Could you beat Greco? Learning from the old masters
I have a strong interest in the players of the past, and how the strategy of playing the game may have evolved over time as we humans have slowly stumbled closer and closer to the best methods through trial and error.
Don't believe that's how we got here? Remember that opening theory was made by different people playing the game over the board thousands of times, and others recording what tends to work out well and what doesn't. Opening "theory" is often actually made through opening "practice". This is why many openings are named after players who played them often, or places which held tournaments where they were used a lot.
Stronger than you think!
This interest led me to try my hand at translating the old works into modern English, and seeing how far we've come, and in some way to stroke my own ego. You see, I used to hold the received opinion that the old masters weren't really any good. I often heard that they would be beaten by a 1600-1700 strength player from the modern era.
Greco was one of the first of the old masters as we consider them, playing as he did in the 1600s, so I should have a 400 year advantage over him, right? Well, I play daily chess on chess.com and am about 1600-1700 strength on there as of writing this article and I can assure you Greco would have wiped the floor with me routinely, modern opening knowledge or not! So much for stroking my ego...
The book's preface from an unnamed person even highlights that the games included often seemingly include an illogical or surprising move you wouldn't normally expect, but that it's completely decisive. The games are excellent examples of brilliant calculation to punish the opponents mistakes normally in the early middle game. After all, if your opponent doesn't make a mistake you can punish, the best you can hope for is a draw.
Extract from Game 3 - Bishops Opening, Lopez Variation
Black has just moved his Knight to h5 to attack your pinned rook, following the rule "pin it, then win it". How do you meet the threat in this position? Take a few moments without looking ahead and see what you'd do in a real game.
How did Greco save his rook, surely move 9 is too early to lose it in a game? Did you look for this idea? He didn't! Maybe black's Queen is nearly trapped, and a move like Bg4 finishes the job? No, it's thwarted by Nxg3 and a trade of Queens, with white the exchange down (play it through on a board if you'd like).
The black Queen is nearly trapped, but how to remove the pesky defending Knight threat? Greco found the best move, Bxf7+, forcing the King forward so that it is exposed for an intermezzo check that makes the combination now work! What creative play. He must have correctly calculated a minimum of 7-ply deep to find it! It follows Grand Master Ben Finegold's (showing the proper respect) rule, "if a grand master wants to play a move but can't, they play it anyway". Trapping the Queen straight away didn't work, so Greco found a "hidden" way to make it work!
I thought the old masters were the ones who were supposed to be making unsound early attacks, not punishing their opponents for them? "Black's defence from here was poor, Kg6 was an obvious mistake! Greco's attack is probably unsound." I hear the critic cry. Stockfish 12+ at 25 depth gives Greco's move +8.4 (at least winning the Queen in all variations), the next best move sequence (Qf3) gives a paltry +1.8, very often a recoverable game at my level and the third best (Qg4) +0.8, basically still an even game.
Greco lists 94 such instructive games in this book, starting with Fool's mate and Scholar's mate. Sadly, Greco does not provide analysis to the games, leaving that to the reader. In my translation work, I am analysing each game thoroughly and annotating them in the style of the great "Logical Chess: Move by Move: Every Move Explained" by Irving Chernev, which caused the start of my long journey up from a 900 rating player and now still climbing from the 1600s. The meaning and purpose behind every move in each game is clearly articulated by Chernev, providing a huge benefit to the casual-but-improving player like myself. I highly recommend it.
What else might I learn?
Greco includes general advice towards the beginning of the book that is held true to this day. Bear in mind he literally put his money where his mouth is and was the first ever professional chess player wagering big bets with players in noble courts across Europe to pay his way:
- Make sure you get your fair share of starting with the first turn, it's the only advantage between the players (Greco, like Philidor, McDonnell and La Bourdonnais predated the relatively new rule that the colour of pieces determines who moves first)
- Keep your men defending each other, and always ensure you have at least one defender on a piece for each attacker
- Your defenders should be of equal or less value than the attackers
- Do not trade pieces or pawns unless it gives you a measurable improvement to your position
- Don't trap your pieces behind other pieces or pawns so that you restrict their movement, but try and force your opponent to do this, keep your pieces active
- Never play a move without checking to make sure it doesn't leave you at risk of losing material or exposing you to mate - make blunder checks on each move
- Calculate checks and captures you can make on every move, you never know when a sacrifice might lead to surprising mate or a winning position
- Beware leaving your queen in a straight diagonal or line to the King where it may be pinned and lost to a Bishop or Rook, and look out for the Knight forking your Rook and King in their starting positions. Both of these attacks are common in the early game and are ruinous
