Chess Titans - Greco

Who are some of the most influential chess players throughout history? Bobby Fischer, of course, Kasparov. And who else? Spassky? Karpov? Probably that's as far as it goes, if you aren't at least a chess player. If you are, then you might include Nimzovich, Morphy, Tal, Steinitz, Capablanca.

So who are the most important chess titans of all time, and what did each of them contribute to the game.

Let's go way back. Back to 1600 Italy, to Greco. Gioachino Greco was considered by Botvinnik to be the first professional chess player. Greco wrote down his games, 77 in all, against anonymous players, or he made the games up as analysis, no one really knows fo sure. He was heads and shoulders above his contemporaries, and traveled around Europe playing chess and teaching chess to wealthy nobility of the time. Greco himself was from a lower class and uneducated family. He died at around age 34, contracting a disease in his travels.

He left some writing and analysis of chess in a book called "The Royal Game of Chesse-Play." It has some analysis of the Giuco Piano, and covers Italian Romantic chess style.

Let's take a look at this ridiculous 7 move game.

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Bc4 Bc5

4. c3 Nf6

5. d4 Bb6 (moving back, which seems natural. Beware of natural looking moves. Of course, Bb6 is unnecessary, but perhaps Black thought he was going to get the pawn back when he captures with the knight. Also keep in mind these might not have been games but Grecco's analysis.)

6. dxe5 Nxe4

7. Qd5 Black resigns, presumably because he will be a piece down. This is known a fork. The queen and bishop are both aimed at the f7 square (many of Greco's games or analyses involve the f7 square) plus the queen is also aiming at the unguarded knight on e4. Black's bishop could capture a pawn, but then after the king moved out of check, Black would have the same problem. My brother used to call these "stall moves," when we were kids.

Another important thing about this game is it illustrates the opening principe "don't move the same piece twice in the opening," and "don't go attacking until you are developed." White was able to take his pawn while still developing, whereas in order to recapture the pawn, Black had to violate opening principle. Therefore it was a mistake, and White was able to take advantage of this mistake because the uncastled king and the unguarded knight formed a triangle so that the queen could easily get to a square that attacked both, and Black could not solve the problem with one move. These kinds of things are the reasons the opening principles are true; and when your opponent violates them you should look as hard as you can to see the way to punish him. Here is another Grecco puzzle known as the Giraffe.

Many B players today don't see things that Greco saw. It's just that because of all the advances made since then, B players don't make the kind of moves that lead to the flashy play we see in a Greco game. Your average chess master would see them. But many B and even A players might miss the combinations seen in these games. So even if your typical B player were to encounter the bad opening moves seen in these Greco games, he probably wouldn't know what to do with them. Look at some of his games, which is easy because they are short. If you would like to see more of his games you can go to games of Greco.