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Gioachino Greco
Celico ~1600 - ~1634
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Fuentes Históricas
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Domenico Lorenzo Ponziani
"Il giuoco incomparabile degli scacchi sviluppato con nuovo metodo, per condurre chiunque colla maggiore facilità dai primi elementi fino alle finezze più magistrali." - Modena 1769
 Gioachino Greco più cognito sotto il Nome di CALABRESE visse, e morì nel principio del Secolo diciasettesimo, avendo lasciata un'Opera sopra gli Scacchi, tradotta poscia in Francese, che più volte fu impressa nel medesimo idioma, e segnatamente a Parigi nel 1714. Chez Denis Mouchet.
Essa è ricchissima di Aperture, le quali sono esposte con ordine, e sono piene d'immagini, e di assalti vivissimi, che presi in astratto potrebbero fornire una giovine fantasia di bellissime idee.
Ma il difetto massimo di quello libro consiste nell'avere i suoi attacchi fondati sul falso; supponendo, che l'Avversario non profitti degli errori commessi per parte nostra; e che in fine soccomba chi per natura di giouco doveva essere vincitore.
Si debbono i tratti falsi supporre soltanto nella parte avversa, per mostrare allo studioso la via di prevalersene; ma non debbono giammai eseguirsi per parte di chi viene da lui istrutto; affinchè incontrandosi le migliori risposte dell'Inimico, possa il giuoco restare almeno con uguaglianza.
Un sistema si irregolare, il qual vuole, che i tratti erronei abbiano ad essere fortunati, non lascia noverare fra i Maestri questo Scrittore, come osservarono opportunamente anche il PHILIDOR, e lo STAMMA.
Laonde non apprendo, come lo adottassero per esemplare le Accademie de' Giuochi di Parigi, e di Amsterdam; e come il Sig. Abbate Ladvocat nel suo Dizionario, storico affermi, che il Calabrese non trovò Giuocatore uguale a se stesso in alcuna parte del Mondo; quando l'Opera sua non lo dimostra, e quando in oltre sappiamo dal SALVIO sulla fine del Libro II., eh'egli era inferiore al MARANO.
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William Lewis
"On the Game of Chess Di Gioachino Greco"- London 1819
GRECO has been justly celebrated as a first rate player, and his work is considered by good judges as exhibiting great skill and ingenuity, and abounding with brilliant and instructive situations. It has been for some years rather scarce; I have, therefore, thought it would be rendering no unacceptable service to the amateurs of Chess, to publish a translation of it with such improvements as I was capable of making, and which the work seemed to me to require.
With this view I have examined all the games very attentively, and where it has appeared to me that either party plays inaccurately, I have suggested other moves in notes at the bottom of the page. These notes will be found very numerous, and I hope may prove of service, not only to beginners, but even to those who are moderately skilled in the game.
It does not often happen that Greco's method of attacking can be much improved, for in that part of the game he is eminently skilful, but the like praise cannot be given to his system of defence; it must, indeed, be evident that as most of his games are won by brilliant moves, the defence is necessarily imperfect.
This is, however, not the only fault in his work; in many of his games the attack is founded on bad play, the party who wins making the first bad move, which succeeds only because his adversary plays worse: it is, therefore, frequently dangerous to adopt his attack, because the adversary by playing correctly would have the best of the game; this is, however, far from being the case in all his games, in his gambits, particularly, the second player generally makes the first mistake.
Greco has paid but little attention to the arrangement of his games. I have endeavoured to remedy this by classing together those games which have similar openings, so that they may the more easily be referred to.
Instead of distinguishing each chapter in Greco as a separate game, I have preferred calling many of them (what, in fact, they are) variations of a preceding game: the moves, as far as the commencement of the variation, are printed in italics, or the position of the pieces shown on a diagram. In order to publish the work at a moderate price, it has been printed in double columns, with a small but neat type, so that it contains, at least, as much as many Chess books of double the size; the abbreviations used are chiefly in the names of the pieces: thus, K. stands for King; Kt. for Knight; Q. for Queen, &c. &c. Throughout the work the second person is used to denote the player of the White, and the third person the player of the Black pieces.
The following account of Greco is chiefly extracted from Mr. Twiss's entertaining work entitled "Chess." GIOACHINO GRECO, commonly called the Calabrais, from Calabria, the place of his birth, was of very low extraction. Having accidentally learned the game of Chess, he improved so rapidly that Don Mariano Marano, a celebrated player, being informed of his aptitude for Chess, took him to his house, and, under his tuition, Greco improved so much as nearly to equal his master.
The following account of him is given by Bayle in his Dictionary: "Gioachino Greco played at Chess so skilfully that it cannot be thought strange that I consecrate to him a little article. All those who excel in their profession to a certain degree, deserve that distinction. This player did not find his match any where. He went to all the courts in Europe, and signalized himself there at Chess in a most surprising manner. He found famous players at the court of France, such as the Duke of Nemours, M r. Arnaud, Chaumont, and La Salle ; but though they pretended to know more than others, none of them were able to play with him, nor could they cope with him altogether. He was at Chess a bravo, who sought in all countries some famous knight with whom he might fight and break a lance, and he found none whom he did not overcome." This is certainly an exaggerated account of his skill, as we know from Salvio that he was rather inferior to Marano and other Italian players.
In the Mercure Galant for June, 1683, appeared the following lines addressed to Greco on his skill in Chess.
"A peine dans la carrière
Contre moi tu fais un pas,
Que par ta démarche fière,
Tous mes projets sont à bas:
Je vois dès que tu t'avances.
Céder toutes mes défenses,
Tomber tous mes champions;
Dans ma resistance vaine,
Roi, Chevalier, Roc et Reyne,
Sont moindre que tes Pions."
The first English edition of Greco was published in London by Herringman, in 1656; it is very imperfect.
In 1750 another edition, in 24mo, was published, entitled, "Chess made Easy, or the Games of Gioachino Greco the Calabrian, with additional games and openings, illustrated with remarks and general rules. The whole so contrived, that any person may learn to play m a few days without any farther assistance." Let not any one be led, by this promising title, to suppose that so difficult a game as Chess is to be learned in a few days; considerable practice is necessary to form even a moderate player, but to become a first rale player, genius and much study are indispensable requisites. This edition has a print as a frontispiece copied from a very fine one in small folio, from a picture of the same size by C. D. Moor, it represents an old man and a young one sitting and playing at Chess; a man standing with a wine glass in his hand overlooking them; a guitar hangs against the wainscot; the dresses and furniture are such as were in use in the sixteenth century.
The additional games and openings mentioned in the title are chiefly from Philidor. In 1752 a French edition of Greco was printed in London; it does not differ materially from the Paris edition. Greco died in the East Indies at an advanced age.
Many of his games have been copied by succeeding writers, and his skill in attacking has been very generally admired by those authors who have mentioned him. I cannot conclude without expressing a hope that the present work may prove serviceable to the young Chessplayer, and not undeserving the attention even of the scientific amateur; my earnest desire has been to facilitate the knowledge of a game to which I have devoted the greater part of my leisure hours.
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"The Monthly Review" - London 1820
Art. 23. Gioachino Greco on the Game of Chess: translated from he French. To which are added, numerous Remarks, critical and explanatory, by William Lewis, Author and Editor of several Works on Chess. 8vo. 8s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1819.
Gioachino Greco was a native of Calabria, of low extraction but of handsome person. By what accident he became fond of chess is now unknown: but this fondness gained for him the protection and friendship of the celebrated Don Mariano Marano, an excellent player, who took the boy to his house, and soon taught him the more difficult stratagems of the game. When he left the roof of Marano, the Greek, as he was emphatically called, travelled as a kind of prize-fighter on the chess-board, visited the principal courts of Europe, and at Paris beat the Duke of Nemours, whose defeat was recorded in a madrigal. He printed a book on chess at Naples, which was afterward translated into French, and republished at Paris in 1669. From this French edition, reprinted at London in 1752, the volume before us is derived: but it is rather a new-modelling than a mere translation; games with similar openings having here been classed together, and many of Greco's catastrophes reduced to mere variations. Critical notes are attached to the successive pages, which abundantly prove that Greco was not completely armed at all points for purposes either of attack or of defence, but that he frequently suggests ruinous movements. Whether it was worth while to republish a syllabus of instructions, which have been long superseded by the profounder science of Philidor, may be questioned; and surely it was inexpedient to retain the unwieldy form of hieroglyphic notation here adopted, now that Moses Hirschel has devised a neater stenography of chess. On these subjects, we have already spoken at length m our account of Sarratt's work. (Rev. vol. LXXII. p. 351.) Greco died in the East Indies at an advanced age, having found his skill at chess a sufficient passport throughout the world.
The French have a good book on chess, intitled Traité Theorique et Pratique du Jeu des Echecs, printed at Paris in 1775 its author's name is unknown to us, but we deem it more worthy of translation than this treatise of Greco. Some problems are commonly attached to grammars of chess, which serve to amuse the learner, but are unnoticed here: such as to begin at any given square, to move the knight into every square of the board without twice visiting the same square, and to finish in any given square. In the Transactions of the Academy of Berlin, Euler has inserted mathematical solution of this problem.
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De La Bourdonnais et Méry
"Le Palamède, revue mensuelle des Échecs" - Paris 1836
 BIOGRAPHIE - GIOACHINO GRECO SURNOMMÉ LE CALABROIS
Gioachino Greco, communément appelé le Calabrois, de la Calabre, lieu de sa naissance, était d'une extraction très-commune. Ayant, par accident, appris le jeu des échecs, il y fit des progrès si rapides, que don Mariano Marano, célèbre joueur d'échecs qui vivait an commencement du XVII° siècle, étant instruit de ses dispositions extraordinaires, le recueillit dans sa maison. Sous la tutelle d'un tel maître, Greco fit bientôt de grands progrès.
Bayle, dans son Dictionnaire historique et critique, a réservé quelques lignes à Greco: «Gioachino Greco connu sous le nom du Calabrois, jouait aux échecs avec tant d'habileté, qu'on ne peut trouver étrange que je lui consacre un petit article. Tous ceux qui excellent dans leur mélier jusqu'à un certain point méritent cette distinction. Ce fut un joueur qui ne trouva son pareil en aucun endroit du monde. Il voyagea dans toutes les cours de l'Europe, et s'y signala au jeu des échecs d'une manière surprenante. Il trouva de fameux joueurs à la cour de France: le duc de Nemours, MM. Arnaud, de Chaumont et de Lasalle. Mais, quoiqu'ils se piquassent d'en savoir plus que les autres, aucun d'eux ne fut capable de lui résister; ils ne purent pas même lui tenir tête tous ensemble: c'était, en fait d'échecs, un bravo qui cherchait dans tous les états quelque fameux chevalier avec qui il pût se battre et rompre une lance; il n'en trouva point dont il ne demeurât vainqueur.»
Cette appréciation de la force du Calabrois, suivant Salvio, serait exagérée; il le place bien au-dessous de Boi-le-Syracusain , de Marano et autres forts joueurs italiens de l'époque.
Dans le Mercure galant du mois de juin 1683, l'on trouve les vers qui suivent, adressés à Greco par l'un de ses admirateurs :
«A peine dans la carrière
Contre moi tu fais un pas,
Que, par ta démarche fière,
Tous mes projets sont à bas.
Je vois, dès que tu t'avances,
Céder toutes mes défenses,
Tomber tous mes champions
Dans ma résistance vaine,
Roi, chevalier, roc ei reine,
Sont moindres que tes pions.»
En 1669, Greco publia à Paris un ouvrage intitulé: Jeu des échecs. Il le dédia au marquis de Louvois, ministre de la guerre, déclarant dans sa préface qu'il l'avait composé pour son instruction. En effet, dans les parties que ce livre contient, on n'observe pas les règles italiennes. Quoique Greco ait fait beaucoup d'emprunts à damiano, Ruy-Lopez, Carrera, ses prédécesseurs, son petit traité est regardé, avec raison, comme renfermant use grande quantité de positions brillantes et instructives. Il y a cependant un reproche à faire à l'ouvrage du Calabrois: le blanc, qui gagne toujours, joue comme un joueur de première force qui croit pouvoir tout hasarder avec son adversaire; le noir joue mal et il serait de force à recevoir facilement une tour.
Plusieurs traductions du traité de Greco ont été publiées en France et en Angleterre; la meilleure sans contredit et la plus complète est due à M. Lewis, elle contient beaucoup de remarques critiques et explicatives qui sont très-nécessaires pour comprendre l'esprit de l'ouvrage.
Gioachino Greco mourut aux Indes orientales, dans un âge très-avancé; il appartenait, au moment de sa mort, à la fameuse société de Jésus.
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George Walker
"The Philidorian; a magazine of chess, and other scientific games - Complete in one volume"
London 1838
 GRECO, GIOACHINO, CALABRESE. - Trattato del nobilissimo e militare essercitio de' Scacchi, MS. - This work, although written in Italian, was never published in that language; but many MS. copies are in existence.
The following are the most known editions, but there must be many others, with which I have never met.
- Le jeu des Echecs, traduits de l Italien de Gioachino Greco, Calabrois. Paris: Nic. Pepinguè, 1669 and 1726. 12mo. and Paris, chez Denis Mouchet, 1714. 12mo. Paris, chez les libraires associes, 1774. 12mo. pp. 244.
- Le royale jeu des Echecs, par G. G. Calabrois, traduit de 1' Italien. Londres (Hollande), 1752. 8vo.
- Chess made easy; or the games of Gioachino Greco the Calabrian, with additional games and openings; illustrated with remarks and general rules. The whole so contrived, that any person may learn to play in a few days without any farther assistance. (!!) London: Knapton,1750. 24mo.
- Le jeu des Echecs, Amsterdam, 1792, in which Philidor's Treatise is partly incorporated. 12mo. p. 215.
- Essai sur le royal jeu des Echecs. Paris, 1615, 1635, 1674, 1688, 1696, 1713, 1728, 1735, 1756, Sic.—Bruxelles, 1698, 1713, and 1782.—Liege, 1740, 1742.—A la Haye, 1700, and 1743.—Amsterdam, 1752, 1763, and J 1791.—For German and English translations, see Art. HIRSCHEL, and BUDDEN.
- Greco, Gioachino, on the game of Chess, translated from the French: to which are added numerous remarks, &c. By Wm. Lewis. London: Longman and Co. 1819. 8vo. pp. 160. The best edition of Greco extant; forming a most useful volume.
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Antonio Marsand
"I manoscritti italiani della Regia Biblioteca parigina"
Parigi 1838
 1915. ( SAINT-GERMAIN. )
813. Trattato del giuoco degli scacchi, di Gioachino Greco Calabrese.
Cartaceo, in-8°, caratteri corsivi, secolo XVII°, di pagine 420,ottimamente conservato.
Nulla io dirò sul merito di quest'opera ben nota specialmente agli amatori d'esso giuoco degli scacchi, essendo già stata posta in luce più volte in lingua italiana e francese, ed ognora trà le mani degli amatori medesimi. Lo scritto non può desiderarsi più bello per ogni riguardo, quant'è a ciò che concerne i preliminari dell' opera. Il frontispizio, che sta rinchiuso in una graziosa miniaturina ad oro e colori finamente condotta, è come segue — Trattato del nobilissimo et militare essercitio de Scacchi nel quale si contendono molti bellissimi tratti, et la vera scienza di esso giuoco. Composto L'anno 1626 da Gioachino Greco Calabrese. Ciò che v'ha di singolare in questo codice è, che per tutti gli indizj è l'autentico che l'autore offerse a quell'alto personaggio, del quale però tacesi qui il nome, cui l' opera è intitolata. In fine della lettera dedicatoria, la quale sembra in vista più presto impressa che scritta, v'ha la sottoscrizione autografa di Gioachino, ed è come segue: Di V. S. Illma, et Ecclma. Devotissimo et obligatissimo servitore Gioachino Greco Calabrese. Ben lieto e contento sarebbe taluno di que' caldi e passionati amatori di questo giuoco se godersi potesse la proprietà del presente codice!
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Arqueología del Ajedrez 
