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As promised in a recent article, we added names of the early chess players to our About Chess register of Famous Chess Players (see the link box in the upper right corner of this article).
The 25 new names bring the total number of our Famous Players to 163.
The following table lists the early players in approximate chronological order.
Italian and Spanish players dominated the game in the 16th century.
After a curious gap in the 17th century where no names of strong players were recorded, French players took the leading role in the 18th and early 19th centuries, when they were challenged by strong players from the British isles.
The French dominance was confirmed by the 1834 La Bourdonnais - McDonnell match, but was ended a few years later by the 1843 Staunton - Saint-Amant match.
Anderssen's convincing victory in the 1851 London tournament showed that the center of chess gravity had moved permanently from Southern to Northern Europe.
| Name |
Nationality |
b. |
|
| Luis Ramirez Lucena |
Spain |
1497? |
1530? |
| Pedro Damiano |
Portugal/Italy |
15xx |
1544 |
| Paolo Boi |
Italy |
1528 |
1598 |
| Ruy Lopez de Segura |
Spain |
1530? |
1580? |
| Giovanni da Cutro Leonardo |
Italy |
1542 |
1587 |
| Giulio Polerio |
Italy |
1550? |
1610? |
| Pietro Carrera |
Italy |
1573 |
1647 |
| Alessandro Salvio |
Italy |
1575? |
1640? |
| Alfonso Ceron |
Spain |
15xx |
15xx |
| Orazio Gianutio della Mantia |
Italy |
15xx |
16xx |
| Gioacchino Greco |
Italy |
1600 |
1634? |
| Giambattista Lolli |
Italy |
1698 |
1769 |
| Sire de (M. de Kermeur) Legall |
France |
1702 |
1792 |
| Philippe Stamma |
Syria/France/England |
1715? |
1770? |
| Domenico Ercole del Rio |
Italy |
1718? |
1802? |
| Domenico Ponziani |
Italy |
1719 |
1796 |
| Francois Andre Danican Philidor |
France |
1726 |
1795 |
| Verdoni |
Italy/France |
17xx |
1804 |
| Jacob Henry Sarratt |
England |
1772 |
1819 |
| Alexandre Deschapelles |
France |
1780 |
1847 |
| William Lewis |
England |
1787 |
1870 |
| Alexander McDonnell |
Ireland/England |
1798 |
1835 |
| John Cochrane |
Scotland |
1798 |
1878 |
| Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant |
France |
1800 |
1872 |
| George Walker |
England |
1803 |
1879 |
Many of these players are better known for their contributions to chess theory than for their games.
For some of them, the earliest players in particular, no recorded games have survived.
Lucena, the first name on the list, is best known for the Lucena position, a key maneuver to force the win in Rook and Pawn vs. Rook endgames.
The name Ruy Lopez will be associated forever with the opening sequence 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, known in many languages as the Spanish Game.
The Philidor Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6), the Ponziani Opening (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3), and the Greco Countergambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5) are other ongoing testimonies to the importance of the early players.
The players' names can also be found on unusual game conclusions.
Legall's Mate is an insidious opening trap which goes something like 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 d6 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.Nc3 g6 5.Nxe5 Bxd1 6.Bxf7+ Ke7 7.Nd5 mate.
Philidor's Legacy is a well-known maneuver where a Queen and Knight attack a cornered King; after a Queen sacrifice, the Knight delivers smothered mate.
A word of caution : if you search the Web for multiple occurrences of these early stars, you'll find lists of early 'World Champions', predating La Bourdonnais and his successors.
These lists, many of them copies of similar lists found only on the Web, have no solid historical basis.
While we were working on our list of Famous Chess Players, we added a few more biographical profiles.
First we completed the list of modern World Champions...
...and then we added the unsuccessful challengers for the World Championship title...
- Akopian, Vladimir
- Bogoljubow, Ewfim
- Bronstein, David
- Chigorin, Mikhail
- Gunsberg, Isidor
- Ivanchuk, Vassili
- Janowsky, Dawid
- Kamsky, Gata
- Keres, Paul
- Korchnoi, Viktor
- Marshall, Frank
- Reshevsky, Samuel
- Schlechter, Carl
- Shirov, Alexei
- Short, Nigel
- Tarrasch, Siegbert
- Timman, Jan
- Zukertort, Johannes
Although these profiles focus largely on World Championship events, in future About Chess articles we'll be expanding them to cover other important events.
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