Jacques François Mouret

Jacques François Mouret (1780 –1837) was an early nineteenth-century French chess master and the chess tutor of the future King Louis Philippe I.

Biography Mouret was the nephew of the chess master Philidor. He learned chess at the Café de la Régence from Philidor's students, Bernard and Carlier, and was a pupil of Alexandre Deschapelles. He later taught Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais and gave chess lessons to the children of the French King Louis Philippe I.

In 1819, he became the operator of the chess-playing automaton hoax, the Mechanical Turk during its English tour. He is reported to have disclosed the mechanism behind the automaton to the press.

Contemporary accounts state that Mouret struggled with alcoholism. In 1842, after Mouret's death, Alphonse Delannoy, editor of the chess periodical Le Palamède, wrote that he was a student and practitioner of chess theory who supported himself through the game, while noting that he was frequently intoxicated. In 1850, George Walker also documented Mouret’s heavy consumption of brandy.

The 1836 book, Elementary Treatise on the Game of Chess, is often attributed to Mouret based on its preface. A later newspaper advertisement, however, indicated that his role was limited to that of an editor.

Near the end of his life, Mouret experienced significant financial and health difficulties. In early 1837, Le Palamède published an appeal for assistance on his behalf, which was followed by his obituary in the next issue.

A book published in 1820 recorded fifty games played by the automaton during its 1819 exhibition in London, when it was operated by Mouret. According to the book's preface, by February 1820, the automaton had played about 300 gamesreportedly losing only sixeven while typically giving opponents the advantage of a pawn and the first move. While Mouret was operating the Mechanical Turk, Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, the owner of the automaton, allegedly fell into debt to Mouret. While the automaton was being exhibited in Amsterdam, reportedly at the invitation of the King of Holland, Maelzel found Mouret ill and unable to perform. When asked whether he could recover in time for the scheduled demonstration, Mouret is said to have replied that payment of the 1,500 francs owed to him would resolve the situation. The account states Maelzel paid the debt, after which Mouret recovered and resumed operating the automaton.

Accounts indicate that Mouret may have later disclosed that the Turk was not, in fact, automated. In 1834, an article titled An attempt to analyze the automaton chess-player of M. Kempelen was published in Le Magasin Pittoresque. The article, published anonymously, described how a person could operate the machine from inside. Some sources, including Walker, He is reported to have introduced the opening to a player at the Café de la Régence, identified as M. Chamouillet, in exchange for advice on purchasing a mirror. In 1834, Chamouillet was part of the Paris committee in a correspondence match between teams from London and Paris, and advocated for the use of the opening. Following this match, which was won by the Parisians, the opening became known as the French Defense.

Play style In describing Mouret's playing style, Le Palamède stated:

Son jeu était très correct et d'une très grande force, principalement sous le rapport de la défense.

London 1819 (remove Black's pawn on f7)

Mouret's most well-known game is a loss played, together with Boncourt, against De La Bourdonnais. It is an Evans Gambit, which held a certain theoretical interest at the time, and which was reported on both in Le Palamède and the Chess Player's Chronicle and was referenced in the 7th edition of the Handbuch des Schachspiels.