Jaenisch began a military career in Finland, but soon moved to Russia to teach rational mechanics in Petersburg (now Saint Petersburg). He dedicated his life to mathematics and chess, two subjects which he considered closely related. He tried to show their connections in his work Decouvertes sur le cavalier (aux echecs), published in Petersburg in 1837.
In 1842–43 he published a book on the openings in two volumes: Analyse Nouvelle des ouvertures. The work was written in French and published in St. Petersburg, but also distributed in Paris, London and Leipzig.
Kotov and Yudovich in the Soviet School of Chess described the book as the first scientific manual on openings with much original analysis, written in co-operation with Petrov, which served as the basis for many later openings manuals including Bilguer’s Handbuch des Schachspiels. However, other sources were less impressed. It must also be remembered that Kotov and Yudovich included a lot of Soviet political propaganda in their book in an effort to show the superiority of the Soviet system.
Nevertheless, Staunton acknowledged Jaenisch's important discoveries, in the Preface to his Chess-Player's Handbook in 1847, and English editions of Analyse Nouvelle were published in 1847, 1852 and 1855, but there was no Russian language edition.
In 1862–63 he published his major work: Traite des applications de l'analyse mathématique au jeu des échecs, in three volumes.
Jaenisch wanted to take part in the London 1851 tournament, but arrived too late and instead played a match with Howard Staunton, which he lost +2–7=1. Three years later he also lost to Ilya Shumov (+3–5=4).
Shumov (1819 - 1881) was a Russian master who served as an officer in the Russian Navy until 1847, then worked as a civil servant in Saint Petersburg. He was also invited, along with Alexander Petrov and Jaenisch, to participate in the London 1851 chess tournament but he did not show up. Petrov chose not to attend. The same three were also invited to Paris, 1867, but none of them played there either.
Jaenisch is best remembered for having analyzed and helped Petrov develop Petrov's Defense and for his work on the Schliemann–Jaenisch Gambit of the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5) and the dubious gambit 1.c4 b5 is sometimes referred to as the Jaenisch Gambit although Jaenisch mentioned this move he did not advocate it.
Jaenisch frequently collaborated with Petrov and together they analyzed the material that poured off of Jaenisch’s pen and was published all over Europe. Jaenisch wrote that in a game where the correct moves were played white’s advantage of the first move ought to cease sooner or later and the game should be drawn. He recommended the French and Sicilian as good defenses to 1.e4.
Count Grigory Alexandrovich Kushelev-Bezborodko (1832-1870), a Russian writer, publisher and philanthropist who was one of the richest men in Russia, and Jaenisch established the St. Petersburg Chess Club in 1853. The club’s membership was upwards on one hundred and included many prominent figures in Russian culture.
Jaenisch was elected secretary and drew up a set of rules and regulations, which he published, again in French, in 1854. He published a revised charter in 1858 in both French and Russian. These were the first Russian chess codes and clarified many of the previously disputed rules.
Staunton was most upset at his death in 1872, writing to Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa in November of that year: I was sorry to lose Lewis and St. Amant, my dear friends Bolton and Sir T. Madden, and others of whom we have been deprived, but for Jaenisch I entertained a particular affection, and his loss was proportionately painful to me. He was truly an amiable and an upright man.
In 1844, the first match between two masters was held in Russia when Jaenisch played Alexander Petrov and they each won one game.
In the following exciting game Petrov employed what is known today as the Elephant Gambit (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5). The opening is also sometimes called the Queen's Pawn Counter-Gambit by older sources. It is an attempt by Black to seize the initiative in the opening “by thrusting both his center pawns forward like the tusks of a charging bull elephant” while others have suggested that the name comes from the power of black's two Bishops which are elephants in Russian.
For anyone interested in the Elephant Gambit, IM Andrew Martin has done several videos on it on Chess,com HERE.
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