and the Syrian Stamma(*). The "first player of the band" found it necessary to accept the Rook from M. de Legal; and it took full three years to work his way up, through the various degrees of odds, to the honour of confronting his master, on even terms, as a "first-rate". (*) Fetis says that old chess-players at the Cafe de la Regence had repeated to him Philidor's own statement, that he did not attain his full strength until he had made his campaigns in Holland and in England. 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 the 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 lived to nearly ninety years old. 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, against 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