Constant Ferdinand Burille

Who was Constant Ferdinand Burille?

Constant Ferdinand Burille was an American chess master.

He was a Bostonian born in Paris, Burille was a member of a group of Boston chess players and theoreticians who formed a loose chess association they called the Mandarins of the Yellow Buttons. He took 15th at New York 1889. He beat F.K. Young in a match in 1888, and lost to Harry Nelson Pillsbury in 1892. He also played in cable chess matches New York vs. London in 1896 and 1897.

Burille was one of the operators of the Ajeeb, a chess-playing "automaton". Franklin K. Young gave a number of games by Burille in his book The Grand Tactics of Chess.