What is Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais?
{{Infobox chess player|name=Louis de La Bourdonnais|caption=The only known likeness of La Bourdonnais.|image=Louisdelabourdonnais.jpg|birthname=Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais|country=France|birth_date=1795|birth_place=[[Réunion]]|death_date={{Death date and age|1840|12||1795||}}|death_place=[[London]], [[Great Britain]]|title=|worldchampion=|womensworldchampion=|rating=|peakrating=}} '''Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais''' (born on 1795 - December 1840) was a French Chess Master. == Life == He was born on the island of [[Réunion|la Réunion]] in the Indian Ocean in 1795. He learned chess in 1814 and began to take the game seriously in 1818 often playing at the [[Café de la Régence]]<ref>The Oxford Companion to Chess – David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld (1992) p. 56</ref> He learned from [[Jacques François Mouret]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=gzICAAAAYAAJ&q=mouret&pg=PA1 ''Le Palamède'' edited by Saint-Amant (1847) p. 211]</ref> == Notable Games == * [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1001165 Alexander McDonnell vs. Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, 16, London 1834, Sicilian Defense: Old Sicilian. Open (B32), 0–1] A game demonstrating the strength of pawns. Its end position is one of the most surprising in the history of chess. * [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1001140 Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais vs. Alexander MacDonnell, 3, London 1834, Queen's Gambit Accepted: Old Variation (D20), 1–0] La Bourdonnais punishes McDonnell's premature attack. == References == <references />{{commonscat}} {{Authority control}} [[Category:1795 births]] [[Category:1840 deaths]] [[Category:Deaths from edema]]