Traité des Amateurs

Traité des Amateurs is the short name of the chess treatise Traité Théorique et Pratique du jeu des Echecs, par une Société des Amateurs, published in France in 1786 and subsequently translated into German and English. A reviewer in 1830 wrote that: The Traite des Amateurs, is one of the best practical works on Chess, extant. It contains a great number of beautifully played games, together with much solid information, and it is matter of regret that the scarcity of the book, prevents its being more generally used by the Chess student. Le Traité des Amateurs is a chess treatise composed by a "Society of Amateurs" who were contemporaries of Philidor and all frequented the Café de la Régence in Paris. Of these, the strongest players were Bernard, Carlier, Leger and Verdoni. Philidor, who lived in London, took no part in writing the Traité des Amateurs (which embodies many criticisms and comments on his earlier book). George Walker, in his translation of the Traité for the Chess Player's Chronicle in 1846, states: In making up the work before us, it is understood that the great masters above named produced most of their games and examples, by playing them over, experimentally and repeatedly, with each other; consulting upon the moves in committee, and noting down the details and variations contingent upon each result. The natural consequence of this develops itself in the practical character of the Treatise; presenting, indeed, fully as much the complexion of a vast collection of first-rate games, played out, mostly even to the closing Checkmate, as that of a general work on the subject of Chess. The work is divided into six chapters which are in turn subdivided into sections, games and comments. The first three chapters treat entire games, in which odds are supposed to be given; the fourth chapter is devoted to the consideration of "even" games (no handicap); the fifth concerns the endgame and the sixth consists of a selection of critical situations from Stamma, upon which Ponziani sarcastically remarked: i quali sono tutti di Filippo Stamma; quando avrebbero potuto più plausibilmente cavarli dal proprio fondo (they found it easier to take positions from Stamma than to compose new ones for themselves) Another common point with Stamma is the usage of his algebraic chess notation, which was employed in the French editions of the Traité.