"Que siempre el jugador procure de traer a su enemigo lo más fatigado y afligido que ser pueda. Porque teniéndolo así, le cansará la imaginación y le hará cometer errores". Ruy López de Segura. "Libro de la invención liberal y el arte del juego del ajedrez". Año de 1561.
Captain Alatriste is a swordsman-for-hire, a veteran of the Spanish Army of Flandes (the legendary "Tercios de Flandes"), who lives badly in Madrid working as assassin for money. His rival on this job is the Italian Gualterio Malatesta. They have shared some jobs; however Captain Alatriste hates this man a lot. They both know and accept the rules of this dangerous occupation, and they also know that one day, not so far, they will be found stabbed in any corner, like many other to whom they have killed. (Captain Alatriste is a fictional character created by the spanish writer Arturo Pérez Reverte. It was taken into the cinemas in 2006 with the film titled "Alatriste" directed by Agustín Díaz Yanes, with Vigo Mortenssen in the leading role and the great Italian actor, Enrico Lo Verso, as Malatesta).
Spanish and Italian shared a lot during the XVI and XVII centuries. They shared enemies (French, English, Turkish, and Dutch), religion, the King (as a great part of Italy was under Spanish rule) and the also shared the supremacy of chess. As Arturo Pérez Reverte well described on his books about "Captain Alatriste", those were hard times; then as it could not be in a different way, uses and customs could not be either too fussy. Therefore, it would be a huge mistake and an injustice/unfairness to consider men and women from that time according to the way of thinking we have in current time.
 "... cuando se ponga a jugar si fuere de día claro, y al sol, procure que el enemigo tenga el sol de cara, porque lo ciegue; y si fuese obscuro, y se jugare con lumbre, hazer que la tenga a la mano derecha: porque le perturbe la vista, y la mano derecha que trae por el tablero, le haga sombra: de modo que no vea bien donde juega las piezas." Ruy López de Segura.".
Chess practised in that time describes perfectly that time and the way of thinking: gambits, Italian opening, counter-gambit and traps. Chess as a fight in which the "noble" pieces (queen, knights, bishops and rooks), were ready, from the beginning of the game, to put the opposite King in checkmate. Pawns did not mean too much: they were sacrificed and were considered as a hindrance most of time. As in the Crezy battle happened, where French knights crushed with no mercy their own archers from Geneva, because they were a hindrance when they were ready to attack the enemy. This happened about the middle of the XIV century, nevertheless neither the regular people nor chess pawns, which symbolized the "cannon fodder" of each army, did not really enjoy of importance until the French Revolution together with the Pawns revolution of Philidor.
The games in the XVI century were brief and developed in a way. They did not last too many moves and were well adapted to the mentality of that period. Leonardo di Bona (da Cutri) and Paolo Boi were two of the greatest Italian players of that age. Either of them, together with Ruy López, can be considered as the champions of the world in any time of the second half of the sixteenth century. Leonardo di Bona beat in which can be considered the first tournament of Great masters in history: it was played in Madrid in 1575, sponsored by an important Spanish House of that period. It was no a big company, but it was the Spanish Royal House, which was represented by the important figure of Felipe II, the most powerful King of the planet, who played and loved chess. Di Bona met Ruy López, Paolo Boi and Alfonso Cerón from Granada.
Neither of those Italians, Boi and Di Bona, were as dangerous and evil as their compatriot in the novels of Alatriste, the hired assassin Matesta. On the contrary, Paolo Boi was a character extremely wise, happy and smart; Leonardo was a generous and affable man. Nevertheless, there are many details in both lives, not as different as the life of his fictional compatriot. Di Bona dead when he was 45 years, it is supposed he was killed with a sword by a jealousy chess player; Paolo Boi died older than Di Bona and it is supposed he was poisoned. The first one saved once his brother from pirates thanks to chess - he won a bet made by the captain; the second one saved his own life, also from pirates and also thanks to chess - he convinced the Turkish man, who had made him slave, to let him play chess for him. The Turkish was so grateful for winning lot of many, and then he freed him.
"Y por tanto este juego se juega en España mejor que en otras partes, por observarse mejor las propiedades de la milicia, en cuya semejanza esta compuesto este juego". Ruy López. "Libro de la invención liberal ..." in which was introduced the Spanish opening.
The Spanish priest Ruy López, who was from Zafra (Badajoz) and therefore from Extremadura, did not live as many adventures as the Italian, Di Bona and Paolo Boi; however he also was a traveller who avoided neither controversy nor confrontation. He travelled to Italy, he was a convinced humanist moreover a great grammarian, he attacked with no mercy and cold-blooded to those who he disagreed. Like happened with the Portuguese Damiano to whom he criticized, with no mercy, because of the book he had written. For Ruy López, chess symbolized the war. It was just a mock battle in which two armies are faced up. In that period, the Spanish were always on wars, he concluded that for this reason we were really able to play this game. According to the advices that Ruy López had suggested to play chess, it was quite clear that he did not understand the game, as a game of polite knights from the 19th century.
Many Spanish people from that period seemed, in a way, to the Captain Diego Alatriste: people with no qualm, quarrelsome, with a high sense of dignity and moreover people who could not be easily intimidate. Like a poet from Flandes soldiers once said:
"... soldados que sufrían cualquier asalto, pero que no sufrían que se les hablara alto".
They did not suffer that somebody talked them loud or had a lack of respect for them: neither their bosses nor any of them. In Spain, according to this, things have changed a lot: fortunately, we are not like in the 16th century yet. Many of ours are able to allow that someone talks to us loud, just to continue to have everything: money, football, urbanizations, quiz shows, etc. These days are very different from the days before.
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Chess Archeology 
