| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Pedro Damião 1480 (1480) |
| Died | 1544 (aged 63–64) |
| Chess career | |
| Country |  Portugal |
Pedro Damiano (Portuguese:Pedro Damião;Damiano is the Italian form, much like the LatinDamianus; 1480–1544) was aPortuguesechess player. A native ofOdemira, he was a pharmacist by profession. He wroteQuesto libro e da imparare giocare a scachi et de li partiti, published in Rome, Italy, in 1512; it went through eight editions in the sixteenth century. Damiano describes therules of the game, offers advice onstrategy, presents a selection ofchess problems (see diagrams), and provides analyses of a fewopenings. It is the oldest book that definitely states that the square on the right of the row closest to each player must be white. He also offers advice regardingblindfold chess, principally focused on the need to master notation based on numbering the squares 1–64 (Murray 1913, 788–89), a notation system which is common in thecheckers family.
In this book Damiano suggested chess was invented byXerxes, which would be why it was known in Portuguese asxadrez and in Spanish asajedrez. In fact, these words come fromSanskritchaturaṅga via Persian and Arabicšaṭranj.
The well-known chess aphorism "If you see a good move, try to find a better one", sometimes misattributed toLasker and other writers, can be found in Damiano's book; similar sentiments were expressed byal-Suli regardingshatranj, the Persian precursor to chess.[1]
According to the historian José Antonio Garzón, Damiano was a pseudonym, and his book was written byFrancesc Vicent.[2]
In his opening analysis, Damiano suggested that after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 the reply 2...Nc6 is best and 2...d6 (now called thePhilidor Defence) is not as good. He rightly condemned 2...f6 as clearly inferior, noting that White can play 3.Nxe5 with advantage; however, the opening later came to be known as theDamiano Defence. He stated that 1.e4 and 1.d4 are the only good first moves and that 1.e4 is better. He examined theGiuoco Piano,Petrov's Defence, and theQueen's Gambit Accepted.
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