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At a time when Europe was blessed with an extraordinary efflorescence of giant personalities — Metternich and Talleyrand in politics, Beethoven and Schiller in the arts, Nelson and

Wellington in warfare — Napoleon Bonaparte, the supreme warrior, and Goethe, the pinnacle of European culture,  met face to face. In fact, they did so twice in 1808, in Erfurt and in the

tiny principality of Weimar, where Goethe — Europe’s greatest writer and polymath of the day — held many of the important offices of state. Napoleon claimed to have read Goethe’s blazing

bestseller, _Die Leiden des jungen Werthers _(“The Sorrows of Young Werther”) no fewer than seven times, and even taken it with him on campaign, thus emulating his own ideal warrior,

Alexander the Great, who kept Homer’s _Iliad_ by his side, on his invasion of the Persian Empire. Napoleon admired Goethe and even tried to persuade the literary colossus to relocate to

Paris, in order to ignite a cultural Renaissance, spearheaded naturally by France. Goethe diplomatically shunted this suggestion into the _herbe longue, _doubtless sensing both the immense

power, but also the acute fragility of the Napoleonic imperium. What did they have in common, these two titans of history? Goethe’s most celebrated and most profound work is his _Faust_, the

tale, his life’s work, in fact, of the academic who challenged the devil to satisfy his vast ambitions. There is something of Napoleon in Goethe’s characterisation of Faust, and something

of Faust’s perpetual striving in Napoleon. Both craved military glory , both sought territorial expansion, both implemented social reform, both sought an heir with a beautiful paramour and

both were insatiable in the extent of their aims. In matters of the mind, both loved chess. Only a man who had fallen under the spell of chess could describe it, as Goethe did in his _Götz

von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand_, as “the touchstone of the intellect”, the most flattering remark about the game ever written, outstripping even the pronouncement of Leibniz that

chess was the gymnasium of the mind. Faust has even been seen, especially by artists, as a cosmic game of chess between the rejuvenated academic and the wryly humorous Mephistopheles. As for

Napoleon, he truly loved the game, owning a portable chess set, challenging both his own officers and the mechanical Turk of Baron von Kempelen, and being portrayed in biopics, such as the

tripartite eponymous epic by Abel Gance, as a demon aficionado. Sadly, none of Goethe’s games has survived, while those of Napoleon are doubtless flattering fabrications. “_Champagne: In

Victory I deserve it. In defeat I need it_.” Faust has its humour, though the Devil has the best jokes, but so did the quick-witted Napoleon. Napoleon’s government minister, Savary, his man

in charge of censorship, once reported to the Emperor on new publications. He mentioned a three-volume work on Germany written by Madame de Staël, adding that he had read it and found

nothing objectionable – the Emperor’s name was not even mentioned. Napoleon retorted: “A three-volume work in which I am not mentioned. It must be banned immediately!” Strong evidence of a

sense of humour by the great Emperor of the French who, at the time, was probably the most powerful person ever seen in the history of the world. (Napoleon wasn’t entirely joking, however:

_De l’Allemagne _was indeed banned in France and De Staël remained in exile until his fall.) Goethe described Napoleon’s particular kind of Genius as _das Dämonische_ (“the demoniac”).

Goethe wrote: “The demoniac is to be seen in its most terrible form when it is overwhelmingly manifested in some one individual. A titanic force emanates from him and he exercises incredible

power over every creature, and even over the elements, and who can say how far his influence will extend?  As more forces are combined against him, his opponents are still powerless. It is

in vain for the more enlightened section of humanity to brand him as deceived or deceiver. The masses will be attracted by him. Rarely if ever, do his equals exist at the same time and

nothing can overcome him, except the very universe against which he declared battle.” Words which might also apply to Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, both self-avowed role models for

Napoleon. “_God is on the side of the big battalions.” _A further feature that unites Napoleon with Alexander the Great and Caesar was the fact that promotion within their armies was based

on merit – one secret of their success. “_Every soldier has a Field Marshal’s baton in his knapsack_.” As a young man, Napoleon was snubbed at college. Rejected at school, he hurled himself

into his personal studies and at one time he even tried to write novels. He had immense energy and an extraordinary eye for details. Napoleon was an early speed reader, who used to shock his

 civil servants by thoroughly perusing documents of staggering size, with thousands of minute details, in a very short time and pointing out to the bureaucrats discrepancies of which even

they had been unaware. “_Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest, to allow anyone to take her away from me._” Napoleon’s first revolutionary contribution to the art of

war was to recognize the devastating force of the technical advantages in artillery that occurred towards the end of the 18th century. He also recognized the power of independent columns,

moving as separate army corps of 40,000 men each and able to converge flexibly on any enemy. Napoleon exploited this stratagem on many occasions to crush unwitting victims. _The Code

Napoleon _ Like Julius Caesar for the incipient Roman Empire, Napoleon was also a law-giver, creating the _Code Napoléon_ to standardise and modernise the French legal system. Until it was 

replaced by modern laws on 1 March 1994 (!), the Code was essentially still in force two centuries later. As a military commander, Napoleon was pre-eminent. In the space of just ten years,

he smashed the empires of Austria, Prussia and Russia. He was the French Revolution incarnate, winning victories which have gone down in history: Marengo, Austerlitz, Wagram, Jena and Ulm.

“_Impossible is a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools._” It has been said that Napoleon’s greatest assets were his mathematical mind, phenomenal memory, boundless energy and

prolific imagination. He sought immortality through conquest, saying: “_Space we can recover, time never_”. Napoleon has heroes as his mastermind group. As he said: “_Peruse again and again,

the campaigns of Hannibal, Caesar and Alexander. This is the only means of becoming a great captain and acquiring the secret art of war_.” Like Caesar, he valued speed and mobility, and

drove his officers to their physical limits. Napoleon also ensured the loyalty of his troops by being seen among them – sharing their deprivation, marching with them and even, at time,

appearing in threadbare clothes while his own marshals were dressed in finery. “_Never interrupt your enemy, when he is making a mistake_. _There is no such thing as accident. It is Fate

misnamed._” He projected a careful mix of the grand and the common, utilising every means of propaganda, press, war bulletins, pageantry and the charisma of his own legend. His eventual

downfall was occasioned by his decision in 1812 to invade Russia – biting off more than he could chew. As one critic said: “_It was amazing: Although Napoleon’s common sense amounted to

genius, he never quite knew where the possible left_ _off_.” Julius Caesar hoped to take control by radiating power from the nerve centre of Rome; the first Chin Emperor of China built his

boundaries and patrolled them ceaselessly without going beyond them; while Alexander the Great wished to conquer forever. In trying to emulate Alexander and the Alexandrian mode of conquest,

Napoleon, in the final analysis took one step too far. Even Napoleon’s setbacks came on an epic scale! “_You must not fight too often with one enemy or you will teach HIM your art of war._“

And somewhere between the fiction of Goethe and the reality of Napoleon, we have the afore-mentioned collection of apocryphal games. Madame de Remusat vs. Napoleon Bonaparte (1802) Napoleon

Bonaparte vs, Madame de Ramusat (1804) Napoleon Bonaparte vs. The Turk (Automaton) (1809) Napoleon Bonaparte vs. Henri Gatien Bertrand (1820) _GRANDMASTER RAYMOND KEENE’S 206TH BOOK, “CHESS

IN THE YEAR OF THE KING”, WITH A FOREWORD BY _THEARTICLE_ CONTRIBUTOR PATRICK HEREN, AND WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH FORMER REUTERS CHESS CORRESPONDENT, ADAM BLACK, HAS JUST APPEARED AND

IS ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE SAME SOURCE OR FROM __AMAZON_   A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution

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