Luis Ramirez de Lucena

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Luis Ramirez de Lucena
One of the chess problems from his book
Full name	Luis Ramirez de Lucena
Country	Spain
Born	c. 1465
Died	c. 1530

Luis Ramirez de Lucena (c. 1465 – c.1530) was a leading Spanish chess player. He wrote the oldest existing printed book on chess, Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez con ci Iuegos de Partido, published in Salamanca in 1497. The book contains analysis of eleven chess openings but contains many elementary errors that led chess historian Harold Murray to suggest that it was prepared in a hurry. The book was written when the rules of chess were taking their modern form (see Origins of modern chess), and some of the 150 positions in the book are of the old game and some of the new. Fewer than a dozen copies of the book exist.

The Lucena position is named after him, even though it does not appear in his book. (It was first published in 1634 by Alessandro Salvio.) The Smothered mate named Philidor's legacy is in the book.

[edit] References

• Hooper, David and Kenneth Whyld (1996). The Oxford Companion To Chess. Oxford University. ISBN 0-19-280049-3. 
• The Lucena Position David Surratt, Chessville.com

[edit] External links

• Romeo, M.C., Lucena - A mystery after 500 years, <http://www.goddesschess.com/chessays/romeolucena1.html>  (Romeo is Director of History Chess Commission of Spanish Federation of Chess, FEDA.)