Aaron (Albert) Alexandre (, around 1765/68 in Hohenfeld, Franconia – 16 November 1850 in London, England) was a Jewish German–French–English chess player and writer.

Aaron Alexandre trained as a rabbi. He arrived in France in 1793. He taught German and was a mechanical inventor. He later became a full-time chess player. He wrote a book of all the known chess openings, the Encyclopédie des échecs (Encyclopedia of Chess, Paris, 1837). In the book, he used the algebraic notation and the castling symbols 0–0 and 0–0–0.

Aaron Alexandre

His next book was about the endgame and a collection of about 2000 chess problems, which he published in 1846 as Collection des plus beaux Problèmes d'Echecs, Paris. English and German translations: Beauties of Chess, London, and Praktische Sammlung bester Schachspiel-Probleme, Leipzig.

Aaron Alexandre

Both books became standard reference books, demonstrating Alexandre’s great technical knowledge. Alexandre was also one of the chess players who worked inside the chess playing machine, the Turk.

Aaron Alexandre

References

1766 births

1850 deaths

British Jews

British chess players

French Jews

German Jews

German chess players

European writers