Ruy López de Segura

Rodrigo (Ruy) López de Segura (c. 1530 – c. 1580) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest in Segura whose 1561 book Libro de la invención liberal y arte del juego del Axedrez was one of the first definitive books about modern chess in Europe, preceded only by Pedro Damiano's 1512 book, Luis Ramírez de Lucena's 1497 book (the oldest surviving printed book on chess), and the Göttingen manuscript (authorship and exact date of the manuscript are unknown).

Ruy López de Segura
Leonardo di Bona playing Ruy López in the Spanish Court.
Full nameRodrigo López de Segura
CountrySpain
Bornc. 1530
Zafra
Diedc. 1580 (aged c. 50)

He was born in Zafra near Badajoz, and he studied and lived in Salamanca. In 1560 he won a match against Leonardo di Bona, a Calabrian lawyer, in Rome. In 1574–75 he lost the first known international chess tournament, which was held, at the invitation of King Philip II of Spain, at the Royal Court of Spain in El Escorial, close to Madrid, to Leonardo di Bona and to Paolo Boi, but placing ahead of 4th (and last) place finisher Alfonso Ceron.

Contributions to opening

The Ruy Lopez Opening (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5) is named after him, as is a variation in the Petroff Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Qe7).

References
  • Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), "López de Segura, Ruy", The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280049-3
  • Sarratt, Jacob Henry (1813). The works of Damiano, Ruy-Lopez, and Salvio on the game of chess. London: Printed for T. Boosey.
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