Café de la Régence
Paris centre of chess, 18th century–1916
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Café de la Régence (French pronunciation: [kafe d(ə) la ʁeʒɑ̃s]) in Paris was an important European centre of chess in the 18th and 19th centuries. All important chess masters of the time played there.[citation needed]
The Café's masters included:
Addresses
It was opened in 1681 as the Café de la Place du Palais-Royal, near the Palais-Royal, Paris. By the 18th century it was known as the Café de la Régence ("Regency Café").
- In 1852 the café moved temporarily to hôtel Dodun, 21 Rue de Richelieu.
- In 1854 the Café de la Régence moved to 161 Rue Saint-Honoré and remained there until it became a restaurant in 1910.
- The chess players moved to the café de l'Univers in 1916.
- The Office national marocain du tourisme (National Moroccan Tourist Office) took over the site in 1918.
Additional information
- La Société des Amateurs was based there.
- In 1742, the celebrated French writers and philosophers Diderot and Rousseau met at this café.[1]
- Karl Marx met Friedrich Engels for the second time at this café on 28 August 1844.[2]
- The "great tournament of Paris 1867," won by Ignatz von Kolisch over Szymon Winawer and Wilhelm Steinitz, was played there.
- The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch visited the café on 4 May 1885, during his first visit to France to study the French impressionists.[3]
- According to the painter Oscar Parviainen, Jean Sibelius improvised the main theme, A Prayer to God, of the finale of his Third Symphony at Café de la Régence, in January 1906.[4]
