Learning 1.e4 e5 thoroughly


Neither Petroff nor any other Russian invented 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6, unless known history is all wrong when it comes to chess. It can be found in Ruy Lopez, Damiano, and even Lucena, and in particular, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Qe7 is known as the Ruy Lopez Variation - and it actually was "invented" by Ruy Lopez.
I could be wrong about this one, but I believe that the "French Defense" was published by Lucena, and that the Gottingen Ms. mentioned it, along with the Bird and the fianchetto defenses, among others.
The Scandinavian was played in the first published chess game - before Lucena's writings.
You can bet that pretty much all of the sane openings up to three moves deep were known and had been played long before Philidor, it is simply that games weren't commonly recorded until after Philidor's time, owing to others' having recorded a few of his games for posterity.

The Ruy Lopez was not invented by Ruy Lopez de Segura, and Ruy is not English, it is a shortened form of Rodrigo, like Bob instead of Robert, and was the name Rodrigo signed his book with, iirc.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 was in books before Lopez's, in the same way that Damiano didn't invent 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6, but actually was the first to conclusively refute the move.
I've read that Lopez thought that 3.Bb5 was so strong that he considered 2...Nc6 an error, and preferred instead 2...d6. I don't get that same conclusion from reading Lewis's work on Damiano, Lopez, and Salvio, but then that was rather a butchered presentation of their work. Lopez was the first to investigate 2...d6, though, from what I can tell, but that move bears Philidor's name, though we don't have a single game example showing that Philidor played it. And having come this far, it may as well be mentioned that Philidor's Legacy (the famous smothered mate) was known since at least Lucena, and Lucena's Position doesn't seem to have been known until Salvio.
In short, the names given to positions, openings, or maneuvers in chess rarely have anything to do with actual history.
Good synopsis.
Great to find that I'm not the only one who has looked at Lewis's book.
Chess Openings are like the Bible. Names have changed so many times that they've been bastardized.
What many know as the "Ruy Lopez" was really discovered by the Spaniards, not Ruy Lopez himself. The more "proper" name is the Spanish, not the Ruy Lopez.
There are other openings with names given because someone in today's time can't find older stuff, and so name it after said person.
For example, the Philidor was NOT invented by the person it's named after. He wasn't born until 1726. 1.e4 e5 has been around since the new rules were in place in 1475. G da Cutri vs Ruy Lopez, 1575 was a Philidor, as were a few games by Greco vs No Name players in 1620. White won all of them very easily, and Philidor got the first win with it amongst games recorded, but he didn't originate it by any stretch.
Petroff wasn't the sole inventor of 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6. A better name for it is the Russian Game as the Russians came up with the Defense.
Alekhine was not the first to play 1.e4 Nf6 like some sources claim in 1921. A game was played by Delmar in 1893 (lost in 54 moves), Chatard in 1900 (lost in 16 moves), and Albin in 1905 (lost in 38 moves), whereas Alekhine got the first draw in 1921.
Outside of games involving Greco, I can't find a game played before 1834 in the French. Supposedly it was a correspondence game between the French and English in 1834 (the English were White) where 1.e4 e6 was first played. There are a couple of old games with Greco (one with him as White, one with him as Black, in the Advance French), but otherwise, this does appear to be original at that time.
Many other names are just names, but not the originality of the opening.
Some opening names actually are true.
Rodrigo was Spanish. Both common names for the opening reference his systematic work on the opening.
jlconn had it correct.
If you read the Lewis book that jlconn referenced, you will learn that there are gaps in your database.

I haven't read through this thread. But you didn't mention the Kings Gambit. If you want to play e5 you need a reply to it. Whether it's sound or not. It's respected enough that you should have a decent reply to it. When I was messing around with e5 I played d5 in reply to it. The Marshall is easy enough to understand, but you rarely get any games in it.. I tried forever to get a game in that line and only ever got one(which I won, but still, wasn't worth it imo). Unless you're ok with playing the d6 lines as black, I wouldn't bother with a Marshall. But the basic point is pretty simple. Take advantage of the lack of defense in front of whites king, and the fact whites queen side pieces are all sitting on the bench waiting for coach to throw them in. Anyway, that's just my two cents. Kings Gambit. You need a defense. John Shaw has a pretty much a manual on it.

@Chicken_Monster: Personally, I don't place much stock in ratings. Among amateurs, we still all lose our games in the same way ... blunders. On a good day, any one of us can beat any other one of us. I'm certainly no master, and never claim to be - yet.
That's a good attitude. Keep it and you probably will be eventually.

I could be wrong about this one, but I believe that the "French Defense" was published by Lucena, and that the Gottingen Ms. mentioned it, along with the Bird and the fianchetto defenses, among others.
That's my recollection, too.

Re history of these openings...this is a job for......batgirl!
@Goob63: I have lines for the KG, but could always use a deeper understanding. Thanks for the recommendations.
@tom: yes, there is always wikipedia, specialty books, and chessbase if you get really good and really competitive.

Thats not important, as long as you have chessbase 09 or 11. Do you have one of those older versions?

Thats not important, as long as you have chessbase 09 or 11. Do you have one of those older versions?
No, but I am getting it... the newest version at some point in the near future

I believe its only known as the Ruy Lopez in the USA ? Maybe Canada too ? In Europe everyone calls it the Spanish opening .

You could think about Chess Tactics in Open Games.
I have some of their programs since the beginning of this year and I already see the difference in my OTB games.

Thats nice. Do you have the MEGA database? Thats very usefull for opening preparation :)
I have NOTHING

You could think about Chess Tactics in Open Games.
I have some of their programs since the beginning of this year and I already see the difference in my OTB games.
Not bad.

Petroff wasn't the sole inventor of 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6. A better name for it is the Russian Game as the Russians came up with the Defense.
...
Some opening names actually are true.
As it happens, I wrote an article a few years ago about the early history of the Petroff: http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2012/03/petroff-defense-early-history.html. I reproduce it here as a courtesy.
23 March 2012
Petroff Defense: Early History
Lucena's Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez con ci Iuegos de Partido (1497) does not seem to have influenced subsequent writers. According to H. J. R. Murray, A History of Chess (1913), "W. Lewis was the first writer to give an account of the work from the point of view of chess, in his Letters on Chess from C.F. Vogt, translated by U. Ewell, 1848" (787). This work was no translation, but a work that the author refused to acknowledge as his own (see Edward Winter, "A chess Watergate" C.N. 4337).
In contrast to Lucena's lack of influence, Damiano's Questo libro e da imparare giocare a scachi et de li partiti (1512) was printed in several countries in the sixteenth century, and had a clear influence upon the work of Ruy Lopez. Several of the games in Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del axedrez (1561) follow those in Damiano's, but diverge in the last few moves. Games from these texts then appear in Greco's work, although carried forward a move or two further.
Such is the case for the oldest Petroff Defense game found in the ChessBase database. In Big Database 2011, game 57 is attributed to Greco, but matches one copied from Damiano by Joseph Henry Sarratt. One needs access to the archives of the world's best libraries just to see copies of the texts of Lucena, Damiano, and Lopez. However, Sarratt, The Works of Damiano, Ruy-Lopez, and Salvio, on the Game of Chess (1813) is widely available even as a free ebook because Google Books scanned a copy from the New York Public Library. Sarratt asserts that he "has frequently and attentively played and examined" the games in the texts of these authors, and he, "is strongly impressed with the belief that they are calculated to assist in a material degree unpracticed players" (xv). Sarratt's reputation has suffered due to his reputation for errors in his texts. Murray notes:
[Sarratt] introduced his generation to the work of the older masters, Damiano, Lopez, and Salvio, in a series of translations. That, as we now know to be the case, these translations were careless, inaccurate, and incomplete, did not rob them of their value at the time they were made, though this discovery has had a very damaging effect on his reputation as a writer. It is unfortunate that the badness of this portion of Sarratt's literary work should have prevented his successors from recognizing the importance and real merit of his other services to chess.Among Sarratt's contributions cited by Murray was his advocacy that stalemate should be a draw. Through this advocacy, the London Chess Club adopted a rule that was already standard in other countries.
Murray, A History of Chess, 874.
The Games
Sarratt's notation reflects the state of chess notation in English in the early nineteenth century. It is awkward, but readable to the modern reader. The first game in Sarratt's The Works is presented as two variations (1-5). It is Damiano's record of the Petroff as it may have been played in his day. Damiano's two games show hazards that may befall a careless player of the Black pieces. Greco's sole Petroff carries the first of these games two moves further. Lopez's games 35-37 present three variations that are equal or better for Black (Sarratt, 136-141). Lopez's game scores would seem to suggest that the common belief that Black's 2...Nf6 was held in low regard until the mid-nineteenth century may not be fully accurate.
Below are the game scores from these five early studies of tactics in the Petroff (a name the opening would take on in the nineteenth century when it was revived as a viable alternative for Black). The comments are attributed by Sarratt to Lopez.
(1) Damiano,Pedro [C42]
1512
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 4.Qe2 Qe7 5.Qxe4 d6 6.d4 f6 7.f4 dxe5 8.dxe5 Nd7 9.Nc3 fxe5 10.Nd5 Qd6 11.fxe5 Qc6 12.Bb5 Qc5 13.Be3 +-
(2) Damiano,Pedro [C42]
1512
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 4.Qe2 Qe7 5.Qxe4 d6 6.d4 f6 7.f4 dxe5 8.dxe5 Nd7 9.Nc3 fxe5 10.Nd5 Qd6 11.fxe5 Qc5 12.Be3 Qa5+ 13.Bd2 Qc5 14.b4 Qc6 15.Bb5 Qg6 16.Qxg6+ hxg6 17.Nxc7+ +-
(3) López de Segura,Rodrigo (Ruy) [C42]
1561
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 4.Qe2 Qe7 5.Qxe4 d6 6.d4 f6 7.f4 dxe5 8.dxe5 Nd7 9.Nc3 fxe5
10.Nb5 Nf6 Black has the best of the Game
(4) López de Segura,Rodrigo (Ruy) [C42]
1561
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 4.Qe2 Qe7 5.Qxe4 d6 6.d4 f6 7.f4 dxe5 8.dxe5 fxe5 9.fxe5 Nd7 10.Bf4 g5 11.Bg3 Bg7 Black will regain his Pawn
(5) López de Segura,Rodrigo (Ruy) [C42]
1561
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Qe7 4.d4 d6 5.Nf3 Qxe4+ 6.Be2 Bf5 7.c3 Nbd7 8.Nbd2 Qc2 Black has the best of the Game.
It is curious that in Lopez's first game, he reaches the same position as in Damiano's games. But, in Lopez White plays differently. Inasmuch as the move given by Damiano appears stronger, it raises a question that can be answered through examination of the original Lopez text. Did Lopez include also the variation that is favorable to White, and Sarratt exclude it to avoid duplication?

Already planning to switch to the Caro-Kann in a month? And then what are you going to spend a month not learning after that?
You must mean "very casual familiarity with" when you say "understanding of".
What if you don't understand the open games by month's end? Have you ever noticed how 3rd grade pretty much repeats 50% of second grade, then fourth grade repeats 60% of 3rd grade, etc, until finally in college you spend half your time taking courses that cover less than you've already learned in high school?
I am glad that I did not go to the same schools as you.

He didn't create it. He was the first to anaylze it, or any opening, systematically. I wrote a few words about Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del axedrez (1561) at http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2013/06/damianos-gambit.html.
A worthwhile read. Thanks.