Pedro Damiano ( pt, Pedro Damião; ''Damiano'' is the Italian form, much like the Latin ''Damianus''; 1480–1544) was a Portuguese

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 ...

player. A native of Odemira, he was a pharmacist by profession. He wrote ''Questo libro e da imparare giocare a scachi et de li partiti,'' published in Rome, Italy, in 1512; it went through eight editions in the sixteenth century. Damiano describes the rules of the game, offers advice on

strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the " a ...

, presents a selection of chess problems (see diagrams), and provides analyses of a few openings. It is the oldest book that definitely states that the square on the right of the row closest to each player must be white. He also offers advice regarding blindfold chess, principally focused on the need to master notation based on numbering the squares 1–64 . In this book Damiano suggested chess was invented by Xerxes, which would be the reason why it was known in Portuguese as ''xadrez'' and in Spanish as ''ajedrez''. In fact, these words come from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

''caturaṅga'' via Arabic ''šaṭranj''. The well-known chess aphorism "If you see a good move, try to find a better one", sometimes misattributed to Lasker and other writers, can be found in Damiano's book; similar sentiments were expressed by al-Suli regarding shatranj, the Persian precursor to chess.Edward Winter, Chess Notes 7837 & 7841
"''Si hai buon tratto per la mano guarda se ne sia altro megliore''"

Chess openings

In his opening analysis, Damiano suggested that after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 the reply 2...Nc6 is best and 2...d6 (now called the Philidor Defence) is not as good. He rightly condemned 2...f6 as clearly inferior, noting that White can play 3.Nxe5 with advantage; however, the opening later came to be known as the

Damiano Defence The Damiano Defence is a chess opening beginning with the moves: # e4 e5 # Nf3 f6? The defence is one of the oldest chess openings, with games dating back to the 16th century. It is a weak opening that gives a large advantage for White after 3 ...

. He stated that 1.e4 and 1.d4 are the only good first moves and that 1.e4 is better. He examined the

Giuoco Piano The Giuoco Piano ( Italian: "Quiet Game"; ), also called the Italian Opening, is a chess opening beginning with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bc4 Bc5 "White aims to develop quickly – but so does Black. White can construct a pawn ce ...

, Petrov's Defence, and the

Queen's Gambit Accepted The Queen's Gambit Accepted (or QGA) is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. d4 d5 :2. c4 dxc4 The Queen's Gambit Accepted is the third most popular option on Black's second move, after 2...e6 (the Queen's Gambit Declined) and 2 ...

Chess problems

Notes

References

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''Questo libro e da imparare giocare a scachi et de li partiti''
at ''Gallica'', the digital archives of the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national reposito ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Damiano, Pedro 1480 births 1544 deaths People from Odemira 15th-century Portuguese people 16th-century Portuguese people Portuguese chess players 16th century in chess Chess writers Chess theoreticians