Aaron (Albert) Alexandre ( he, אהרון אלכסנדר, around 1765/68 in Hohenfeld,

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian languages, Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three Regierungsbezirk, administrative ...

– 16 November 1850 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

– French–

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chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player and writer. Aaron Alexandre, a Bavarian trained as a

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, arrived in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

in 1793.Saint-Amant ierre-Charles Fournier de ''Nécrologie: A. Alexandre'', La Régence, 1st ser., 3, no. 1 (January 1851): 3–13. Encouraged by the French Republic's policy of religious toleration, he became a French citizen. At first, he worked as a German teacher and as mechanical inventor. Eventually, chess became his primary occupation. He tried to make a complete survey of the chess openings, publishing his findings as the ''Encyclopédie des échecs'' (''Encyclopedia of Chess'', Paris, 1837). In this book, he used the algebraic notation and the castling symbols 0–0 and 0–0–0. In 1838, he won a match against

Howard Staunton Howard Staunton (April 1810 – 22 June 1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Ama ...

in London, though before Staunton became a master. Alexandre was one of operators of the fake chess-playing machine known as the Turk.Tom Standage, ''The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine'' (New York: Walker, 2002), 206.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandre, Aaron 1766 births 1850 deaths People from Kitzingen 18th-century German Jews Jewish chess players German chess players French chess players British chess players German chess writers French chess writers British chess writers 18th-century French Jews German emigrants to the United Kingdom German emigrants to France German male non-fiction writers French male non-fiction writers

See also

References