''Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del axedrez'' (translation: "Book of the liberal invention and art of the game of chess") is one of the first books published about modern

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 dist ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, after Pedro Damiano's 1512 book. It was written by Spanish priest

Ruy López de Segura Rodrigo "Ruy" López de Segura (c. 1530 – c. 1580) was a Spanish chess player, author, and Catholic priest whose 1561 treatise '' Libro de la invención liberal y Arte del juego del Axedrez'' was one of the first books about modern chess in ...

in 1561 and published in

Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish city in the Community of Madrid. Straddling the Henares River, it is located to the northeast of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated municipality ...

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In 1560 Ruy López visited Rome and read Damiano's book, which he found unsatisfactory. López's book contains general chess advice, rules of the game, and a discussion of the origin of the game. It also recommends some

chess openings A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory; the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the "Sicilian Defen ...

, and criticizes Damiano's games and analysis. The book was translated to Italian in 1584 and to French in the 17th century. The book consists of four parts. The first part talks generally about chess, discusses the history, and gives the rules that were used in Spain at the time: stalemate was a win for the player not stalemated and a player could also win by capturing all of the opponent's pieces (except for the

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

). The book also introduced the

fifty-move rule The fifty-move rule in chess states that a player can claim a draw if no has been made and no pawn has been moved in the last fifty moves (for this purpose a "move" consists of a player completing a turn followed by the opponent completing a tur ...

. In the second part, López introduces the word ''

gambit A gambit (from Italian , the act of tripping someone with the leg to make them fall) is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices with the aim of achieving a subsequent advantage. The word '' gambit'' is also sometimes used to describe sim ...

'' and gives some openings that had not been previously published: the

King's Gambit The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. f4 White offers a pawn to divert the black e-pawn. If Black accepts the gambit, White has two main plans. The first is to play d4 and Bxf4, regaining the gambit ...

, some variations of the

Bishop's Opening The Bishop's Opening is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Bc4 White attacks Black's f7-square and prevents Black from advancing the d-pawn to d5. By ignoring the beginner's maxim "develop knights before bishops", White ...

, and what is now known as the Steinitz Defense in the Ruy Lopez. The last two parts of the book are critical of the games of Damiano. After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3, Damiano thought that 2...Nc6 was Black's best move. López considered that inferior because of 3.Bb5. This opening is now known as the Ruy Lopez, although he did not invent it. His book is also known for its tactical suggestion to place the chessboard so that the sun shines in your opponent's eyes.

References

Bibliography
Bibliotheca Van der Linde-NiemeijerianaCatalogue Nr. 363Images from the chess collection
of the Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana * Van der Linde, Antonius
Das Schachspiel des XVI. Jahrhunderts. Nach unedirten Quellen bearbeitet, Verlag von Julius Springer, Berlin 1874
* * * {{citation , last=Sunnucks , first=Anne , authorlink=Anne Sunnucks , year=1970 , title=The Encyclopaedia of Chess , publisher=St. Martins Press , isbn=978-0-7091-4697-1

External links

Picture of the title page
Chess books Spanish literature 16th century in chess

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