Impossible Playing Improvement?!

I also got a LOT of value from going through the games (compositions?) of Gioachino Greco. These are ancient games, but for a beginner they are really good! Everyone needs to develop a sense of danger in the opening, it takes time to learn how to deal with the early weakness of the f-pawn. Greco's games are excellent at showing typical manoeuvres for attacking/defending that point. They are also excellent examples of how to use tempo to force weaknesses.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=72111

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
I also got a LOT of value from going through the games (compositions?) of Gioachino Greco. These are ancient games, but for a beginner they are really good! Everyone needs to develop a sense of danger in the opening, it takes time to learn how to deal with the early weakness of the f-pawn. Greco's games are excellent at showing typical manoeuvres for att ...[text shortened]... of how to use tempo to force weaknesses.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=72111

Looks like he didn't have to do a lot of end games. Who were his rivals, masters of his caliber? I see Lopez and Philidor. Any others?

Originally posted by sonhouse
Looks like he didn't have to do a lot of end games. Who were his rivals, masters of his caliber? I see Lopez and Philidor. Any others?

This is long before the days of Masters, his is one of the first texts on chess ever written. I found his games (whether they are actually games or just compositions) to be really useful. You can read a book and learn about strategy, but if you are falling for sharp tactics right out of the opening then your 'theory' isn't much good to you. Greco is a good starting point for learning opening tactics, especially if you like the Kings gambit or Ruy Lopez. I would recommend anyone of any strength to spend an afternoon sometime just playing through a ton of his games. Greco points out a lot of opening traps which masters don't include in their books for beginners (or anywhere in fact). You can look at his games and go right ahead and start using these ideas, it's very accessible stuff full of novel ideas. 🙂

EDIT: Like simple traps like this..



I still get caught out by things like this, one guy has done it to me three times that i can remember. These sort of simple ideas are gold dust to a new player. That is what is great about Greco, you can see typical mistakes and traps all collected together in one place. When he played there was no chess theory, so his games are really just a collection of opening discoveries.

Obviously these are not the strongest moves (definitely not the strongest replies anyway) but that doesn't matter. The purpose of the exercise is to get ideas..

Lopez died before Greco was born. Greco died before Philidor was born.

I'm certain that Greco's games were compositions, and some had been composed by his predecessors. I agree that his model games are excellent training for beginning players. The ~75 games available in databases, such as at chessgames.com are the result of Angelo Lewis (DBA Professor Hoffmann) rearranging the work of previous compilations (1900). Greco's games were recorded in handwritten books that he gave as gifts to those who supported him. About 25 of the manuscripts remain in existence.

Several earlier compilations of games from his MSS offer a larger number of variations than Hoffman. William Lewis put out a collection in 1819 that contains ~170 variations. Lewis's work is based on that of Francis Beale (1656). All of these editions of Greco are available through Google Books. The notation takes awhile to become second nature, however.

See http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2012/11/tracking-down-grecos-games.html

Originally posted by Wulebgr
Lopez died before Greco was born. Greco died before Philidor was born.

I'm certain that Greco's games were compositions, and some had been composed by his predecessors. I agree that his model games are excellent training for beginning players. The ~75 games available in databases, such as at chessgames.com are the result of Angelo Lewis (DBA Professor Ho ...[text shortened]... d nature, however.

See http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2012/11/tracking-down-grecos-games.html

That is such a great post! Thanks so much, i love this sort of detail. Greco is really one of my chess hero's. These details mean a lot, thanks. 🙂