The modern rules (pawn double-move, the Queen instead of the Vizier, etc) were only adopted in the late 15th century... so writers such as Lucena, Polerio, Damiano, Greco and Ruy Lopez were the first to deal with the modern game. Double King's Pawn openings (especially the Italian Game, now called Guioco Piano) were the fashion in those days.
are there good books about the history of opening theory?
The modern rules (pawn double-move, the Queen instead of the Vizier, etc) were only adopted in the late 15th century... so writers such as Lucena, Polerio, Damiano, Greco and Ruy Lopez were the first to deal with the modern game. Double King's Pawn openings (especially the Italian Game, now called Guioco Piano) were the fashion in those days.
there are thousand of books which study single openings but I have yet to find one that looks at the subject from an historical viewpoint
The modern rules (pawn double-move, the Queen instead of the Vizier, etc) were only adopted in the late 15th century... so writers such as Lucena, Polerio, Damiano, Greco and Ruy Lopez were the first to deal with the modern game. Double King's Pawn openings (especially the Italian Game, now called Guioco Piano) were the fashion in those days.
In addition to the Italian Game, 3 other openings were played a lot then as well.
The Ruy Lopez was actually around shortly after 1475 when the Bishop, Queen, and Pawn got their new functionality (Bishops used to be able to jump, but literally had to move 2 squares diagonally, so there were only 8 squares they could reach, Queens moved 1 square diagonally, and acted as nothing more than a shield to the King, and Pawns weren't able to move 2 squares originally), even though Castling and En Passant weren't around yet.
Another common one was Philidor's Defense. Even though Philidor is from the 18th century, and the opening got his name, it was still played back 500+ years ago, but Philidor was the pioneer that made it popular as it was considered a secondary defense before then.
Lastly, you have the Latvian Gambit, which was established in 1495, and in the 1600s, it was extremely popular because of Greco, and it actually used to be called the "Greco Countergambit".
"The Latvian Gambit - A Grandmaster View", which was written in 1995 and deemed the 500th anniversary edition of the opening, gives some history in the introduction, and does draw attention to Greco's love for the defense.
No book is going to give ONLY the history, but some books have some historical coverage in the introduction, like the one mentioned above, which I'm sure you've seen before. It's a black cover with skulls and crossbones at the top corners of the cover.
I've always thought a book like "The History of the Tarrasch French C03-09 from 1834 to Present" would be a great read. Tracking advances (and retractions) in theory chronologically through time look at what moves where tried and how theory changed in response to those changes.
I think it would be a much better way to learn an opening than the standard "here's a bunch of games given grouped by lines in order of which variation the author thinks is most important."
The modern rules (pawn double-move, the Queen instead of the Vizier, etc) were only adopted in the late 15th century... so writers such as Lucena, Polerio, Damiano, Greco and Ruy Lopez were the first to deal with the modern game. Double King's Pawn openings (especially the Italian Game, now called Guioco Piano) were the fashion in those days.
In addition to the Italian Game, 3 other openings were played a lot then as well.
The Ruy Lopez was actually around shortly after 1475 when the Bishop, Queen, and Pawn got their new functionality (Bishops used to be able to jump, but literally had to move 2 squares diagonally, so there were only 8 squares they could reach, Queens moved 1 square diagonally, and acted as nothing more than a shield to the King, and Pawns weren't able to move 2 squares originally), even though Castling and En Passant weren't around yet.
Another common one was Philidor's Defense. Even though Philidor is from the 18th century, and the opening got his name, it was still played back 500+ years ago, but Philidor was the pioneer that made it popular as it was considered a secondary defense before then.
Lastly, you have the Latvian Gambit, which was established in 1495, and in the 1600s, it was extremely popular because of Greco, and it actually used to be called the "Greco Countergambit".
"The Latvian Gambit - A Grandmaster View", which was written in 1995 and deemed the 500th anniversary edition of the opening, gives some history in the introduction, and does draw attention to Greco's love for the defense.
No book is going to give ONLY the history, but some books have some historical coverage in the introduction, like the one mentioned above, which I'm sure you've seen before. It's a black cover with skulls and crossbones at the top corners of the cover.
thanks. It's weird they write about any chesstopic so it's strange that this one has yet to be covered
On which openings were discovered first and which were the most fashionable in different times ?