Chess as now played with the Queen of present powers, imported
into the game dates back about four centuries, to near the time
when the works of the Spanish writers, Vicenz and Lucena,
appeared in 1495, and shortly before that of Damiano the
Portuguese in 1512. In 1561 Ruy Lopez, the Spanish priest of
Cafra, a name familiar to the present generation, from one of the
openings most approved in modern practice being named after
him, wrote the best work of a scientific character which had
appeared in Europe to that time, and he was considered in Spain
the very best player in the world, until the memorable contests
between him and Leonardo da Cutri, and Paolo Boi of Syracuse
left the question of supremacy doubtful. These famous struggles
are reverted to not without interest in our days, when the not
very profitable task of attempting to institute comparisons between
past and present great players is indulged in, for in the absence
of a single published complete and annotated game until the 19th
century, there is little advantage in conjecturing whether Al Suli
was equal to Philidor, Razi or Greco to A. McDonnell of Belfast,
Ali Shatranji to La Bourdonnais, Paoli Boi to Anderssen, Ruy
Lopez to Staunton, or Leonardo to Morphy, though these
conjectural comparisons in varied forms are not uncommon in
modern chess talk.
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