Ignazio Calvi (

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

, 21 January 1797 —

Finale Emilia Finale Emilia ( Finalese: ; Modenese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Modena, in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about north of Bologna and about northeast of Modena. Finale was struck by an earthquake on 20 May ...

, 17 August 1872) was an Italian

patriot A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution * Patriot m ...

and

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player. After taking part to a popular insurrection in

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

and participating to a military campaign of the

Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Savo ...

army, he was forced to expatriate. He moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1834, remaining there for 14 years. In the famous

Café de la Régence The Café de la Régence in Paris was an important European centre of chess in the 18th and 19th centuries. All important chess masters of the time played there. The Café's masters included, but are not limited to: * Paul Morphy * François- ...

he played many games with the foremost French players, being recognized as a strong

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

. In 1845 he drew a match with

Lionel Kieseritzky Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky (russian: Лионель Адальберт Багратион Феликс Кизерицкий; – ) was a Baltic Germans, Baltic German chess master and Chess theoretician, theoretician, famous for ...

(+7 –7 =1). He contributed many articles to the chess review ''Le Palamède'', among them a ''Cours d'échecs'', which was later translated into English on the ''Chess Player's Chronicle''. The articles included many diagrams with exercises and

endgame studies In the game of chess, an endgame study, or just study, is a composed position—that is, one that has been made up rather than played in an actual game—presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find the essentially uniqu ...

, most of them composed by himself. He is regarded as the first composer to treat with some depth the theme of

underpromotion In chess, promotion is the replacement of a pawn with a new piece when the pawn is moved to its last . The player replaces the pawn immediately with a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same . The new piece does not have to be a previously ca ...

. In 1848 he returned to Italy and enlisted in the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

army, taking part in many military campaigns for the cause of

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

. In December 1849 he played a series of matches in

against the strongest local players, winning most of them: Francesco Discart (+10 –5 =2), Carlo Bonetti (+8 –8 = 4), Francesco Luppi (+4 -0 =0), Marchisio (+2 -0 =0). In 1859 he was appointed to command the

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

stronghold of the Piedmont army and afterwards he was sent to

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

as an aid to the army general Zucchi. In August of the same year he was named a deputy-member of the newly formed Modena government. He was appointed a representative of the Modena government at first in

and then in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

. After serving as an officer in the lawcourt of

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, he was discharged from the army with the rank of major. He settled in Finale Modenese (now Finale Emilia), where he worked as a pharmacist and was appointed to many public offices.

An endgame study by Ignazio Calvi

This chess

endgame study In the game of chess, an endgame study, or just study, is a composed position—that is, one that has been made up rather than played in an actual game—presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find the essentially uniqu ...

is regarded as one of the first using the theme of

. The original solution was not entirely correct and the Dutch composer De Freijter slightly modified the study, adding the initial promotion to Knight. The main theme remained however unchanged. Solution:1. g8=N Bxe3 2. h8=B! Nd4 3. Ne7! Bd2 4. Nd5 and White wins. If instead 2. h8=Q? Nd4! threatening 3. ...Nc2+ 4.Bxc2 Bd4+ 5.Qxd4 stalemate; if White plays 3.Qh3? then 3. ...Nb3+ 4. Bxb3 Bd4+

Bibliography

* Adriano Chicco, Giorgio Porreca: ''Dizionario enciclopedico degli scacchi'', Mursia, Milan 1971. * Adriano Chicco, Antonio Rosino: ''Storia degli scacchi in Italia'', Marsilio, Venezia 1990

Notes

External links

8 games of Ignazio Calvi
o
Chessgames.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calvi, Ignazio 1797 births 1872 deaths Italian chess players Chess composers 19th-century chess players