Colonel Charles Paul Narcisse Moreau (14 September 1837,
Paris – 6 July 1916) was a French soldier and mathematician. He served in the artillery and as an officier of the
French Legion of Honor. He introduced
Moreau's necklace-counting function into mathematics, and achieved the worst result ever recorded in an international chess tournament.
Military service
Colonel Moreau's military career is given by documents on the Legion of Honor website as follows.
He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 October 1861.
He served in Mexico from 23 May 1863 to 22 March 1867 during the
French intervention in Mexico and was named Chevalier de l'Ordre Impérial de la Guadeloupe on 16 September 1866 and was awarded the
Commemorative medal of the Mexico Expedition
The Commemorative medal of the Mexico Expedition (french: Médaille commémorative de l'expédition du Mexique) was a French commemorative campaign medal established by decree of French emperor Napoleon III on 29 August 1863 to recognize milita ...
. On 10 August 1868 he was promoted to captain. He served in Africa from 27 January 1869 to 3 August 1870, when he returned to take part in the
Franco-Prussian war. He participated in the
battle of Sedan on 1 September 1870, after which he was taken prisoner until 4 June 1871. He served again in Africa (Algeria) from 5 August 1871 until 20 November 1873, during which time he was made a chevalier of the
French Legion of Honor on 20 November 1872. On 8 July 1886 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and on 15 April 1890 was promoted to colonel. He was made an officier of the
French Legion of Honor on 5 July 1893.
Mathematics and chess
identified Moreau as the chess player "Colonel Moreau" who set a record for the worst-ever performance in an international tournament by losing all his 26 games in the 1903
Monte Carlo chess tournament The Monte Carlo chess tournament was established in 1901. There were a series of very strong tournaments held in Monte Carlo, from 1901 to 1904, and again after a long break from 1967 to 1969.
1901
:
The notation and point count was as follows (d ...
. It is unclear why someone that weak was playing in an international tournament. He is sometimes said to have been a last-minute substitute for
Mikhail Chigorin, who was apparently dropped after a dispute with the organizer
Prince André Dadian, but Spinrad pointed out that this is unlikely because Moreau and Chigorin were both listed among the 14 competitors in a newspaper story in ''
The New York Sun'' and ''
Salt Lake Herald
''The Salt Lake Daily Herald'' was a daily newspaper in Salt Lake City, Utah. It may also be known as the ''Salt Lake Herald''. It was founded in 1870 by publishers William C. Dunbar and Edward L. Sloan.
It was at one time housed in the Herald ...
'' from 21 December 1902, several weeks before the tournament started on 10 February 1903. Moreau was on the tournament organizing committee for the 1902 Monte Carlo tournament.
Spinrad also pointed out that Moreau published several mathematical papers. In particular introduced
Moreau's necklace-counting function, and described a variation of this that he credited to Moreau. pointed out a counterexample to a lemma used by
Adrien-Marie Legendre in his attempt to prove
Dirichlet's theorem on arithmetic progressions
In number theory, Dirichlet's theorem, also called the Dirichlet prime number theorem, states that for any two positive coprime integers ''a'' and ''d'', there are infinitely many primes of the form ''a'' + ''nd'', where ''n'' is als ...
. describes Moreau's analysis of the mathematical game "red and black" invented by
Arnous de Rivière. mentions Moreau's unpublished solution to a combinatorial problem involving rooks on a chessboard.
Publications
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Moreau also published several notes titled "Solution de la question ...." in volumes XI to XVI of the journal Nouvelles annales de mathématiques giving solutions to questions asked in it.
References
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External links
*Th
Legion of honor sitehas several documents with details about Colonel Moreau's military career, awards, and his dates of birth and death.
Papers by C.Moreauat JFM
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moreau, Charles Paul Narcisse
French mathematicians
French soldiers
French chess players
1837 births
1916 deaths
19th-century French military personnel
Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
19th-century chess players