When he played Morphy in two Games (one recorded) he was sixteen.

He had a chess column in an important newspaper from Rio de Janeiro, when he published a Problem, the first letter he received with the solution was from Machado de Assis - the greatest Brazilian novelist and short-stories writer from the xix-th Century! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machad...

<chess column in an important newspaper from Rio de Janeiro> the "Illustração Brasileira", from 1876

<organized a Chess Club> In the "Club Polytechnico", in Da Constituição Street, in 1877: first president the Viscout de Pirapetinga (Caldas Vianna's father; Napoleão was 'room's director' and Machado de Assis, secretary;

<first in his own home> This detail is from another phase: In 1880, a chess tournament was played in Napoleão's house; an new place for chess events appears in the following decade, the "Club Beethoven" <note en passant: it seems that the old club was ephemeral>

One of the attractions of those chess soirées were the blindfold simul displays by Caldas Vianna.

Napoleão's chess column had also to wander from one place to another:

- "Illustração Brasileira" 1876-78;

- "Revista Musical e de Bellas Artes" 1879 - ?

- "A Distração" 1884

- "Jornal do Commercio" - 1886 - this one a stately sunday page that lasted for decades;

Still about chess in Rio de Janeiro:

Becker: "...it remained the vague memory of some chess-players: dr. Pennel, Jordan Cruise, Elkin Hime. And the staying, from 1859 and 1860, in diplomatic mission, of the famous chess-player Baron von der Lasa"

I agree with <Calli>. This is good stuff. Thanks for sharing it with everyone.

I hope you don't mind if I copy it for possible future use.

<copy it for possible future use> Of course! And i would really like to know more about him... The "Caissana Brasileira" from 1898 is a rarity even in our country - and collections of the newspapers quoted are hard to find (possibly the 'Biblioteca Nacional' in Rio de Janeiro have the complete "Jornal do Commercio"

<living in Rio de Janeiro during the time when Von der Lasa served> No, it's quite improbable - well, I know he was in the USA in 1859, when he played Morphy!

<"Souvenir de Porto Rico"> He lived in the city of Guayama between 1860 and 1861

<"Fantaisie Vénetienne" Opus 6> He settled in Brazil in 1868

<"Sur les bords du Plata"; "Atlanta">: visits to Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil between 1857 <this date is correct?! - there's a lot of typos in that page...> and 1863

<"Ricordo di Napoli"> In 1871 he is married, the couple visits Italy

<"Habanera"> In 1907, he married Rita de Cássia Carneiro Leão, his second wife

<"Une Nuit sur le Taje"> In the 1910s, he was still composing, but not so active - his last works were essentially exercises for music students, like Itiberê da Cunha, from Curitiba <hey, my city!> whom those 'études' are dedicated

There's a mention of him being influenced by S. Thalberg <one of the 'three stars' of the piano in Europe before the appearence of Liszt - the other two were Clara Wieck (better known as Clara Schumann) and ... Rudolf Willmers!> - this last note is not in that student's dissertation, based, by the way in a Napoleão "Autobiografia"

Thanks once again.

<Becker: "...it remained the vague memory of some chess-players: dr. Pennel, Jordan Cruise, Elkin Hime.>

1880: The participants in the Tournament in his house were: Himself, Caldas Vianna, Carlos Pradez, Machado de Assis, Joaquim Navarro and J. Palhares <i’ll like to see some games and cross-tables, but nothing of the kind is found in this book>

<...> < In the 1880s the chess movement start to become lively - he was no longer the lone incentivator: the “Noticia” had a Saturday chess column writen by Teophilo Torres, who promoted Composing and Solving contests

Napoleão had chess columns in the “Gazeta de Noticias” and in the already mentioned “Jornal do Commercio” - around 1887, the names of Caldas Vianna, Rodolpho Eichbaum, Dario Galvão, Jacinto Coelho, Luiz Soares , etc formed already a plêiade of Problemists

<in the meantime – in 1889 - the Monarchy was knocked-down, and the Republic instituted: the Royal Familly moved to Paris>

1890: A new chess club is founded, in an elegant address, Rua do Ouvidor, Arthur Napoleão was it’s first President, and the Viscount De Invinhema the second: but again it was ephemeral – in 1898 (when he was writing the introduction to “Caissana Brasileira”) still another Club had just two months – in De Gonçalves Dias Street, 55

1897: A game of chess with live pieces is presented in “Theatro de São Pedro” (a whole page in the introduction for description of this event)

in summa: to conclude, the Author exalt the qualities of the Composers included in his anthology, and say that Machado de Assis – “like Alfred de Musset” – also appear with a single Chess Problem (a two-mover) ; also the Director of the “Instituto de Música” , the maestro and composer Leopoldo Miguez (‘my friend’) , and the Admiral Saldanha da Gama (both repesented by three-movers)

Well, after reading this, i suddenly realize that Prof. Becker’s source was only this very introduction...

The frontispiece in this copy is autographed by the Author, let’s see... ^_ô

<...> ... difficult to see ... <...GABINETE PORTU ...> next line <OFFERECE O AUTÔR> antiquated spelling - further his signature and date < OUT. 1898>

Obviouslly he refers to the Royal Portuguese Reading-Room, founded in Rio in 1837 http://www.realgabinete.com.br/

Also for illustration, here a page with a Problem by Arthur Napoleão http://paginas.terra.com.br/esporte...

“From 1863, Carlos Pradez and myself where the names to be retained” ... “both from a much modest scope” <He considered himself a mere amateur – he acquired new chess books and> “ started again to study” <when he was invited to keep his first chess column, in 1876 cf. above mentioned> .

<the “Revista Musical e de Bellas Artes”, appearing from 1879, was founded by him, he included a chess section, but was sceptical about the repercussion of this iniciative>

The teams were: from Argentina - Benito Villegas, Julio Lynch, Miguel Angel Gelly, Julián Balbin, Eugenio Zamudio, Cupertino del Campo;

<Muito obrigado> for introducing modern chess to Brazil, dear <JOAQUIM MARIA MACHADO DE ASSIS> up there in The Heavens! Herewith a portrait of the great master: http://americasouthandnorth.files.w...

The reason why one has to publsih this very tribute to Brazil's Godfather of Chess <JOAQUIM MARIA MACHADO DE ASSIS> on the personal page of his colleague <Arthur Napoleao dos Santos>: no record of those games that <JOAQUIM MARIA MACHADO DE ASSIS> played during his lifetime has survived until today, therefore it has not been possible to create a personal page for <JOAQUIM MARIA MACHADO DE ASSIS>.

But at least one of the chess problems that have been composed by <JOAQUIM MARIA MACHADO DE ASSIS> is still known today, please see the diagram as follows.

click for larger view

The solution: 1.Bb5! Kd8 (the only defense against 2.Qf6#, but that does not help either): 2.Kf7#!

A great final position, just have a look at the corresponding diagram as follows.

click for larger view

The foregoing chess problem by <JOAQUIM MARIA MACHADO DE ASSIS> has been published by the paper <"Ilustracao Brasileira"> on June 15th, 1877, thus being the first chess problem that has been created by a Brazilian author and that has been published in Brazil (the source: http://www.oproblemista.com.br/mass...).