Jean-Jacques Rousseau

By Bill Wall

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland. His mother died nine days after he was born due to complications from Jean-Jacques birth.

Gabriel Bagueret taught Rousseu the game of chess. Bagueret worked for Peter the Great of Russia. Rousseau did not like Bagueret, but he proposed to teach Rousseau how to play chess. According to Rousseau in Confessions, Book V:

“I made an attempt, though almost against my inclination, and after several efforts, having learned the moves, my progress was so rapid, that before the end of the first sitting, I gave him the rook, which in the beginning he had given me (rook odds). Nothing more was necessary; behold me fascinated with chess! I buy a chess board and a “Calabrois,” and shutting myself up in my chamber pass whole days and nights in studying all the varieties of the game, being determined by playing alone, without end or relaxation, to drive them into my head, right or wrong. After incredible efforts, during two or three months passed in this curious employment, I go to the coffee-house, thin, sallow, and almost stupid; I seat myself, and again attack M. Bagueret; he beats me, once, twice, twenty times; so many combinations were fermenting in my head, and my imagination was so stupified, that all appeared confusion. I tried to exercise myself with Philidor’s book or Stamma’s book of instructions, but I was still equally perplexed, and, after having exhausted myself with fatigue, was further to seek than ever, and whether I abandoned my chess for a time, or resolved to surmount every difficulty by unremitted practice, it was the same thing. I could never advance one step beyond the improvement of the first sitting, nay, I am convinced that had I stuided it a thousand ages, I should have ended by being able to give Bagueret the rook and nothing more.

From Confessions, Book VII:

“I had another expedient, not less solid, in the game of chess, to which I regularly dedicated, at Maugis’s (Cafe Maugis), the evenings on which I did not go to the theater. I became acquainted wuth M. de Legal, M. Husson, Philidor, and all the great chess players of the day, without making the least improvement in the game. However, I had no doublt but, in the end, I should become superior to them all, and this, in my own opinion, was a sufficient resource. The same manner of reasoning served me in every folly to which I felt myself inclined. I said to myself: whoever excels in anything is sure to acquire a distinguished reception in society. Let us therefore excel, no matter in what, I shall certainly be sought after.

Rousseau discovered that he loved chess, and for some months he was completely obssessed with it. He relied on intuition and not memory. Laborius attempts to memorize chess openings and combinations got him nowhere.

Rousseau often played chess with Dens Diderot (1713-1784) at the Cafe Maugis, and Rousseau won most of his games against Diderot. An observer noted the following about Rousseau and his chess: “He mediates deeply between moves, but he plays with speed, which accords with his character.”

Rousseau enjoyed chess competition. One opponent who lost regularly against Rousseau at the Cafe de la Regence, even when Rousseau removed his rook was asked by Rousseau, “Does it wound you to lose?” Rousseau’s opponent replied, “Oh, no. It’s tje inevitable result since there is such a marked disparity in our means of defense.” Rousseau replied, “Well, then, in that case let’s not change how we play; I like to win.”

Diderot said of Rousseau: “Man strives for superiority, even in the smallest things. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who always beat me at chess, refused to give me a handicap to make the game more equal ‘Does it upset you to lose?’ he asked me. ‘No,’ I said, ‘but I would make a better defense, and you would enjoy the game more.’ ‘That may be,’ he replied. ‘All the same, let’s leave things as they are.

Roussau often played chess against Louis Francois I de Bourbon (1717-1776), the Prince of Conti from 1727 to his death in 1776. Conti did not like to lose at chess. His entourage used to make urgent signals to Rousseau to start losing, but Rousseau kept on winning and said, “My loard, I honor your serene highness too much not to beat you always in chess.” When someone suggested that Rousseau let Conti win occasionally, Rousseau replied, “What! I did give him a rook!” If a prince could not win against Rousseau without a rook, then he deserved to lose. Despite losing to chess all the time to Rousseau, Conti became a patron of Rousseau.

Rousseau returned to Paris in 1770. He was ofted seen strolling in the Luxembourg Gardens, going to the theater, or playing chess.

Rousseau died on July 2, 1778 in Ermenville, France.