or dinosaurs
Parlour games played by Napoleon during his final exile on St Helena
- Blind man’s bluff
- Billiards
- Chess
- Whist (at which he cheats)
- “Puss in the corner”
- Keep-away with Miss Betsy’s ball dress
As recorded by Betsy Balcombe in her charming memoir.
A few memoirists have noted that Napoleon detested gambling and yet cheated at cards. This seems like a paradox until you realise he just liked to see if he could get away with it. Lord Roseberry (the Earl of Primrose (!)) writes:
At all games he liked to cheat, flagrantly and undisguisedly, as a joke; but refused, of course, to take the money thus won, saying, with a laugh, “What simpletons you are. It is thus that young fellows of good family are ruined.”
It tickles me pink to imagine Napoleon playing board games.
His chess was reportedly quite mediocre. Horowitz called his style “lively if unconventional” (All About Chess, 1958). In fact, there is a (rarely played) chess opening named after him:
The Napoleon Opening is named after the French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte… The name came into use after mid-nineteenth century publications reported that he played this opening in an 1809 game which he lost to The Turk, a chess automaton. The name may also be a slighting reference to Napoleon’s empress, Josephine and her scandalous infidelities, hence Napoleon’s inability to keep his Queen at home.
His three recorded games can be found at chessgames.com. They’ve titled the above-mentioned match with the Mechanical Turk as “Napoleon Torn Apart,” which is a little unfair as eyewitnesses suggest Napoleon was deliberately testing how intelligent[^1] the “machine” was by breaking the rules of the game:
In a surprise move, Napoleon took the first turn instead of allowing the Turk to make the first move, as was usual… Shortly thereafter, Napoleon attempted an illegal move. Upon noticing the move, the Turk returned the piece to its original spot and continued the game. Napoleon attempted the illegal move a second time, and the Turk responded by removing the piece from the board entirely and taking its turn. Napoleon then attempted the move a third time, the Turk responding with a sweep of its arm, knocking all the pieces off the board. Napoleon was reportedly amused.
These days Napoleon is a bunch of board games.
[^1] I’m crediting Napoleon with being forward-thinking enough to understand intelligence as contemporary AI researchers now define it: the capacity of the machine to be flexible when faced with unexpected behaviours. In this case, when challenged by moves outside the narrow range of those permitted by the rules of chess.