Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais (1795 – December 1840) was a French chess master, possibly the strongest player in the early 19th century.

He learned chess in 1814 and began to take the game seriously in 1818, regularly playing at the Café de la Régence.

La Bourdonnais was forced to earn his living as a professional chess player after squandering his fortune on ill-advised land deals.

He died penniless in London on 13 December 1840,[3] having been forced to sell all his possessions, including his clothes, to satisfy his creditors.

George Walker arranged his burial a stone's throw from his old rival Alexander McDonnell at Kensal Green Cemetery.