Masters and Theory

The History of Chess

Course 13 · Chapter 5 · Masters and Theory

Once the new rules had settled (Chapter 4), players began to write down what they had learned. Between the sixteenth and the mid-nineteenth century, chess grew a literature of openings, endgames and principles, and a succession of masters whose ideas still shape how the game is taught. This chapter follows that story from Ruy López to the Romantic attackers. Only some points were confirmed by web search; the rest comes from general knowledge and is flagged "check".

The First Printed Theory

Ruy López (1561)

A Spanish priest whose Libro de la invención liberal y arte del juego del axedrez was printed in 1561 and is described by Britannica as the first modern chess manual. The opening named after him, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, was not his invention; he recommended the line (check).

Italian masters

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Italian players such as Giulio Cesare Polerio and Gioachino Greco led the game, and their manuscripts collected openings and traps (check). Italy was then the strongest chess nation.

Spread by print

Printing let ideas travel faster than before. A player in one country could study the analysis of a master in another, and local rules gave way to a common game (check).

Opening names are labels, not credits Many opening names honour a writer who analysed a line rather than the player who first used it. Treat a name as a label for the line, and check who really introduced it before telling anyone that a master "invented" it.

Philidor and the Idea of Structure

In the eighteenth century the French player and composer François-André Danican Philidor published L'analyse du jeu des Échecs in 1749 (check). He is best remembered for stressing the importance of the pawns, in a line often quoted as "the pawns are the soul of chess" (check, and the exact wording varies). His idea was that pawn structure decides the shape of a game and that pieces should support pawn play, in contrast to the pure piece attacks that most players then preferred. He was also a well-known composer of music, a combination that fits the period's view of chess as a polite art (check).

The Romantic Era

Master (check each)	Period	Known for
Adolf Anderssen	Mid nineteenth century	Brilliant sacrificial attacks; winner of the first international tournament, London 1851 (Chapter 6). His win against Lionel Kieseritzky in 1851 is nicknamed the "Immortal Game".
Paul Morphy	About 1857 to 1859	An American prodigy who beat the leading European players in 1858-59, notably Anderssen, and then largely gave up serious play.
Wilhelm Steinitz	Later nineteenth century	Turned attack into a science of accumulating small advantages; first official world champion (Chapter 7).

The "Romantic" label is applied later and refers to the attacking, sacrificial style of the age, in which the gambit was the favourite opening and a brilliant sacrifice was admired more than a sound win (check).

A pattern to watch History tends to keep the brilliant games and forget the failures. Our idea of what players of the Romantic age thought good chess is partly shaped by which games were published and anthologised. Ask what a book leaves out.

Material Counting: A Small Tool

Theory is full of numbers; the most basic are the point values that beginners learn: pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9 (check; these are conventions, not rules). The script below counts material from a position written in FEN, a common text format for positions (check). It was run to produce the output shown.

VALUES = {"p": 1, "n": 3, "b": 3, "r": 5, "q": 9}

def material(fen):
    board = fen.split()[0]
    white = sum(VALUES[ch.lower()] for ch in board
                if ch.isupper() and ch.lower() in VALUES)
    black = sum(VALUES[ch] for ch in board
                if ch.islower() and ch in VALUES)
    return white, black

start = "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"
print(material(start))     # (39, 39)

# After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6
ruy = "r1bqkbnr/1pp2ppp/p1p5/4p3/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK2R w KQkq - 0 5"
print(material(ruy))       # (36, 36)

After the exchange of bishop for knight, each side has lost 3 points, so material is level, but the pawn structures have changed: Black has doubled pawns on the c-file, the kind of structural fact that later theorists such as Philidor and Steinitz taught players to value (check).

Evidence, Weighed

Claim (check each)	Evidence	Verdict
Ruy López invented the Ruy Lopez	His 1561 book recommends the line; earlier mentions exist	Name, not invention
Philidor said pawns are the soul of chess	Widely quoted, wording varies	Plausible; check the source of the exact words
The Romantic masters played without defence	Anthologised brilliancies	Exaggerated; selection bias
Morphy was never beaten	He won his matches and then withdrew	Misleading; he lost some games

A British comparison Britain contributed to this period too. Howard Staunton, an Englishman, was widely regarded as the leading player in Europe around 1843 to 1851 and organised the 1851 London tournament (Chapter 6) (check). Staunton's name is on the standard tournament piece design (also Chapter 6). The Scottish city of Edinburgh and its chess clubs belong to this story, though the details are not covered here.

Not Yet Verified A web search confirmed that Ruy López's book appeared in 1561, was described by Britannica as the first modern chess manual, that the opening was not his invention, and that Morphy played the 3...a6 defence against Anderssen in 1858. It found nothing on Philidor's book or the famous quotation, and only a weak mention of the Immortal Game. The Italian masters, Philidor, Anderssen, Morphy, Steinitz and Staunton details come from general knowledge and have not been checked against primary sources; treat every "(check)" accordingly.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Explain in a paragraph why an opening's name may not tell you who invented it, using the Ruy Lopez as your example.

→ Solution

Exercise 2

Describe the difference between Philidor's idea of chess and the Romantic attacking style, and say why a historian should be careful with the label "Romantic".

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Use the material-counting script on a position of your own (for example after a bishop captures a knight and a pawn recaptures) and explain what the result does and does not tell you.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

Texts: Ruy López (1561), Philidor (1749)
Masters: Anderssen, Morphy, Steinitz, Staunton
Styles: structure (Philidor), attack (Romantic), accumulation (Steinitz)
Method: names are labels; beware selection in anthologies