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Jean-Jacques Rousseau announced mate in nine moves!

<1. fxg6+ Kh8 2. g7+ Kg8 3. gxf8=Q+ Kxf8 4. Qg7+ Ke8 5.Nxd6+ Rxd6 6. Qg8+ Kd7 7. Qxf7+ Kd8 8. Qc7+ Ke8 9. Qe7# 1-0>

C.N. 5095

(When, oh when, is <CG> going to get a verbatim mode).

As for chess programs which can play over such games - with weird castling - my Q-side/K-side program allows you to play it over by hand (not by reading in the PGN however).

<

You have, of course, heard of the great French chess-player, Philidor. He got his Italian name in a curious way. In the Chapel Royal at Versailles there was an orchestra of musicians that took part in the religious services. Among them was an Italian named Philidor. It happened that this man fell ill and died, and his place was supplied by a Frenchman named Danican. One morning the king, Louis XIV., on passing the orchestra on his way to his seat in the chapel, mistook Danican for Philidor, and nodding to him said, "I am glad to see you back in your place, Philidor!" Now it was a point of etiquette in the French court not to allow the king to make a mistake. When he was a child, he said one day, "Portez mon carrosse!" He ought to have said, "ma carrosse," since the word is of the feminine gender, but the polite French at once adopted the royal infant's change of gender, and the word remains to this day masculine. In like manner Danican became Philidor, and to this odd circumstance the great chess master is indebted for his name.

The ante-room to the Royal Chapel was occupied by the musicians in the intervals of the services, and being so near the sacred precinct they were not allowed to play games of chance, but chess was allowed. The boy Philidor frequently accompanied his father to the chapel, and was fond of watching the chess, and soon became himself a good player. One of the most skilful chess-players among the musicians was a man named Legalle, who frequently played with young Philidor. Now the only game of Legalle's that has been preserved is one in which he gives the odds of the Q R; ...

>

tBOP v13 N642 (May 2, 1891) 495/527 (17)

Of course this story of the origin is slightly at odds with CW, but has anybody traced the sourcing of the CW?

(I have, maybe will post it later to possibly compare notes)

<By Prof. Tomlinson, F.R.S.

[Professor Charles Tomliiison, F.R.S., who is now the oldest writer in chess living, for he was born in London on November 27, 1808, and among whose works his "Amusements in Chess" (London, 1845) is unsurpassed by any other book of the kind, has forwarded us the following capital short article.]>

And lest you begin wondering what F.R.S. adds to a name...

The first performance of his <Carmen Saeculare> was performed at Freemasons' Hall in London in 1779.

<If the weather is too cold or too rainy, I take refuge in the Regency Café. I like to watch the games of chess. The best chess players in the world are in Paris, and the best players in Paris are in the Regency Café. Here, in Rey's establishment, they battle it out--Legal the Profound, Philidor the Subtle, Mayot the Solid. One sees the most surprising moves and hears the stupidest remarks. For one can be an intelligent man and a great chess player, like Legal, but one can also be a great chess player and a fool, like Foubert and Mayot.>

French original:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13862

The odds are better at the racecourse so I am heading down to the Hipódromo Chile in the municipality of Independencia, in the Santiago Metropolitan Region of Chile.

The race is at 19:30 Greenwich Mean Time, 24/12/2020.

This wizened old geegee currently has odds of 9/2. I intend to do it as a double with <The Undertaker> winning Wrestlemania 2021.

Actually, as <von Krolock> pointed out earlier in these pages*: a) the etymon you suggest would be not French, but a chimera of Greek and French, which would cast considerable doubt on the suggestion even if nothing positive were known of the provenance of the name <Philidor> and b) in fact, it appears to derive from the Italian surname <Filidoro>/<Filidori>, meaning <cloth [lit. threads] of gold>.