| La Bourdonnais - McDonnell 1st Casual Match (1834) |
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Westminster Chess Club, London, England; June 1834—July 1834
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 Wins
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La Bourdonnais ½ ½ ½ 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 16
McDonnell ½ ½ ½ 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 5
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Format: A match of 21 decisive games, draws not counting.
Game Sequence
1: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 ½-½ 51 C21 Center Game
2: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 ½-½ 58 C44 King's Pawn Game
3: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 ½-½ 55 C44 King's Pawn Game
4: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 1-0 31 C53 Giuoco Piano
5: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 1-0 46 B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4
6: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 0-1 44 C53 Giuoco Piano
7: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 0-1 29 B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4
8: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 1-0 30 D20 Queen's Gambit Accepted
9: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 0-1 50 C00 French Defense
10: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 1-0 45 D20 Queen's Gambit Accepted
11: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 0-1 42 C33 King's Gambit Accepted
12: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 1-0 35 D20 Queen's Gambit Accepted
13: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 ½-½ 81 B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4
14: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 0-1 25 B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4
15: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 1-0 29 D20 Queen's Gambit Accepted
16: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 0-1 35 B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4
17: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 1-0 29 D20 Queen's Gambit Accepted
18: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 0-1 30 C33 King's Gambit Accepted
19: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 0-1 54 C23 Bishop's Opening
20: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 0-1 20 C33 King's Gambit Accepted
21: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 0-1 39 C23 Bishop's Opening
22: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 0-1 48 C33 King's Gambit Accepted
23: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 0-1 36 D00 Queen's Pawn Game
24: McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 0-1 30 C23 Bishop's Opening
25: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 1-0 55 D00 Queen's Pawn Game
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| page 1 of 1; games 1-25 of 25 |
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| page 1 of 1; games 1-25 of 25 |
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| Jan-19-23 | | generror: I have just found a digital copy of the delightful <Chess Characters: Reminiscences of a Badmaster, Vol. II> by G.H. Diggle (cf. https://www.chesshistory.com/winter...). And, having analyzed and annotated a few games of the <La Bourdonnais - McDonnell> matches, I wholeheartedly agree to what he wrote under <104. La Bourdonnais v McDonnell (II)>: <To play through the 85 La Bourdonnais-McDonnell games, covering just over 3,500 moves aside, is rather like crossing the Atlantic in stormy weather, or at best choppy seas with deceitful calms. Ant to annotate them, even for an expert, must be a nightmare. Staunton himself, who did so ("Chess Player's Chronicle", Volumes 1-3) really sums up the series in a famous note to Game 21: "It seems utterly impossible for either player to save the game!" Such were the complications he encountered that even he, never afraid of deep analysis, was sometimes driven to dodge the 'heavy seas' and pick on shallower water where he could say something when there was nothing to be said: "The youngest player will perceive that White would have lost his Queen had he imprudently captured the Queen's Pawn."> I initially thought I was just to stupid to truly capture what was going on during my analysis, even despite Stockfish; but this confirms my suspicion that both players kept choosing variations leading to position that were far above their actual level. It makes for some entertaining games, but at least of those five or six I annotated, none of them was actually too good. In the article, he also lists the games of the match <agreed by generations of critics to be 'the greats': Games 14, 47, 62 and 78 on by the Frenchman and 5, 21, 30, 50 and 54 won my McDonnell. To these the BM would add 15 and 40 (La B.) and 85 (McD.). The "Immortal 50th" has always been awarded "the Oscar", but this game was all "McDonnell", and there are other good candidates in which both masters were on the top of their form. In some one feels the wrong man won; though McDonnell lost 40 (a King's Gambit in which he gave up two pieces in the first 9 moves), he actually harried La Bourdonnais with his inferior force for 22 more moves before he was finally shaken off by the Frenchman's knife-edge accuracy.> So if you're wondering what games to check out, these probably are a good starting point, but you'll have to find out which is which (and yes, <chessgames.com>, I'm one of those who think these six matches are essentially one event). <Chess Characters II> is absolutely recommended to all those with a sense of humour,. It's like <Chess Notes>, but much more fun! I mean, it was written by a guy proudly calling himself the "Badmaster" :) |
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| Jan-19-23 | | generror: Here's my translation table linear# <=> multi-event#, with playing dates taken from ChessBase (no sources, so handle with care): #01-25 <=> match I, games 1-25 ( ± 0) | Jun/Jul 1834 #26-34 <=> match II, games 1-9 ( ± 25) | Jul 1834 #35-46 <=> match III, games 1-12 ( ± 34) | Jul/Aug 1834 #47-64 <=> match IV, games 1-18 ( ± 46) | Aug 1834 #65-76 <=> match V, games 1-12 ( ± 64 | Sep 1834 #77-85 <=> match VI, games 1-9 ( ± 76) | Oct 1834 |
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| Jan-19-23 | | generror: And for your convenience, here's Badmaster's list of notable games, complemented with my those from my own "canon": #04 = I.4 | La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 (MD) <1> [Tart] #05 = I.5 | McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 (MD) <1> [Tart] #14 = I.14 | McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 (LB) <1> [CG] #15 = I.15 | La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 (LB) <*> #17 = I.17 | La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 (LB) <2> [Tart, Horo] #20 = I.20 | McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 (LB) <1> [CG] #21 = I.21 | La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 (MD) <2> [Tart, CG] #30 = II.5 | McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 (MD) #39 = III.5 | La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 (LB) <2> [Lask, CG] #40 = III.6 | McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 (LB) <*> #47 = IV.1 | McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 (LB) <1> [Tart] #50 = IV.4 | La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 (MD) <7> [Lask, Fine, Tart, BehS, Horo, WPen, WPde, CG] #54 = IV.8 | McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 (MD) #62 = IV.16 | McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 (LB) <8> [BehS, Cher, Kasp, Köhl, SABNE, WPen, WPde, CG 1800s] #73 = V.9 | La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 [LB] <1> [CG] #78 = VI.2 | La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 1834 (LB) #85 = VI.9 | McDonnell vs La Bourdonnais, 1834 (MD) <*> (last game) <*> = his personal additions <n> = my own personal "Canon Score", i.e. inclusions in noteworthy game listings, mostly books, but also the notable games of chessgames.com: <Lask> = Lasker: Manual of Chess, 1925; <Fine> = Fine: World's Greatest Chess Games, 1951; <Tart> = Tartakower: 500 Master Games, 1952; <BehS> = Beheim-Schwarzbach: Knaurs Schachbuch, 1953; <Horo> = Horowitz: Golden Treasury of Chess, 1969; <Cher> = Chernev: Wonders and Curiosities of Chess, 1974; <Köhl> = Köhler: Legendäre Schachpartien, 2010; <Kasp> = Kasparov: On My Great Predecessors 1, 2003; <SABNE> = So/Adams/Burgess/Nunn/Emms: Mammoth Book of World's Greatest Chess Games, 2021; <WPen> = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_... <WPde> = https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste... <CG> = Notable Chess Games of the 19th Century [1830s section] (all weblinks updated Dec 2022) That's 17 games, more than enough, and probably still too much for everyone not a die-hard Romantic; the shortlist would then be those five with a Canon Score of <2> or more. One last thing, the auto-generated <chessgames.com> match listings have a weird order (if they have one), it's better to use the hand-written listings for most of the matches to find the right game, which list the games in the order they were played. And chessgames' round numbers for the 6th match are also really weird. |
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Jan-19-23
 | | jnpope: I avoided doing a listing for the sixth match because I would most certainly be biased in dealing with it: http://chessarch.com/archive/1834_L... So I thought it best to leave it alone and let someone else deal with Walker's version of the sixth match. |
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| Jan-19-23 | | generror: That's a great link, thanks <jnpope>! Great research and even some actual dates for all games. The documentation of that sixth match is a wonderful mess indeed, but at least I understand those three "free games" now and that there are games that were never published. Still I think that, biased or not, that numbering is the best and most thoroughly researched result so far, so it absolutely could and should be incorporated in chessgames.com. |
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Jan-20-23
| | jnpope: The dates are purely speculative based on a possible start date from notices about Bourbonnais visiting the club and his matches being arranged, Walker's statement that the two playing one game per day, except on Sundays, without fail, and taking into account when Lewis announced the availability of his book on the match. But no concrete evidence has been found that pin points the exact dates. |
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Jan-20-23
| | jnpope: Bourbonnais is a weird auto-complete... silly phone. |
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