MARK RUBERY CHESS

The apparent concept that chess players are an odd bunch can be borne out through attending any local tournament, yet even our oddest participants would be hard pushed to exceed the levels of the Chevalier d’Eon-one of history’s most famous transvestites. Genevieve Louis Auguste Andre d’Eon (1728-1810) was an active member of St George’s chess club in London during the 18th century and was strong enough to defeat Philidor in a simultaneous. Away from the chessboard he enjoyed a colourful career as a diplomat, swordsman, nun, confidante to the Empress of Russia, as well as lady-in-waiting for Marie Antoinette. He disguised himself as a woman when acting as a spy for Louis XV and became so attached to the idea that he spent half his life dressed as a woman and the other half as her own brother!

In 1766, Louis XV granted her a pension for her services (or as a pay-off for silence) and gave her a 12,000-livre annuity. D’Éon continued to work as a spy, but lived in political exile in London. Her possession of the king’s secret letters protected her against further actions, but d’Éon could not return to France

In 1779, d’Éon published the memoirs La Vie Militaire, politique, et privée de Mademoiselle d’Éon-which although embellished would have remained an entertaining read!

A celebrity to the British public, d’Eon was nevertheless brought to near poverty when the French Revolution resulted in the cancellation of her pension. To make ends meet she began staging and taking part in fencing competitions, mesmerising the public as a ferocious woman sword fighter. Well into her sixties she continued the displays, until a serious injury forced her to retire.

Doctors who examined the body after death discovered that the Chevalier was anatomically male.

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