17
Feb
Pedro Damiano – Portugal
Pedro Damiano (in Portuguese, Pedro Damião; Damiano is the Italian form, much like the Latin Damianus) was a Portuguese chess player who lived from 1480-1544. He wrote one of the first chess books, published in Rome, Italy in 1512 and entitled Questo libro e da imparare giocare a scachi et de li partiti. The book analyzes a few openings, suggesting that after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 the reply 2…Nc6 is best and 2…d6 (now called the Philidor Defence) is not as good. Damiano rightly condemned 2…f6 as the worst defence, but ironically and unfairly this opening has been given his name (Damiano Defence).
In this book Damião suggested chess was invented by Xerxes which would be the reason why it was known in Portuguese as Xadrez and in Spanish as Ajedrez. In fact, these words come from old Persian chaturanga via Arabic xaţrandj.
Source page: Wikipedia under Wikipedia license
