The Café de la Régence in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

was an important European centre of

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 ...

in the 18th and 19th centuries. All important

chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pre ...

s of the time played there. The Café's masters included, but are not limited to: * Paul Morphy *

François-André Danican Philidor François-André Danican Philidor (7 September 1726 – 31 August 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the ''opéra comique''. ...

(who often met with

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

) *

Legall de Kermeur François Antoine de Legall de Kermeur (1702–92) was a French chess player, and was possibly the world's best player from about 1730 to 1755. His name is variously written ''Kermur, Sire de Legalle'', by Twiss, and ''Kermur'' and ''Kermuy, ...

(Philidor's teacher) *

Jules Arnous de Rivière Jules Arnous de Rivière (4 May 1830, Nantes – 11 September 1905, Paris) was the strongest French chess player from the late 1850s through the late 1870s. He is best known today for playing many games with Paul Morphy when the American champio ...

* Adolf Anderssen *

Samuel Rosenthal Samuel Rosenthal (7 September 1837 – 12 September 1902) was a Polish-born French chess player. Chess historian Edward Winter wrote, "He dedicated his life to chess-playing, touring, writing, teaching and analysing. Despite only occasional p ...

* Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant *

Lionel Kieseritzky Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky (russian: Лионель Адальберт Багратион Феликс Кизерицкий; – ) was a Baltic German chess master and theoretician, famous for his contributions to chess theory, ...

* Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais

Addresses

It was opened in 1681 as the Café de la Place du Palais-Royal, near the

Palais-Royal The Palais-Royal () is a former royal palace located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Cardinal, it was built for Cardinal R ...

. By the 18th century it was known as the Café de la Régence (" Regency Café"). * In 1852 the café moved temporarily to hôtel Dodun, 21

Rue de Richelieu The Rue de Richelieu is a long street of Paris, starting in the south of the 1st arrondissement at the Comédie-Française and ending in the north of the 2nd arrondissement. For the first half of the 19th century, before Georges-Eugène Haussman ...

. * In 1854 the Café de la Régence moved to 161 Rue Saint-Honoré and remained there until it became a restaurant in 1910. * The chess players moved to the café de l'Univers in 1916. * The Office national marocain du tourisme (National Moroccan Tourist Office) took over the site in 1918.

Additional information

* The "great tournament of Paris 1867," won by

Ignatz von Kolisch Baron Ignatz von Kolisch (6 April 1837 – 30 April 1889), also Baron Ignaz von Kolisch (German language, German) or báró Kolisch Ignác (Hungarian language, Hungarian), was a merchant, journalist and chess master with Jew, Jewish roots. Kolis ...

over Szymon Winawer and Wilhelm Steinitz, was played there. * La Société des Amateurs was based there. * In 1742, the celebrated French writers and philosophers

Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the '' Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promi ...

and Rousseau met at this café. *

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

met

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...

improvised the main theme, ''A Prayer to God'', of the finale of his Third Symphony at Café de la Régence, in January 1906. * The Norwegian painter

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, '' The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the d ...

visited the café on 4 May 1885, during his first visit to France to study the French impressionists.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External link

* Chess places History of chess Chess in France 18th century in Paris 18th century in chess 19th century in Paris {{chess-stub

Addresses

Additional information

See also

References

Bibliography

External link