Jeu des échecs, société politique et art de la guerre. Les révolutions du XVIIIe siècle

Abstract

Chess, Political Society and Art of War. Revolutions of the XVIIIth Century Didier Renard The publication in 1749, in London, of L'analyze des échecs by François-André Danican Philidor is a milestone in the history of chess. Through the book and subsequent practice a divide is drawn between the game of chess as played on the board, endowed within these limits with its own rules and logic on the one hand, and the previously all-encompassing social experience and conventions of the game on the other. Meanwhile, the idea of chess as a political game remains unaffected. At the end of the 18th century, chess still is recognized as aptly representing the polity and the battlefield alike. Loosening its ties although as a symbol from the boardgame itself, it tends to initiate an independent history as such.