That's a goodie!!
Philidor's Legacy
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1497?? :-)
epoqueepique wrote:
1497?? :-)
Yes. The stating position was taken from "Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez con 101 Juegos de Partido" by Lucena (I was informed his name is just Lucena since his full name in unknown and that of-given name "Luis Ramírez de Lucena" isn't accurate) published in 1497.
A chess history research conflict... :-)
Luis Ramirez seems to have been his real name. The position however was not printed in his 1497 book.
A clear summary here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucena_position
I don't offer this about his name from any physical source. I was informed about his name from a Spanish gentleman with whom I had a brief correspondence and who claimed to have written a book on Lucena (in Spanish). He wrote: "I don´t know much about renaissance chess, I know a lot about Lucena ( not Juan Ramirez de Lucena,or Luis Ramirez Lucena, which are invented names, Lucena was simply Lucena )." He followed this with such an excruciatingly detailed summation of Lucena's chess contributions that I couldn't question his knowledge.
The given link is about Lucena's Position, not Philidor's Legacy. I don't know for sure, but I believe that Lucena's Position never appeared in his book, but first appeared in Salvio's book on Giovanni Leonardo da Cutri.
Here is the Philidor's Legacy position (given in the viewer above) directly from "Repetición de Amores":
I would love to have an afternoon with your chess library and files!! So many tidbits.
I used to live near the the Huntington Library and Art Gallery in San Marino, CA - another place I'd like to have a day to browse.
My "Chess Library" consists of a half dozen books I afraid. That's about all I have room for. My digital library is pretty large however and I do have perhaps around 10,000 pages of notes. I can read a lot better than I type. I would love to spend a summer with the John G. White collection in the Cleveland Public Library sometime. But that's too far away.
Based on all available secondary sources, at least some by authors who have examined Lucena's text, the Lucena position is not there. In any case, a link to Wikipedia should never be offered as a counterargument to someone writing from primary sources. Your sources and analysis are credible, batgirl. Wikipedia has its uses, but not here. Rather, these articles can be employed to improve Wikipedia.
I think my friend epoqueepique may just be confusing Lucena's Position with Philidor's Legacy.
Here is something from the "American Chess Bulletin" Jan. 1912:
The Smothered Mate, or Philidor's Legacy.
By John A. Galbreath, New Orleans, La.
This, at once the most elegant and interesting of chess endings, happens but seldom in actual play, and the following examples, all occurring in play, cannot fail to be of much interest and instruction to the reader. Every chess player is familiar with the ordinary forms of the ending which is given in all the elementary handbooks, and it is therefore unnecessary to repeat any of them here.
"Philidor's Legacy" is the name which, by a sort of universal consent, has been given' to the ending in honor of the famous French Master; but it is certain that it was known nearly a century before Philidor was born, in 1726.
By whom it was first played cannot even be conjectured. Mr. Steinitz, writing of the ending in his "International Chess Magazine," January, 1885, page 25, has this to say in a note to a game between himself and an amateur:
"This mate is an ordinary version of the smothered mate, the first authorship of which is commonly ascribed to Philidor, after whom it is generally named "Philidor's Legacy". Mr. J. G. Ascher, of Montreal, has however latterly come into possession of a very rare book on the game printed in 1656, nearly sixty years before Philidor was born, in which a specimen of this beautiful mate occurs. The book referred to is apparently a translation of an Italian author named Biachimo, and we understand that neither the original work nor its translation are mentioned in any printed index of chess books." Mr. Steinitz, while a great chess player and a most profound analyst, was not very strong in matters pertaining to chess history.
The book referred to was presented to the writer many years after Mr. Steinitz's note was written, and after considerable research I have found that it is an English translation of the first edition of Greco, the celebrated Calabrian. George Walker in the appendix to his "Treatise on Chess", third edition published in 1841, gives a "Bibliographical Catalogue of Printed Books and Writers on Chess" up to that period, and has this: "Beale, Francis— The royall game of Chesse-playc, sometimes the recreation of the late king, with many of the nobility, illustrated with almost an hundred Gambetts, being the study of Biochimo, the famous Italian. London, 1656, 8vo, pp. 122. Mr. Beale's work is, in fact, the translation and first edition of Greco, who is erroneously styled "Biochimo'' instead of "Gioachino".
It is in this first edition of Greco then that we have the first authentic record of the smothered mate, and it was doubtless familiar to all the great chess players who preceded him, many years before Columbus sailed on the voyage which resulted in his discovery of the western world. It must be remembered in this connection that anciently the Queen was the weakest of the pieces, and that she acquired her present power some time during the Fifteenth century. The smothered mate therefore was discovered by some chess artist who lived and played the game between that time and the advent of Greco's book. It may have been the Calabrian himself who first played it. So much for the origin of the ending. Like many other things, it is lost in the misty past, so we will continue to call it Philidor's Legacy, in honor of the amiable and gifted French Chess Paladin.
@ziryab. I was referring to Lucena's name, and his position. The distinction between Lucena and Philidor's positions is exactly the point of that excellent wikipedia article. Have you read it? Wikipedia isn't in its infancy anymore, particularly articles concerned with chess...
But Philidor's Position, an endgame technique, hasn't anything to do with Philidor's Legacy. Is that were the confusion lies? I know I'm confused.
DarklingSalmon wrote:
I got that basic move sequence once (as White). Important to know as it does come up in real games.
...at odds ("With T. J. Bryan, Morphy consented 10 games at odds of a pawn and 3 moves, and later some 70 at knight odds. Of all these games with Bryan only one has come down to us." - Lawson):
Also don't forget wittgenstein was an admirer of morphy !
Sexy!
epoqueepique wrote:
@ziryab. I was referring to Lucena's name, and his position. The distinction between Lucena and Philidor's positions is exactly the point of that excellent wikipedia article. Have you read it? Wikipedia isn't in its infancy anymore, particularly articles concerned with chess...
I probably helped write it.
Wikipedia should never be deployed in an argument. It is very useful as a starting place for information, but trust should never be more than provisional.
The Lucena and Philidor positions in rook endings are fundamental. Philidor's Legacy--smother mate--is found in Lucena and it is an entirely separate matter from these rook endings.
See http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2014/05/philidor-position-historical-note.html and http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2013/11/endgame-training-lucena-position.html
The first mention in print of the term "Philidor's Legacy" seems to be in Thomas Pruen's 1804 "Introduction to the History and Study of Chess." Even this author is at a loss to explain it's origin:
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