Chess Roots

First historical documents which are important for examining modern chess game have appeared in 15th century.

"Catalan script" is a poem written by three lyrists. Among other things it mention`s a game between Mars and Venus. Here is the start of that game:

1.e4 d5 2.ed5 Qd5 3.Nc3 Qd8 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.h3 Bf3 7.Qf3 e6 8.Qb7 Nbd7 9.Nb5 Rc8 10.Na7 Nb6 11.Nc8 Nc8 12.d4 and White wins.

As GM Loevenfish noticed, "this opening is amazing, considering the fact that chess was still in his early stage"

"Goetingen script", written in latin language, contains 12 openings. Some lines of modern Italian, Petroff, Ruy Lopez and Sicilian are included. Let`s see an example:

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6 3.Ne5 fe5 4.Qh5 Ke7 5.Qe5 Kf7 6.Bc4 d5 7.Bd5 Kg6 8.Qg3 Qg5 9.Qb3 Qg2 10.e5 - no evaluation was given.

Lucena book gives 11 openings: Italian game, Phillidor defence, Petroff, Bishop`s opening, French defence, Spanish opening (Ruy Lopez) and moves 1.b3 and 1.e3.

As for 1.e3 Lucena noticed "King`s pawn always have to be pushed for two squares ahead".He testified about the travelings through Italy, Spain and France, where he gathered the material for his book.

Interesting fact is that "Goetingen script" and Lucena book are containing some identical opening lines. It gives us a reason to believe that they have used some earlier sources, which are, unfortunetly, going to remain unkown.