Who attended the Morphy – Anderssen match ?

The match between Paul Morphy and Adolf Anderssen started on Monday, December 20th, 1858 in Paris. Because Morphy had been ill, it was agreed that the match would take place in his hotel, Hôtel de Breteuil, located at the corner between rue de Rivoli and rue du Dauphin (see , page 190. More details on the Hôtel de Breteuil can be found on this page (in French)).

Frederick Edge mentions that “[…] it was arranged that only such as were specially invited should be present […]“.L

According to The New York Times of January 11th, 1859, the people who attended the first game were Lequesne, Saint-Amant, Arnous de Rivière, Journoud, Preti (mispelled as Prete), Carlini, Edge, Mortimer and the writer, the correspondent of The New York Times . :

However, a slightly different list, with actually more details, is given in Max Lange’s book , page 290):

Batgirl, in this very complete article, gives several additional details on some of the spectators:

“Carlini —an artist living at 3 rue Chaptal and member of the Cercle d’échecs in the Café de la Régence“

Carlini was indeed listed in 1851 as a member of Le cercle des échecs, in Paris, in the chess magazine La Régence, in its February issue (, page 36):

Batgirl identifies the correspondent of The New York Times as Dr Johnston but she doesn’t give the source of this information.

Batgirl also identifies Granboulogne as Doctor Alphonse de Grand-Boulogne, and quotes an extract of La Régence, 1862. Indeed, the October 1862 issue of La Nouvelle Régence, revue des échecs, contains the following information (, page 314):

We know that Dr. de Grand-Boulogne, a distinguished chess enthusiast, has left for Mexico on a special mission from the Minister of War. Rumor had it that he had succumbed to an attack of vomito. We are pleased to announce that this news is unfounded; our learned friend is in full convalescence and has taken up his duties at the military hospital in Vera-Cruz.

Alphonse de Grand-Boulogne (1810 – 1874) published several books and has an entry in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France: Alphonse de Grand-Boulogne (1810-1874) (bnf.fr). He was married to Emilie Ripert (Alphonse GRAND BOULOGNE : Family tree by Paul COSTE (pacoste) – Geneanet). It seems that he had been jailed in 1836 for breaking of fences and abusive noise during troubles at the medical school (Source: De GRAND-BOULOGNE Alphonse – Maitron).

Is it possible that Alphonse de Grand-Boulogne was actually Paul Morphy’s physician ?

References