening repertoire: When the Automaton adhered to its claim of the first move, the game was made a gambit; when the adversary had the move, Schlumberger invariably resorted to Mouret's favorite defence of King's Pawn one—a Boeotian defence, thoroughly understood at the Cafe de la Regence—so often played afterwards by La Bourdonnais, so thoroughly detested by McDonnell In playing end-games, Schlumberger did not come off quite so well: he was sometimes beaten, although very seldom. 
     Very few and rare games of Schlumberger games survived. 
     Vezin possessed great native talent and was equally proficient in all phases of the game. Conservative and cautious, he could when the occasion required play brilliant tactical chess. He died in his home in Philadelphia on April 8, 1853.
     His opponent in the following game, which feature the Classic Bishop Sacrifice, was James Thompson (September 23, 1804 in London - December 2, 1870 in New York) was a master known for forming the New York Chess Club in 1839. He participated in the First American Chess Congress at New York 1857, and lost a match to Paul Morphy (0-3) in the first round. He also lost several other matches to Morphy. He drew a match with Charles D. Mead in 1857, and played several times in New York Chess Club tournaments, losing to Frederic Perrin in 1854, 1857, and 1859, and James A. Leonard in 1860/61. 

     Chessmetrics does not have an estimated rating for Vezin, but Thomson’s is estimated to be in the mid-2500s around 1860. 
     Italian player Gioachino Greco, discovered the Bishop sacrifice on h7 about 400 years ago and so it’s surprising that a player of Thompson’s apparent strength didn’t recognize it as a possibility when he played the horrible 12...Nh8. 
     The Classic Bishop Sacrifice is thoroughly discussed by Jeremy Silman at Chess.com in a three part series: PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 

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