I am confused as to what -4.31 centipawns means. I believe it means -0.0431 pawns. That is, a very very small advantage to Black.

But logic tells me that <-4.31 centipawns> in fact means -4.31 pawns, a large advantage for Black.

bterranlong.wix.com/whitemates

Well I wouldn't swear to the authenticity of that portrait. It shows a mature man with bags under his eyes and crows' feet. Age at least early thirties, possibly older. (You can't see the jawline, which could have provided useful confirmation of the age-range.)

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/che...

From <Le Palamède>, v3 n1, 15 January 1843, p19:

<La partie hongroise a été dans la commission un sujet de grands débats. M. Deschapelles, qui n'a pas voulu être membre de cette commission, dont la présidence ne m'a été dévolue que sur son refus, mais qui a offert ses conseils toutes les fois qu'ils seraient réclamés, avait fait proposer par M. Chamouillet, le seul des commissaires qui l'ait vu à cette occasion, de pousser pour second coup: le P du F du R 2 pas. C'était offrir le gambit à la partie où nous n'avions pas eu le trait. Déjà M. Deschapelles avait ouvert l'avis de donner le gambit à la partie française.

Aucun des commissaires, pas même M. Chamouillet, qui avait essayé la partie avec M. Deschapelles, n'a partagé l'avis de ce grand maître. Le temps pressait. Après avoir long-temps flotté indécise entre le C de la D à la 3° c. du F de la D et le C du R à la 3° c. du F du R, la majorité a définitivement accepté ce dernier coup. Dans cette préférence elle a été mue, non pas parce qu'elle a jugé ce coup meilleur que l'autre, mais pour ne pas copier servilement nos adversaires dans la partie française, et pour éviter de nous traîner dans une partie qui a été tournée et retournée de tant de milliers de façons. Ces motifs sont d'autant plus louables, que la partie des deux cavaliers du Roi est fort interessante et très peu connue.>

Then it goes on about how the French were pleased selecting Jaenicsh's move of 2...Nf6 before ending with:

<Pour en revenir au coup de M. Deschapelles et aux divisions intestines qu'il a occasionnées, disons tout de suite que nous ne pouvons qu'avoir beaucoup de regrets de nous être séparés de lui en cette circonstance. S'il était venu se mêler à nos travaux et essayer la partie avec nous, nul doute qu'il n'eût rallié beaucoup d'avis au sien, n'eût-ce été que par la puissance de sa démonstration; mais il fallait éclairer les esprits pour opérer des conversions. C'est ainsi que les choses se sont passées pour le coup qui a été accepté. Un vote de confiance ou de condescendance ne se doit pas, quand on agit en vertu d'un mandat accordé à votre intelligence et à votre savoir. Se soumettre comme des enfans est bon devant le dictateur d'une classe; mais dans le sein d'une commission où règne telle ment l'égalité que le vote se compte et ne se pèse pas, où la responsabilité est solidaire, on doit examiner, essayer tout en commun ou séparément, et ensuite opiner d'après les lumières de sa conscience. Voilà le droit et le devoir. Rien de plus, rien de moins.>

Let's see, would am I to believe? A well sourced contemporaneous account by a contemporary of St. Amant (i.e. Delanney), or an unsourced assertion by some random <CG> user?!

Hmm....

< I read a while back that St. Amant died from his injuries after being thrown from a carriage.>

Well, in this case we can do better than the Wiki sources (Sannucks, Hooper and Whyld).

<Il a succombé le 29 octobre 1872, aux suites d’une chute de voiture.>

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

"He died on October 29, 1872, after falling from a car."

<

It has been well said, "there is no royal road to learning"; but M. Deschapelles laughed the proverb to scorn, and arrived at the temple of Caissa by a path which we can only consider as first-speed "railroad". Endowed with so peculiar an aptitude for acquiring games, our hero did not learn, but seized on chess at once. By a sudden and mighty impress, he stamped it on his brain, and bore it ever afterwards, bodily, within him, perfectly developed in all its parts.

"I acquired chess," said he to us, in the presence of fifty amateurs, "in four days! I learned the moves, played with Bernard, who had succeeded Philidor as the sovereign of the board; lost the first day, the second, the third, and beat him even-handed on the fourth; since which time I have never advanced or receded. Chess to me has been, and is, a single idea, which, once acquired, cannot be displaced from its throne, while the intellect remains unimpaired by sickness or age."

At first reflection, it would appear ridiculous to say the greatest chess player of the age had acquired his skill in four days; but M. Deschapelles asserts it as a fact, and we are therefore bound to believe him. We heard a wag whisper, that, like the interpretation put by Dr. Buckland on the seven days of Moses, each day must have meant, at least, a year, or more; but we seriously protest against ill-natured scepticism. It is so delightful to sneer at enthusiasm, particularly on the part of the small-souled and envious! We view the brain of M. Deschapelles as a phenomenon, and not, therefore, to be measured by ordinary rules. Besides, his assertion, however startling, is really borne out by the extraordinary fact, with which Paris and London rang loudly at the time.

When the question of M. Deschapelles' chivalrous challenge to give pawn and two to the best English player (of which more anon) was on the tapis, in the month of May, 1836, the French champion, who had not played a single game, nor even touched a chess-board, for fifteen years, felt some curiosity to know what effect this long interval of inactivity would have on his chess faculty. To test this, he suddenly walked into the Paris Chess Club; and, without the slightest preparation, sat down to play with M. de la Bourdonnais, at that curious variety of chess known as "the game of the pawns", in which the one player removes his queen, and is allowed, instead, a certain number of extra pawns. Deschapelles and De la Bourdonnais played four games at this sitting, even, -- that is to say, eight pawns being allowed alternately for the queen. Of these games Deschapelles won two, drew one, and lost one! Can words add to this astonishing feat?

>

http://mark_weeks.tripod.com/chw02b...