A scholar and a gentleman

Albert Clerc – Gerolamo Tassinari
Paris, 1856
French Defence C01

In our last number we announced that a Tournament had been played in Paris, M. Clerc gaining the first prize, Signor Tassinari the second. We now reprint from our contemporary La Régence the deciding game of this spirited contest. Twenty-four players took part in it, the twenty-two behind the winners being M. Martin (third), MM. Acloque, Arnous de Rivière, Bornemann, Budzinski, Cerf, Coullier de Bechenec, Desjardins, Fritz, Hébert, Lafitte, Lanöe, E. Lefranc, Lequesne, Lesseure, Lustro-Lévi, Mercier, Montigny, Pasquier, Pick, and Preti.

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Bd3 Bd6 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. 0-0 0-0 7. Bg5 Nc6 8. Nc3 Be6. Ed. Note: More natural looks 8. ... Bg4 as in the game Solovtsov – Alapin, Saint Petersburg 1879. 9. Nb5 Be7 10. Ne5 a6 11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. Nc3 Qd6 13. f4 Ng4 14. Bxe7 Qxe7 15. Qc1. It seems that White could not have advanced his Pawn to f5 without danger. 15. f5 Qh4 16. h3 Ne3 17. Qe1 Qxe1 (This appears better than 17. ... Qxd4) 18. Raxe1 (If 18. Rfxe1 Nxf5) 18. ... Nxf1 19. fxe6 Ng3 and will escape, having won the Exchange. 15. ... f5 16. h3 Nf6 17. a3 Ne4 18. Qe3 c5 19. Bxe4 cxd4

20. Nxd5. A good move both in conception and in execution. 20. ... Qc5 21. b4 Qd6 22. Qxd4 fxe4 23. c4 Rad8 24. Rad1 c6. It would have been better to have preserved “the Exchange”, and not to have recovered the Pawn. 25. Nf6+ Rxf6 26. Qxd6 Rxd6 27. Rxd6 Bxc4 28. Rxf6 gxf6 29. Rc1 Bd5 30. Kf2 Kf7 31. Ke3 f5 32. g4. And wins. 1 : 0. (Notes by The Chess Player’s Chronicle, Vol. iv, 1856, pages 129-130).

The Chess Player’s Chronicle, Vol. iv, 1856, page 189.

Chess Monthly, Volume 1, 1880, page 102.