Jules Arnous de Rivière (4 May 1830,

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

– 11 September 1905,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was the strongest French

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player from the late 1850s through the late 1870s. He is best known today for playing many games with Paul Morphy when the American champion visited Paris in 1858 and 1863. Born in

to a French father William Henri Arnous-Rivière and an Irish mother Marie Tobin. His grandfather baron Jean-Joseph Arnous-Rivière from an old breton family of Nantes have been ennobled by king

Charles X Charles X may refer to: * Charles X of France (1757–1836) * Charles X Gustav (1622–1660), King of Sweden * Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon (1523–1590), recognized as Charles X of France but renounced the royal title See also * * King Charle ...

in 1828. Arnous-Rivière finished 6th of 13 in the 1867 Paris international tournament organized in conjunction with the Exposition Universelle. Although he finished well below the strongest foreign masters, he was ahead of fellow Parisian, Polish-born, Samuel Rosenthal. Arnous-Rivière had success in some minor tournaments in Paris: 3rd in 1880, 2nd= in 1881, 2nd in 1882–3, and 3rd in the

Café de la Régence The Café de la Régence in Paris was an important European centre of chess in the 18th and 19th centuries. All important chess masters of the time played there. The Café's masters included, but are not limited to: * Paul Morphy * Françoi ...

tournament of 1896. Arnous-Rivière fared poorly in his casual games against Morphy, but did well in more formal match play. He lost to Serafino Dubois (+8-21=3) in 1855, and Gustav Neumann (+3-7=2) in 1864, but he drew with Ignatz von Kolisch (5:5) in 1859, and defeated Thomas Wilson Barnes in London (+5−2=0) and Paul Journoud in Paris (+7−2=1) in 1860, and Johann Löwenthal (+2−0=0) in Paris in 1867. He also lost a close match to

Mikhail Chigorin Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (also ''Tchigorin''; ; – ) was a Russian chess player. He played two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz, losing both times. The last great player of the Romantic chess style, he also served as a ma ...

by +4−5=1 in 1883. Arnous-Rivière's writings included several chess columns and books on

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

and

roulette Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ...

. He also invented many games. He married 27 October 1858 to Joséphine de Coulhac Mazérieux (1834–1921) and had three children: William Arnous-Rivière (1860–1904), Hélène Arnous-Rivière (1862–?) and Jacques Arnous-Rivière (1874–1919). Hélène Arnous-Rivière married Baron Christian-Hubert von Pfeffel; her great-grandson is British politician Stanley Johnson, father of

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

. Arnous-Rivière died in Paris in 1905.

References

* *. (Seems to have typos in a couple of the years, as it lists the date of death as 11 September 1906 and sets the Chigorin match in 1885.) *

External links

* *
Obituary of de Rivière
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnous De Riviere, Jules French chess players 19th-century French chess players 19th-century French sportsmen French people of Breton descent French people of Irish descent Sportspeople from Nantes 1830 births 1905 deaths