To mark the occasion, we were all set to offer a game played by a bona fide canonized saint, but it turns out a collection of supposed games and chess problems attributed to a young Father Karol Wojtyla — known to history as Pope St. John Paul II — shortly after he was ordained in 1946 are almost certainly bogus.
Perhaps Saint Amant’s best showing was Game 13, a very modern-looking Symmetrical Tarrasch QGD in which White nurses the advantage of the first move into a promising position after 14. Rc1 Rc8 15. Rc2 Rc7 16. Rce2, beating Staunton to the punch for control of the central file. Gallic panache is on display in the finale: 23…Qd8 24. Bf6! gxf6 25. Rxd6! Kg7 26. Rxd8 27. Be4, and Saint Amant has won a queen for a rook. Black could resign here but plays out a few more moves before bowing to the inevitable.While they may not have officially earned the saint’s halo, lower-ranked clergy of every faith have made their mark on the game, from Spain’s Fr. Ruy Lopez de Segura in the 16th century to a slew of English chess-playing curates in the 19th century to America’s Fr.