Have You Ever Heard of Serbian Bishop Defense?

This, so far unknown opening works best against the Catalan aggressive play, I just discovered in an old manuscript.

In the early years of the 14th century, pirate mercenaries of the Catalan Grand Company repeatedly raided the Mount Athos (or Holy Mountain), the easternmost finger of the larger Chalkidiki peninsula in the Aegean sea (today, it is still governed as an autonomous polity within the Greek Republic -- over 2,000 monks from Greece and many other countries, including Eastern Orthodox countries such as Serbia, Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, live an ascetic life in Athos, isolated from the rest of the world -- women are not allowed to step on Athos, they don't even have female domestic animals).

Anyway, back to our mysterious opening. Like I said, in the early 1300s, the Catalans of the Grand Company were looting and sacking numerous monasteries, stealing treasures and Christian relics, and terrorizing monks on Mt Athos. Of 300 monasteries, the Serbian monastery Hilandar was among only 35 that survived the violence

The Monastery was established in 1198 when the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos (1195–1203) issued a golden sealed chrysobulls donating the ancient monastery Helandaris, "to the Serbs as an eternal gift..." Upon foundation, monastery became a focal point of Serbian religious and cultural life, as well as "the first Serbian university".

So, the Serbs seemed to have defended well against the Catalan and survived.

The monastery owes this fortune to its very experienced and skillful deputy hegumen at the time Danilo, who later became Serbian Archbishop Danilo II (1270-1337).

And that was the short story about the Serbian Bishop Defense!

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Below I've added some photos. As you may realize, isolated from the rest of the world, you may play chess for days after days. How about in the porch below?

There, after the Matins-Liturgy (particularly pay attention to Psalm 135, the highest point of Matins. In Athonite practice, all the candles are lit, and the chandeliers are made to swing as the Psalms are sung), you may study the new opening to every detail of practical play...

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Bogorodica Trojeručica (Богородица Тројеручица, Παναγία Τριχερούσα, Three-handed) is a famous wonderworking icon in Hilandar.

It is a work by Saint John of Damascus (675-749), a polymath whose fields of interest included law, theology, philosophy, and music.

It is extremely beautiful!

Really cool!! Thanks mate - had never heard of this place, so learning every day.

Thank you guys.

The place is out of this world, really.

"Hilandar was not only a place of faith, but also a place of scholarship and art. Its vast library contains invaluable tomes on medieval history, medicine and science, while its art collection, from the gilded ancient frescoes of its church and refectory to miraculous icons and relics, are remarkable for any medieval art enthusiast.

"However, a visit to Hilandar offers much more than just the aesthetic pleasures of spending time in an ancient monastery nestled between serene, fragrant hills dotted with cypresses and olive trees. It is a unique chance to experience its ancient spirituality in full glory and connect with other pilgrims."

Hilandar is etched in the memory of Serbs as the place where the glory of medieval Serbia survived almost intact for more than eight centuries.The Holy Mountain, is considered to belong to the Virgin Mary, as she, according to a legend, once took refuge there on her travels.

That is one reason they observe ‘avaton’, the ban on women setting foot on the peninsula, so as to ensure celibacy and preserve the focus of the monks and pilgrims on celebrating the Virgin Mary.

During the early 14^th century, Hilandar was heavily supported by the Emperor Dusan of Serbia, who came to the monastery to escape the plague with his wife Helena, who was carried around so as not to touch the holy ground and break ‘avaton’.

There are a lot of cats around though, and it's probably a quite a good thing that there are because they are good mousers. They turn a blind eye, as it were, to the fact that there are female cats.

And now something that will fetch particular interest from @JIDEMONI, admin of the Royal Wallachian chess club!

In the 15th century, the monastery enjoyed protection and donations from Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula, popularized by Bram Stoker who got the bloodsucker ball rolling with his 1897 novel, and later Hollywood.

In fact, Vladislav Basarab, a "national hero of Romania" (sic), was actually a Serb who ruled Wallachia. He was the protector of the Hilandar monastery and secured benefits to the monastic community and taxes to be abolished, from the Sultan.

Vampire is also a Serbian word (by the way, Romania and Romanian language hadn't existed until 1859 when Vatican and Vienna engineered a new "nation", part of their Drang Nach Osten ever living project, to put a wedge into the Slavic lands -- up to then there lived Vallachians, Serbs and Karabogdanians).

Well, my friend, all I know is that it's played in the early 14th century and that it was very successful against the Catalan.

I'll have to get deeper into the medieval manuscripts of the Monastery so as to, possibly, be able to provide more details.

It is not easy to get there though. Foreigners must obtain a written permit to visit Mount Athos from the Pilgrims Office and obtain a reservation and time of visit, due to the large number of pilgrims year-long.

Once there, they formally welcome you with coffee, Turkish delight and ouzo, and you are given your room in conformable dormitories; you could explore the grounds until the obligatory 3pm Holy Liturgy. Then I plan to visit the library and start researching on our Bishop thing...

@LM_player This is one of manuscripts in the Hilandar Library from the early 1300s that I'm going to study to possibly discover the actual moves of the Serbian Bishop Defense

And this is Danilo II (or Daniel, 1270 - 1337), the Serbian archBishop (1324 - 1337), who, we know for sure, played the defense against the Catalan

Nice story! Thank you!

Looking for these on web I've found the 2 following references on the story that are somehow free online

• Expedition des "Almugavares" by Gustave Léon Schlumberger, 1902, p. 339
• Cumans and Tatars by István Vásáry, p. 109

I don't know if they are already known to you, but maybe the bibliography of the second could help.

The french source above describes that Daniel II organized the defense for 3 years using the monastery as a fortress while he managed to escape seeking for help by Serbian king Milutin. If Milutin did help and how is unclear. But Daniel returned and the siege was over after some Catalan defeats in Salonica & Veria. But also writes that the Daniel's biography is a poor source for information ["Hélas! ce sont là tous les renseignements bien maigres que nous possédons sur cette troisième phase de l'expédition catalane"]

Wow, amazing that you took such a deep interest in the matter. You went into it much deeper than me. Thank you so much, it's really appreciated. Your family roots must have been in that part of the world

So, not only discussed we here an opening, but also an interesting element of ending (fortress!)

Just love sometimes searching and this seemed beautiful and interesting... but in any case these locations are close to me! I wish you to find what you are looking for there.

I am particularly interested in openings, not just for the practical use but also for their beautiful history. For this reason, I do look forward to the 2nd part of this article to see some first moves in real practice.

Thanks! Hvala!

I know this may not be that helpful but the manuscript is written in Old Church Slavonic, the language that either became or heavily influenced the current Serbian language. Both of my grandparents are Serbs so I've started doing the best I can to copy the manuscript, learn how everything is pronounced, and ask them if any words sound familiar.