Edo Ratings, Boncourt, H.H.

Boncourt, Hyacinthe

Ratings

Year	Rank	Edo	Dev.	Games
1820	3	2376	(131)	2
1821	5	2387	(130)	0
1822	5	2398	(129)	0
1823	5	2409	(127)	0
1824	5	2420	(126)	0
1825	5	2431	(124)	0
1826	5	2442	(121)	0
1827	4	2453	(118)	0
1828	4	2464	(115)	0
1829	4	2475	(111)	0
1830	3	2487	(106)	0
1831	3	2498	(101)	0
1832	3	2509	(95)	0
1833	4	2520	(88)	0
1834	4	2531	(79)	25
1835	4	2525	(78)	0
1836	4	2520	(74)	12
1837	6	2520	(77)	0
1838	7	2519	(77)	3
1839	10	2505	(79)	10

Rating table notes

Biographical data

Name: Boncourt, Hyacinthe Henri

Also known as: Boncour

Born: 1765

Died: 23 Mar. 1840

Notes:

George Walker gives Boncourt's approximate age in many places: 'some seventy years of age' (Bell's Life in London, 19 July 1835); 'seventy years of age' (Bell's Life in London, 22 Apr. 1838); 'some three-score and ten years of age' (Bell's Life in London, 19 Aug. 1838; 'Seventy years and more have passed over him' (The Café de la Régence, 1840); 'Boncourt was past 70 years of age' (Bell's Life in London, 3 May 1840, p.4). These remarks put his birth sometime in the mid-1860's. I am guessing at a birth year of 1865, but this could be in error by a few years. Diggle (quoted by Winter) gives his year of death as 1840, and the query by W.G. Povarov quoted by Winter says that Boncourt played Kieseritzky in Jan. 1840. Some games against Kieseritzky are given in the 4th number of the 1839 volume of Le Palamède (pp.115-116, where Kieseritzky's name is given in error as 'Zekeriski') and they are mentioned in the 3rd number (p.88). Furthermore, Boncourt's death is announced in the 3rd number of this volume (p.91). However, these last issues of Le Palamède were behind in their publication dates (the 3 Nov. 1839 issue of Bell's Life in London says that the first number 'has come to hand'), and Kieseritzky gives a date for one of the games as 20 Feb. 1840 in his 1846 book 'Cinquante Parties...'. Boncourt's death is announced in the 3 May 1840 isssue of Bell's Life in London (p.4). Finally, Dominique Thimognier has found Boncourt's exact date of death (23 Mar. 1840) and his full name.

References

Books

Cornil, Le Café de la Régence, page 18

Di Felice, Chess Results, 1747-1900, page 222

Fiske, First American Chess Congress, page 438

Golombek, Golombek's Encyclopedia, page 327

Hooper and Whyld, Oxford Companion (1st ed.), page 364

Kieseritzky, Cinquante Parties, page 40

Murray, History of Chess, page 877

Standage, The Turk, page 206

Walker, Chess and Chess Players, page 122

Winter, Kings, Commoners and Knaves, page 318