Eugène Rousseau (13 November 1805,

Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis Saint-Denis (, ) is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Saint-Denis had a population of 112,091 as of 2018. It is a subprefecture (french: sous-préfecture) of the department of Seine-S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

– Paris,

, 1870) was a French

chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pres ...

. He was the strongest chess player in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

in the first half of the 1840s. The

Rousseau Gambit The Rousseau Gambit (or Ponziani Countergambit after Domenico Lorenzo Ponziani) is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bc4 f5 The gambit is named after French chess master Eugène Rousseau. White can decl ...

is named after him.

Chess biography

In 1845, Rousseau played a match against the Englishman

Charles Stanley Charles Frazier Stanley (born 1932) is Pastor Emeritus of First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, after serving as senior pastor for 49 years. He is the founder and president of In Touch Ministries, which widely broadcasts his sermons through te ...

for the title of chess champion of the US, the first contest ever for that title. The match was played for a stake of $1,000. Rousseau lost the match (+8 −15 =8) and Stanley became the first US Champion. Rousseau's

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

in the match was Ernest Morphy, who took his eight-year-old nephew,

Paul Morphy Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and is often considered the unofficial World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he was ca ...

, along and allowed him to be present for the contests. Later, Paul was allowed to play Rousseau, and it became clear that Paul was the better player, despite his young age. In 1850,

Johann Löwenthal Johann Jacob Löwenthal ( hu, Löwenthal János Jakab; 15 July 1810 – 24 July 1876) was a professional chess master. He was among the top six players of the 1850s. Biography Löwenthal was born in Budapest, the son of a Jewish merchant. He ...

paid a visit to New Orleans, and beat Rousseau five games straight.

Notable game

Rousseau beat Winawer with the black pieces in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1867: :1.e4 e5 2.f4 Bc5 3.Nf3 d6 4.c3 Bg4 5.Bc4 Nd7 6.h3 Bxf3 7.Qxf3 Qe7 8.a4 a6 9.b4 Ba7 10.Na3 Ngf6 11.f5 c6 12.d3 h6 13.Nc2 Rd8 14.Be3 Bb8 15.0-0 Nh7 16.Qg4 Qf8 17.h4 Ndf6 18.Qf3 Qe7 19.g4 d5 20.Bc5 Bd6 21.Bxd6 Qxd6 22.Bb3 0-0 23.Rad1 g5 24.Ne3 Kg7 25.h5 Rfe8 26.Rf2 Nf8 27.Rb2 b5 28.Ra2 d4 29.axb5 axb5 30.Nc2 Ra8 31.Rxa8 Rxa8 32.cxd4 exd4 33.Kg2 N8d7 34.Qf2 Nxg4 35.Qxd4+ Qxd4 36.Nxd4 Ne3+ 37.Kf3 Nxd1 38.Bxd1 Ne5+ 39.Ke3 Ra1 40.Be2 Rb1 41.Nf3 Nxf3 42.Bxf3 Rxb4 43.e5 c5 44.Bc6 Rb1 45.Ke4 b4 46.Kd5 b3 47.Kd6 b2 48.Ke7 Re1 49.f6+ Kg8 50.Be4 Rxe4 51.dxe4 b1=Q 52.Kd6 Qxe4 0–1

Notes

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rousseau, Eugene 1805 births 1870 deaths Sportspeople from Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis French chess players 19th-century chess players