Interview with Herbert Bastian about the book Chapais - The revolutionary chess manuscript by Gaspard Monge

Herbert Bastian - Chapais - Cover
Herbert Bastian - Chapais - Cover

A. Herbert Bastian: Who is the author?

Born in 1952, the author studied mathematics and physics up to the 2nd state examination after leaving school and completing his military service, then worked as a research assistant in the department of experimental physics and subsequently as a teacher at a comprehensive school.

Stages as a chess player: German Cup Winner 1976, 20 times Saarland Champion, 27 participations in the German Individual Championship, 10 years in the Bundesliga for the Munich Chess Club of 1836, holder of an A-coach licence since 1986, International Master since 2005, 14 appearances as a national player.

Positions as an official: President of the Saarland Chess Association from 1992 to 2016, spokesperson for the regional associations in the German Chess Federation from 2004-2011, President of the German Chess Federation from 2011-2017, Honorary President since 2023, Vice President of FIDE from 2014-2018, currently DSB Commissioner for Franco-German Relations. 2017 Awarded the Badge of Honour of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, for the first time to a chess athlete.

Publications (selection): La France et son apport dans le jeu d'échecs en Europe (2022), together with Prof. Dr Frank Hoffmeister and Jean-Olivier Leconte, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Fédération Française des Échecs.

B. Siegfried Schönle:

The interviewer is a collector of chess scenes in German literature and is interested in the cultural history of the game.

1. You spent about 10 years researching the book. Please describe the main features of the process from the beginning to the printed book.

Well, the long period of time has to do not least with the fact that I was still working at the beginning and was involved in several voluntary functions. In addition, the preparation of the book on the 100th anniversary of the Fédération Française des Échecs (2021-2022) and other essays led to further delays. The beginnings date back to 1966, but this and the complete history can be read in the book, which is written in German.

A look at the Chapais manuscript (Kórnik, 2015)

The decision to translate the extensive Chapais manuscript (523 pages, no diagrams) and present it in a contemporary form was made in 2015 during a visit to Kórnik, where I viewed the von der Lasa estate together with Dr Michael Negele (Wuppertal, now Lübeck) and Tomasz Lissowski (Warsaw) and was able to hold the "Holy Grail" in my hands.

I realised immediately that the author must have been a mathematician - and this motivated me to track him down. It took a year to transfer the text to a computer and another year to translate it.

With the help of manuscript samples, I discovered the mathematician Gaspard Monge (*1746; † 1818), who had been completely unknown to me until then, as a "hot" candidate back in 2016. After I had shared my discovery with Michael Negele, one memorable evening we came across a note about 60 pages of previously unpublished notes by Monge on the Knight’s Tour in the archives of the École Polytechnique. I had these pages digitised after a visit to the famous university. Later, I was able to establish a link between these notes and the Chapais manuscript, which I discuss in the book.

The problem was that the writing in the Chapais manuscript does not correspond exactly with the numerous writing samples in Monge's estate. In addition, my thesis was questioned from various sides and with different points of criticism. That is why I have pursued every lead, however weak, without ever having found a completely convincing proof, but also never a real refutation. The evidence is now convincing to me, and there were exciting by-products. For example, I found out a lot of new things about Philidor (Schach 8/2019, pp. 40-50), and after 6 months of intensive research I was able to find out something essential about Montigny, the anonymous author of the Stratagèmes of 1802 (Schach 8/2020, pp. 32-42). In addition, the history of the famous problem of the Marshal of Saxony is now known. It is a type of problem apparently first published by Gianutio (1593/1597), which ultimately encodes a battle plan and served to train strategic thinking in the military. I was even able to find evidence that this chess problem may have influenced Napoleon's planning of the Battle of Austerlitz.

The favourite position of the Marshall of Saxony

The original documents from Mézières were transferred to Metz in 1793 when the school was moved there. From there, the Prussians are said to have taken the documents to Berlin after the war of 1870, where they fell victim to a bombing raid during the Second World War. Nevertheless, I am hopeful that one day something will be found, perhaps in the archives of the French Ministry of Defence or in the Masonic archives. The aforementioned discrepancies in the manuscripts can be explained. The manuscript is laid out as careful calligraphy; if you go into detail, you find similar habits in Monge and Chapais. It took me a long time to work it out. I probably won't be completely convinced, the analyses are too complicated for that. I first had to understand 18th century French typography myself before I understood the author's habits. But if you look at all the findings as a whole, I think the evidence is sufficient to say that the author of the MS is Gaspard Monge.

2. What was your guiding question during these long years and, above all, what was your personal and thematic motivation?

Gaspard Monge

The French collector Dr Jean Mennerat (*1917; † 2007) was the first to present the manuscript at the Lasa Conference in Kórnik in 2002; it was translated by Dr Harald Balló, on whose website I discovered the first reference in 2008. Mennerat said that the value of the manuscript could only really be assessed if it were presented in a contemporary form. He described this as "travail de bénédictin" because of the singular and barely manageable notation, which Harald translated with Mennerat's approval as "horse labour".

I saw doing this "horsework" as a challenge that I wanted to master. In terms of content, I was particularly interested in Chapais' theory of the king and two knights versus king and pawn endgame, which hadn't existed before him. What I then discovered was so exciting that I couldn't stop. This applies both to the content offered by Chapais and to the study of the historical roots of his themes. And, of course, the person of Gaspard Monge, one of the most interesting personalities in 18th century France, who was previously completely unknown to me.

3. The content is roughly characterised as "theory of endgames". Surely you can give the readers more detailed information!

Chapais developed his concept of opposition from this position

Chapais explains at the beginning that he was not writing a chess book, but only wanted to give his friends answers to questions about endgames "which cause difficulties". I suspect that this circle of friends was the masonic lodge founded in 1765 at the École du génie (elite school for military engineers) in Mézières. The manuscript was conceived before 1772 and carefully put down on paper from 1772-1777 in several phases of work that I have identified. It begins with a definition of the concept of opposition, which comes from astronomy, derived from an endgame with 2:1 pawns that was later often reprinted.

The term was then taken up by Parisian amateurs in 1775 and spread in a simpler version, but it certainly originated with Chapais. He himself or one of his friends then used it in the Café de la Régence in Paris. Chapais also discovered and utilised the multifunctional king movement long before Réti. The most important, but by no means the only, endgames are rook against knight, queen against rook, king and two knights against king and pawn and finally king, rook and bishop against king and rook. In the latter, for which he had used the work by Lolli (1763), he proved that Philidor's conclusion that the endgame is always won by the stronger party is wrong. Solutions to the Knight’s Tour, previously scientifically refined by Euler, also occupy a large space. Euler's work was published in 1766 and became well known in France in 1767.

4. The author of the manuscript is probably not only completely unknown to me. Who is he, what could you find about him in the archives?

Before my publications, there were only a few references to Chapais' life. He described himself as a "négociant à Paris", i.e. a merchant in Paris. It was also clear that he must have been educated. Mennerat found nothing about him in the archives, and Harrie Grondijs and I had the same experience. Today I am certain that Chapais is a pseudonym behind which the famous mathematician, physicist and politician Gaspard Monge, founder of the École Polytechnique and close friend of Napoleon, whose scientific director he was during the Egyptian campaign, hides. On this occasion, Monge explained for the first time how a Fata Morgana is created. In my book, you can read everything I found out about him on around 100 pages. However, there is no direct proof, so further research is needed to dispel any remaining doubts.

5. Who can benefit from your research results? What is the significance of your book in the context of chess history research?

When you start a project like this, you first of all learn a lot yourself. This radiates to others and, in the best case scenario, encourages them to set themselves a task. This brings joy and creates quality of life.

In my case, something was discovered about Gaspard Monge that was previously completely unknown, and that will remain so even if my thesis turns out to be wrong. I have written a lot about his historical background, and what remains as new knowledge are solutions to the Knight’s Tour which I have deciphered and which have not yet been published. In any case, this expands the biography of this important scientist.

Regardless of who the real author was, the manuscript is a missing link in the history of chess. Anyone who studies my book will recognise this. It has turned out that, in addition to the all-conquering Philidor, there was another author in France in the 18th century who was at least equal to him in terms of analytical ability and even superior in terms of overall performance, in my opinion.

The insights into Monge's network and international co-operation have considerably broadened my view of the 18th century, the century of the Enlightenment. Anyone who reads these passages in my book will see France with new eyes. Of course, practitioners will also benefit from studying the many endgames. Even trainers can benefit from studying the author's didactics. Monge had an excellent reputation as a teacher and university lecturer, and this aspect also fits in with the approaches in the Chapais manuscript, which he will have written as a young man. Because of his special abilities, he was already employed as a physics teacher at the age of 16.

6. As a rule, collectors and bibliophiles have high expectations of the book's design. Say something about the layout, the binding, etc.

The figure below shows the "battle plan" of the Marshal of Saxony

All my dialogue partners agreed with me that Chapais' work deserves an appropriate layout. That's why I worked with Ulrich Dirr, who had already designed the Lasker volumes. I think the layout is very successful, and the black cloth binding with gold print and the fine paper, which everyone has appreciated so far, add to the impression. There are proof pages in the book and around 40 original colour illustrations at the end of the work, so that the reader gets a good impression of what the book is about. There are also very comprehensive indexes of literature, names and keywords. We took two years to design the layout and make the corrections, so the number of remaining errors should be small. One drawback is the high price, which is nowhere near enough to cover the production costs. Without the generous donations of well-meaning friends who recognised the historical value, the project could not have been realised in this quality.

7. The Exzelsior Berlin publishing house is well known, at least among German chess fans. Such a comprehensive work requires numerous discussions before it goes to print. Please give us an insight into this aspect of book production.

My first publication was in Schach 10/2017, pp. 32-43. Raj Tischbierek immediately recognised the explosive nature of the topic and has always supported me in a friendly manner ever since. It was always clear that my concept - complete presentation of my research results, high quality printing - would not be commercially successful. I was interested in the cause, not the money. That's why I took on the remaining costs for layout and printing after the donations and thus the full risk. In order to minimise the expected loss, the book can only be ordered through me for the time being, and the printer will deliver it.

I was in constant dialogue with Ulrich Dirr about the layout. As he is a competent chess coach and chess book collector, he was able to give me numerous tips that rounded off my work. I then created the countless diagrams and markings myself.

Prof. Dr Frank Hoffmeister also played a major role in the success of this work. He has always been a friend to me over the years, challenging me with his questions and always encouraging me to finish the work. I owe it to Dr Michael Negele that I was able to delve so deeply into chess history in the first place. His contributions are honoured in the book.

Finally, I have to thank the Emanuel Lasker Gesellschaft in the person of the indefatigable Thomas Weischede, who gave me considerable support in financing the layout. I am also grateful to Kathleen Kremp from the ELG for the bookkeeping. And last but not least, I would like to thank CH&LS for their support, which I am returning to their members in the form of a discount.

The work has two parts with a total of 32 chapters on 832 pages. The first part contains a complete translation of the 19 chapters of the manuscript, supplemented by around 700 diagrams and historical notes, each on the origin of the topics dealt with by Chapais. The second part contains additions and analyses of the chronological order of the related page complexes, derived from typographical studies. One result is that some page complexes were revised after the production of the original version (1772-1773) and replaced the original pages.

The second part also contains an extensive biography of Monge and reflections on his chess-playing environment. Who would have known, for example, that the famous physicists Coriolis and Ampère, who taught at the École Polytechnique, were enthusiastic chess players? The work concludes with a comparison of the profiles of Chapais and Monge.

Finally, I would like to note that Monge's wife Cathérine Huart did not die until 1846 at the age of 99. This could explain why the manuscript only appeared in 1854 or 1855 and was acquired by von der Lasa. This is one of the many pieces of the mosaic that, in my view, paint a clear picture.

Siegfried Schönle: Dear Herbert, thank you very much for your detailed, helpful and informative answers. I assume, don't say it like that, that your answers are helpful for future readers of the book.

Bibliographic data: Bastian, Herbert, Chapais - Das revolutionäre Schachmanuskript von Gaspard Monge, Berlin: Excelsior Verlag 2024, 832 pages, cloth binding, price 99,- € (for members of CH&LS 79,- €), plus postage and packing.

Order only from the author by email at , delivery by the print shop.

Herbert Bastian

Chapais

Das revolutionäre Schachmanuskript von Gaspard Monge

Herbert Bastian - Chapais - Cover
Herbert Bastian - Chapais - Cover
  • PublisherExcelsior Verlag, 2024
  • Languagesgerman
  • Pages832
  • Formatshardback
  • MiscellaneousPreis 99,- € (für Mitglieder der CH&LS 79,- €), zuzüglich Porto und Versandkosten. Bestellung: Nur beim Autor per E-Mail unter , Auslieferung durch die Druckerei.

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