Portrait of La Bourdonnais

'A change comes over the Régence, and the noise reaches its climax, as
if the elements of confusion in the caldron had received their final
stirabout. What portly form do we see making its way through the
crowd, at this, the eleventh hour? Fifty persons accost him at once,
all eager to wind up the evening with one more game; -- all shouting,
and laughing, and screaming, with the peculiar and prodigious
gesticulations of La belle France, rising many octaves above concert
pitch. The crash is terrific. Not to know the potentate who enters
with noise exceeding that of drum and trumpet, were indeed to prove
yourself unknown. The new-comer is De la Bourdonnais, since the
retirement of Deschapelles, the acknowledged first chess-player in the
world.'

This contemporary portrait of the man Emanuel Lasker called 'an
extraordinary genius' is the first paragraph of an excerpt from 'The
Café de la Régence'. The article, written by a 'Chess-player' (signed
'G.W.') and dated November 1840, appeared in Fraser's Magazine, Vol.
XXII, July to December, 1840. I've placed a copy of the excerpt on the
Web at...

La Bourdonnais
http://Mark_Weeks.tripod.com/chw01h01/chw-1h01.htm

...along with a well known drawing of La Bourdonnais and a few images
of the Café de la Régence. The entire Fraser's Magazine article
totaled 15 printed pages in small type, of which the La Bourdonnais
excerpt is 4 pages. I'll add the rest of the article as time permits.
I hope you enjoy it!

Bye for now,
Mark Weeks

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