Luis Ramírez Lucena

Basic position at Lucena

Luis Ramírez Lucena (* around 1465 , † around 1530 ) was a Spanish chess player and author. He wrote the first printed chess book that has survived.

The exact dates of life of Luis Ramírez Lucena are not known. He lived as a clergyman in Salamanca and was also a professional player there.

Lucena became famous for his chess textbook Repetición de amores e arte de axedrez, which was probably published in Salamanca around 1497 . Because of the early date of publication (before 1500) it is a cradle print . Lucena's book describes the modern rules of chess , like Francesc Vicent's chess book printed in Valencia in 1495 . The first part of the book consists of a serious treatise, accompanied by many quotations, on love, which has nothing to do with chess. The second part is entitled "Short instructions and a very necessary introduction to learning the game of chess, along with 150 artificial endgames ( iuegos de partido )".

The work shows the transition from Arabic to modern chess and mainly comprises chess compositions according to the old and the new rules. But the book also contains some chess openings . Well known is the suffocated Matt described by Lucena . For the theory of rook endings is Lucena position significantly. However, the attribution is based on an error, the position goes back to today's knowledge of the Italian master Alessandro Salvio .

Lucena could also be the author of the Göttingen manuscript , which was probably written between 1500 and 1505 , the content of which is based on his book. The same applies to a Parisian manuscript discovered by Victor Place in 1922.

Works

• Repetición de amores e arte axedres con CL iuegos de partido , Ediciones Polifemo, Madrid 1997, ISBN 84-86547-39-3 Reprint of the Salamanca 1497 edition.
• Tassilo von Heydebrand and the Lasa: Berlin chess memories along with the games of Greco and Lucena , Leipzig 1859, pp. 159–223 German translation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Edward Winter : The Lucena Position , Chess Notes, No. 5536
2. ↑ Ricardo Calvo : Lucena: Chess, love and literature. In: Rochade Europa , No. 7, July 1997, pp. 42-46.

Web links

• Romeo, MC: Lucena - A mystery after 500 years ( Memento from July 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)