Damiano de Odemira

Title page with woodcut (1512): Priest and monk play chess

Approx. 3 m high statue, made by the artist Liberdade Sobral

Stone to the statue of Damian

Damiano de Odemira , also called Pedro Damiano (* unknown in Odemira ; † around 1544), was an important Portuguese chess author of the 16th century .

Life

Damiano was a pharmacist by profession and came from Odemira in southern Portugal. Almost nothing is known about his living conditions. It is believed that his original name was Pedro Damião and that he found refuge in Rome as a Jew in 1497 after King Manuel I ordered the expulsion of the Jews from Portugal under threat of death.

He worked again as a pharmacist in Rome and called himself Damiano (the similarity of the name to the medieval bishop Petrus Damiani has led to misunderstandings in the past). In addition, however, it cannot be ruled out that it is only a pseudonym of an author whose name is unknown. St. Damian is considered the patron saint of pharmacists.

No portrait has survived. Notwithstanding this, a few years ago his hometown Odemira erected a monument to him.

The chess book

He became famous for his basic chess textbook ( Questo libro e da imparare giocare a scachi et de le partite ), which was published in Rome in 1512 . The first edition, which is still bilingual (Italian-Spanish), is available in the British Library , among others . A total of eight editions had been printed by 1564, including several pirated prints . The first French translation appeared in 1560, the first English in 1562. The work was first published in German in the Berliner Schachzeitung in 1855/56 .

The spread of the book from Italy benefited from the fact that Pope Leo X lifted the church ban on chess in 1513. It was only with the appearance of the Spaniard Ruy Lopez half a century later that the primacy of Damiano's book ended.

Alongside Luis Ramírez Lucena , whose chess work, published in Spanish as early as 1497 , received much less attention, Damiano's book is the second document on the reform of the rules of the game of chess that had just taken place. The figure of the lady was also introduced. Instead of castling , which only developed in the course of the 16th century, Damiano still knows the medieval royal leap . The new game with the advanced possible moves for lady and runners called in Italian Damiano alla rabiosa ( "on Forces of Nature"), in Spanish La Dama .

Damiano's assumptions about the origin of the game of chess, which he attributed to the Persian king Xerxes because of the etymology of the Spanish word axedrez that he had adopted, were not correct .

Notes on opening and positional play

After the introduction, he first commented on the beginnings of the game according to the new rules and analyzed individual lines, such as the opening named after him, Damiano's defense (1. e2 – e4 e7 – e5 2. Ng1 – f3 f7 – f6). Damiano advised against their use in his book and instead recommended 2.… Nb8 – c6. Damiano also considered the move 2.… d7 – d6 recommended later by Philidor to be inferior because it imprisoned the king's bishop.

In addition to the opening treatment, Damiano gave some general hints for the positional play. In positions in which you are neither attacking nor being attacked, the pieces that are unfavorably positioned should be moved. If you have a material advantage, you should strive for exchange. Each move should aim to strengthen the cohesion of the characters. His advice can claim timeless validity: If your stones have taken a superior position, you must not risk it by robbing an unimportant pawn. These strategic considerations, the advice on positional play and the principle of harmony were what really revolutionized the book. One of Damiano's often-repeated psychological advice is: If you have a good move, see if there isn't a better move.

Collection of artificial endgames

Damiano's book contained extensive references to handicap games ; an appendix also contained instructions for the blind game that was already practiced at the time .

Most of the work, however, was taken up by a collection of 72 chess compositions , almost entirely borrowed from Lucena - or another source from which both authors drew. Matt, named after him, became famous with a double tower sacrifice :

Damiano's Matt

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

White moves and mates

Solution:

1. Th1-h8 + evacuation Kg8xh8
second Tf1-h1 + facilitation Kh8-g8
3. Th1-h8 + evacuation Kg8xh8
4. Dd1-h1 + Kh8-g8
5. Dh1-h7 #

Work editions

• Damiano da Odemira: Questo libro e da imparare giocare a scachi et de le partite , Rome 1512 (digitized by Gallica )
• Robert Franz and Tassilo von Heydebrand and the Lasa : The chess games ^[sic] and endgames of the Portuguese Damiano, together with the art of playing from memory , Veit & Comp., Berlin 1857 (German translation)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Interview with Mário Silva Araújo, author of the study Damiano, O português ea sua obra , see Gralla: "Late Honor Rescue for Damiano"
2. ↑ Harald Fietz et al. a .: Creative autodidacts on the edge of Europe (with a picture of the monument) Article in Rochade Kuppenheim, August 2004
3. ↑ schematic original position (without white Kg2 or without Rd8 and Bd5); Franz and v. d. Lasa: Damiano edition , p. 25.

Web links

• René Gralla: “Late rescue of honor for Damiano, the great misunderstood in chess history” , interview with Mário Silva Araújo, ChessBase, May 11, 2009
• Anton Schmid : Literatur des Schachspiels , Carl Gerold, Vienna 1847, pp. 154–161, entry on "Damiano de Odemeira, Portoghese"
• Picture with all eight Damiano editions of the 16th century "Chess & Drafts collection" of the Royal Library of the Netherlands