Talk:Napoleon Opening

Automaton

This overview article claims it is doubtful that Napoleon ever played against the Automaton: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/napoleon.html Pavel Vozenilek (talk) 10:19, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

The article makes no such claim. It states "Despite frequent assertions that they are all spurious, three games allegedly played by him (i.e. against Bertrand, Mme de Rémusat and the Automaton are regularly seen", but it does not claim that Napoleon's game against the Turk is doubtful. The games are vs. Bertrand (St Helena, c.1820), vs. Mme de Rémusat (Malmaison, France, 1804) and vs the Turk automaton (Schönbrunn, Austria, 1806). The article cites evidential sources for Captain Kennedy having made up the story of a game against Bertrand, and then gives "other evidence to show he (Napoleon) was a mediocre player". Chess commentators and analysts support this view, and generally agree that the Bertrand and Rémusat games both have too much clever play to have been by Napoleon. But the Turk game is different - it REALLY IS mediocre. First published in the USA in New York Chess Monthly in the 1850s, and possibly from the French publication Le Palamède some years earlier (the article is unclear on this), it has not been proved doubtful. It was apparently one of three quick games in succession played at Schönbrunn Palace in Austria (not Berlin, as sometimes stated). The automation was apparently brought out of storage specially for the occasion, and was operated by Johann Allgaier. He would have made a note of the moves, or recalled them with ease, and perhaps demonstrated to others afterwards how badly Napoleon played. Thus it is not improbable that some version of the game(s) would enter recorded history. There's no contemporary "hard evidence" for the Napoleon-Turk game(s), but there's no proof against it either - and thus no reason to doubt that the one published is not genuine. Pete Hobbs (talk) 18:07, 18 January 2013 (UTC)