Franklin was also the first known chess player, as well as the first chess
author, in America.When thinking of Franklin as a chess player, Prof.
George Allen offers this caveat:
Now this clever Yankee [Franklin], so economical of time in all other
respects, had a perfect passion for playing Chess; and he gives no hint of
ever being at a loss for Philadelphians to play with. - in site of the
various attempts of a certain Chess editor to make it out otherwise - is a
fair inference from the fact, that he found his match in an English woman,
and had to accept the Knight from a French woman; and that some of his
antagonists were strong players, who beat him soundly and easily, is
rendered in the highest degree probable by the fact, that the line of
hereditary Chess-talent, in one known contemporary instance, can be traced
back, to the generation in question. It was, however, neither his
weakness, nor their strength, in Chess, that attracted of repelled the
attention of the disdainful Muses. But it happened that our Yankee friend
took it into his head, one day, to perform the unaccountable feat of
flying a kite at a thunder-cloud, and afterwards to dabble in rebel
politics; and now, behold! a godly heap of octavos, by the
biographer of Washington, lies solidly and heavily upon his memory; one
entire section of this very chapter of THE BOOK
has been devoted to his glory as a "Chess-player" forsooth; and thus he
has come to have nearly as good a chance for immortality as Philidor
himself; while not even the name of those who really deserve to be
remembered - the men who gave him, or could have given him, "Pawn and two"
at the least - has escaped the cruel god that eats up his own children: "Can
haughty time be just?"
So Franklin should be remembered more for his passion for chess
rather than for his skill.
While it's known the Franklin played chess in America, he undoubtedly
found more chess partners abroad. In fact, contradicting what Prof. Allen
mentions about Franklin finding no lack of opponents in Philadelphia, in a
letter to William Straham June 20, 1752, Franklin wrote:
"...Honest David Martin, Rector of our Academy, my principal Antagonist
at Chess, is dead, and the few remaining Players here are very
indifferent, so that I have now no need of Stamma's 12s Pamphlet, and am
glad you did not send it."
David Martin (1696-1751) was a fellow member of
Franklin's American Philosophical Society. He had served as Sheriff of
Hunterdon County in New Jersey for 13 or 14 years, operated a ferry
across the Delaware River near Easton, Pennsylvania and served as
Marshall of Trenton, N. J., He moved to Philadelphia where he met
Franklin. From 1849 until his death in 1851, he served as First Rector
and Professor of Greek and Latin for the Academy and College of
Philadelphia.
Franklin's references to chess in his
autobiography are slim, but in one notable instance he wrote:
I had begun in 1733 to study languages;
I soon made myself so much a master of the French as to be able to
read the books with ease. I then undertook the Italian. An acquaintance,
who was also learning it, us'd often to tempt me to play chess with him.
Finding this took up too much of the time I had to spare for study, I at
length refus'd to play any more, unless on this condition, that the
victor in every game should have a right to impose a task, either in
parts of the grammar to be got by heart, or in translations, etc., which
tasks the vanquish'd was to perform upon honour, before our next
meeting. As we play'd pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that
language. I afterwards with a little painstaking, acquir'd as much of
the Spanish as to read their books also.
Franklin isn't recorded as having played much chess in England where he
lived from 1757-62 and 1764-67. But there is one instance of Franklin using
chess as a front for his political intrigue.
Quoting from Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin: an American
Life
...[Franklin received] a curious invitation from a well-connected
society matron who let it be known that she wanted to play chess with
Franklin. The woman in question was Caroline Howe, the sister of Adm.
Richard Howe and Gen. William Howe. They would eventually
become commanders of England's naval and land forces during the
Revolution, but at the time they were both somewhat sympathetic to the
American cause.
...On Christmas day, Franklin visited Mrs. Howe for another chess match.
As soon as he arrived, she mentioned that her brother, Admiral Lord
Richard Howe, wanted to meet him. "Will you give me leave to send for
him?" she asked. Franklin readily agreed, and soon he was listening as
Lord Howe showered him with compliments. "No man could ever do more
towards reconciling our differences," the admiral told him. He asked
Franklin to offer some suggestions, which he would communicate to the
proper ministers. Franklin, wary of being caught in the middle, noted
the Continental Congress had made clear what the colonies wanted. But
agreed to another secret session a week later, again under the guise of
visiting Mrs. Howe to play chess.
In an other quote from the same book:
In the meantime, Franklin had the pleasure of settling back into the
life he loved in London. Sir John Pringle, the distinguished physician
had become his best friend. The played chess, made the rounds of their
regular coffeehouse clubs, and soon got in the habit of taking
summer trips together. The great Samuel Johnson biographer, James
Boswell, was another acquaintance. After dropping in on one of their
chess games, Boswell noted in his journal that Pringle had a "peculiar
sour manner, "but that Franklin was as always, "all jollity and
pleasantry."
Franklin spent time in France (accompanied by his two grandsons,
sixteen-year-old William Temple Franklin and seven-year-old Benjamin
Franklin Bache) between the years 1767 and 1785. He was appointed Minister to
France in 1779. He became a social lion and was particularly popular with
the Parisienne ladies, There he also met, and became infatuated with, Madame
Brillon de Jouy, née Anne-Louise Boivin
d'Hardancourt (1744-1824), called by one music critic "one of the greatest
lady-players on the harpsichord in Europe." A lady of many talents, her skill
with with charcoal and watercolors was also highly praised. In spite of her
dissatisfaction with her husband and of Franklin's obvious attraction, their
relationship was strictly platonic - mostly due to Franklin's (unsuccessful)
desire that his grandson, William, should marry Madame Brillon's daughter, Cunegonde. But their relationship was very coquettish and
chess-centric.
Quoting from the same book:
Madame Anne-Louise Brillon de Jouy, who was 33 when she met Franklin,
was buffeted by conflicting passions and variable moods. Her husband,
twenty-four years her senior (but fourteen years younger than Franklin)
was wealthy, doting and unfaithful. Although she spoke no English,
she and Franklin exchanged more than 130 letters during their eight-year
relationship, and she was able not only to enchant him but also to
manipulate him.
They flirted over the chessboard. "She is still a little miffed," Madame
Brillon teasingly wrote of herself, "about the six games of chess he won
so inhumanely and she warns him she will spare nothing to get her
revenge."
By March 1778, after months of just music and chess, Franklin was ready
for something more. Franklin in a coy exchange told her that there were
two others [of the 10 commandments] that should be included: to multiply
and fill the earth, and to love one another. He had always obeyed those
two very well and, he argued, should that not
"compensate for my having so often failed to respect one of the ten? I
mean the one which forbids us to covet thy neighbor's wife, a
commandment which (I confess) I have constantly violated."
and later
Throughout his remaining years in France, and even in letters after
his return to America, Franklin would stay emotionally attached to
Madame Brillon. Their new arrangement still allowed him such liberties
as playing chess with a mutual friend, late into the night, in her
bathroom, while she soaked in her tub and watched. But it was, as far as
bathtub chess games go, rather innocent; the tub was covered, as was the
style, by a wooden plank. "I'm afraid that we may have made you very
uncomfortable by keeping you so long in the bath," he apologized
the next day, adding a wry little promise: "Never again will I consent
to start a chess game with the neighbor in your bathing room. Can you
forgive this indiscretion?"
According to Benjamin Franklin Book of Recipes by Hilaire
Dubourcq - another letter from Katherine French writing to Franklin June 17, 1771
tells us:
Mrs. French understands that Docr. Franklin dines with the Bishop of
St. Asaph's to morrow hopes he will do her the favor of dining with her
on Wednesday or Thursday, both days will be giving her double pleasure,
she has provided chess players for each day.
According to the The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams by
Lyman H. Butterfield
Adams complains in his diary (27 May 1778) that after observing
Franklin's dissolute ways he decided that "the Business of our
Commission would never be done, unless I did it." Franklin, he asserts,
rose late and breakfasted later, occupied his day by entertaining
slavish admirers in one or another Parisian salon, and dined out almost
every night. Afterward he played at games [mainly chess] or listened in company to
music, and "came home at all hours from Nine to twelve O Clock at
night." Given this schedule, Adams claims, it was impossible to catch
Franklin except to secure an occasional quick signature. Such an easy
schedule, Adams caustically concludes, was agreeable to Franklin, and no
doubt contributed to his health and long life. As for Adams, he
conscientiously (and rather priggishly) declined all dinner invitations,
stayed at home, and occupied himself with commission business or serious
reading.
While in France, Franklin very likely played a game against the Turk, von
Kempelen's automaton.
As a side note,
Franklin's grandson, William, wrote the following:
Chess was a favorite amusement of Dr. Franklin, and one
of his best papers is written on that subject. He was pleased with the
performance of the Automaton. In a short letter after his arrival in
Paris, M. Kempel said to him: "If If I have not, immediately on
my return from Versailles, renewed my request, that you will be
present at a representation of my Automaton Chess-player, it was only
to gain a few days, in which I might make some progress in another
very interesting machine, upon which I have been employed, and which I
wish you to see at the same time." This machine was probably the
speaking figure mentioned by Mr. Valltravers. The inventor's name
occurs with various orthography, as Kempelen, Kemple,
Kempl, but his autograph is Kempel.
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The "speaking figure" mention by Franklin's grandson, was, as Mr.
Valltravers of Vienna wrote in a Dec. 24, 1782 letter carried by
Kempelen to introduce him to Franklin, "the figure of a child uttering the
first articulate sounds of elocution. Of these I have heard it pronounce
distinctly upwards of thirty words and phrases. There remain but five or six
letters of the alphabet, the expression of which he intends to complete in
Paris."
While no record of any game exists between
Franklin and Wolfgang Von Kempelen's invention, he undoubtedly did make his
appointment with Kempelen. Philidor's well known Saxony opponent, Hans,
Count von Bruhl , wrote a reply to a letter from Franklin which said:
Sir: ---- I was very much
flattered with the letter I had the pleasure to receive from your Excellency
by means of the ingenious M. de Kempel's arrival in this country. The
favorable opinion you entertain of his talent is alone sufficient to
convince me of their extent and usefulness. I cannot find words to express
the gratitude I feel for the honor of your remembrance. I shall, therefore,
only beg leave to assure you, that it will be the pride of my life to have
been noticed by one of the most distinguished characters of the age, and I
shall endeavor, upon all occasions, to contribute my mite of admiration to
the universal applause which your eminent qualities, as a philosopher and a
politician, are so well entitled to.
I have the honor to be, with great respect
Yours, etc,.
The Count de Bruhl.
In the series, The Café de la
Régence, by a Chess-player (published in Fraser's Magazine,
1840), it's noted that "Voltaire, the two Rousseaus, the profligate Duc de
Richelieu, Marshal Saxe, Chamfort, St. Foix, Benjamin Franklin, Marmontel,
Philidor, and Grimm, are but a few of the men of note who constantly
frequented the Régence in early times."
While there's no mention anywhere of Franklin playing any notable figures at
the Café de la Régence, it would seem likely that he did.
An anecdotal story concerning
Franklin in the Régence has been offered by Simpsons Contemporary
Quotations, compiled by James B. Simpson, 1988:
Dr. Franklin was US Ambassador to
France, and the center of the chess world was located at the Café de la
Régence. None other than reputed world champion François
Andre Philidor was a regular at the Café, and Franklin visited the Café in
1781 with the intention of having Philidor autograph his copy of one of
Philidor's books on chess. Of course many visitors to the Café were making
the same request to which Café proprietor Jacques Labar had a prepared
denial to keep Philidor from constant interruptions. However upon
recognizing the distinguished Franklin, Labar promptly presented him
to Philidor, who graciously autographed Franklin's book.
Once gone, Labar turned to Philidor saying, "François,
you just autographed your book for the American Ambassador!" Philidor looked
up from his game for the first time and said, "That's funny, I never knew
that he was a chess player".
On the home front, Thomas Jefferson
mentioned Franklin in a couple letters within a chess context
in a letter to to Robert Welsh, December 4, 1818
"When Dr. Franklin went to France on his
revolutionary mission, his eminence as a philosopher, his venerable
appearance, and the cause on which he was sent, rendered him extremely
popular. For all ranks and conditions of men there, entered warmly into the
American interest. He was therefore feasted and invited to all the court
parties. At these he sometimes met the old Duchess of Bourbon, who being a
chess player of about his force, they very generally played together.
Happening once to put her king into prise, the Doctor took it. 'Ah,' says
she, 'we do not take kings so.' 'We do in America,' says the Doctor.
"At one of these parties, the emperor Joseph II, then at Paris, incog. under
the title of Count Falkenstein, was overlooking the game, in silence, while
the company was engaged in animated conversations on the American question.
'How happens it M. le Compte,' said the Duchess, 'that while we all feel so
much interest in the cause of the Americans, you say nothing for them?' 'I
am a king by trade,' said he."
and
as quoted by John French in Travels in the USA and Canada, 1833
"On returning to the drawing room, we had a
conversation which continued three hours, and the following were some of the
sentiments Mr. Jefferson expressed. . . . I played with Dr. Franklin at
chess, and was equal to him at the game."
Dr. Franklin's final and possibly greatest
contribution to Chess was the publication of his essay on the Morales of
Chess. It was published in Twiss' anecdotal collection in 1787, but Twiss
credited Mr. H. Croft, the author of the Life of Dr. Young, for use
of the essay: The
Morales of Chess
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