Talk:Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais

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Latest comment: 16 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Philidor and the Café de la Régence Chess Masters Philcha (talk) 10:41, 26 June 2008 (UTC)Reply

"De La Bourdonnais was considered to be the unofficial world champion"

Latest comment: 3 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

This sentence does not work as is. There was no distinction between official and unofficial world champion in his time:

There is no evidence that the term "world champion" was used then, and the Earl of Mexborough's 1843 speech on Staunton (quoted at Development of the World Chess Championship) used a tentative phrasing that suggests the Earl was very conscious of using a neologism. In fact I think the Earl's words segue from "champion" as "representative in combat" to "champion" as "world's best" in one sentence.
As I've argued before "official" vs "unofficial" is 1980s revisionism. See for example Kennedy's claim for the 1851 London tournament and the contemporary question over whether the Morphy-Harrwitz match should be regarded as for the world championship (both at [[Development of the World Chess Championship]).

I suggest that e.g. 'De La Bourdonnais was regarded as what was later called "world champion"' would be better. -- Philcha (talk) 09:35, 18 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

On this point, we're talking here about one (admittedly famous) series of games, not anything like the present global system. Murray, Hooper & Whyld and Winter are all very clear that Steinitz was the first world champion. For one thing, the whole framework of having a contract, having clear rules, chess clocks etc. is necessary to level the playing field. In any event, the games foremost historical writers have accepted that Steinitz-Zukertort was the first world championship for these kind of reasons. It's not for us to adopt a stance of "we know better" in the teeth of clear statements by historical experts. I would not be happy with anything more than "it was an important match". Remember, La B. was a professional, but his opponent was not even the leading British professional! The match did help chess to develop, and I see it as instrumental in developing opening theory. That is a theme which runs through to the present day. Macdonald-ross (talk) 10:04, 13 January 2021 (UTC)Reply

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