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François Antoine〔http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/legall.htm〕 de Legall de Kermeur (1702–92) was a French chess player. His name is variously written ''Kermur, Sire de Legalle'', by Twiss, and ''Kermur'' and ''Kermuy, Sire de Legal'', by others. In the List of Subscribers to Philidor's second edition it stands as in Twiss, but the spelling was, probably, in both cases Philidor's own. Along with other famous players, he played in Paris's Café de la Régence, and is considered to have been possibly the strongest player in the world around the 1730s.〔D. Hooper and K. Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess 2nd Ed, Oxford University Press, 1992〕 He taught chess to François-André Philidor. The following portray of Legall is given in the ''London Magazine'', May 1825 in an article titled "Chess and Chess Players by an ancient Amateur":
In the book ''The life of Philidor'',〔 the following considerations, which can give us an idea about de Legall's strength at the chessboard are reported:
Thus, Legal was probably the strongest player of the ''Café de la Régence'' and probably in the world until 1755 when he lost a match to Philidor. It is not known if he traveled or played in other countries besides France, but, since the ''Café de la Régence'', was the chess Mecca of the time, most of the strongest players of 18th century, sooner or later, ended up at the ''Café'' and the strongest among them played Legal. It is known that he played with Sir Abraham Janssen, the strongest English player according to Philidor himself. G. Allen refers that Legal was of the same opinion of Philidor regarding the skills of Janssen over the board. This could indicate that, at even terms, Janssen won approximately only one fourth of the games played with Legal as he did with Philidor, but this is not completely clear from Allen's text if this interpretation is correct. The chess encounter between Legal and Janssen happened, according to aforementioned author, after the match between Philidor and Janssen and, thus, must be collocated after 1747. It is also very likely, as also suggested by Allen, that Legall played Stamma, since the latter lived for a certain period in Paris where he published the ''Essai sur le jeu des echecs'' in 1737. If this is correct, Legal would have played Stamma before Philidor began to attend the ''Café de la Régence''. Legal attained to a very advanced old age to nearly ninety years. After his defeat with Philidor in the match of 1755 and up to the time of his death, however, he maintained his rank as the second player of France. Thus, it is also highly probable that he played, with an overall favourable outcome, with the disciples of Philidor of the ''Société des Amateurs'' (Bernard, Carlier, Leger, and Verdoni). Legall is the eponym of Legall's mate, a mating pattern found in his only extant game, Legall-St Brie, Paris, 1750.〔()〕 ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Legall de Kermeur」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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