During the
Renaissance people became more interested in furthering and expanding the scope of
art,
history,
science and because of this it is a very important time in
history of chess. It is important as much for the power of the concepts that came out of the period as for the renewed passion people felt for chess. One of the most important works for chess at this time was “
Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess” by
Lucena which was the first writing of how chess is in fact an art form and the first text on
tactics. Even more important for the spread of the game was The poem “
Playing Chess” by
Mark Vida, a
clergyman, who published the poem with his religious poetry (religious stuff being mostly what people read) which was very important because it was so widely read. These works, and others like them, spurred new interest for the game and because of this chess theorists and professional chess players came into being.
The concepts many chess players take for granted came from this time and a bunch of good stuff came from a Portuguese man named Damiano. His ideas included taking your king out of the center and exchanging pieces when you already have a material advantage. The best stuff all took place in Italy though which saw the emergence of professional chess players and the development of the Italian School. The Italian School believed heavily in hard offense and sacrificing for the sake of a strong opening and developed lines. The Italian school also spoke about the importance of not moving the same piece in the opening because this is a loss of tempo and bad for overall development(all these terms and concepts being new). The Italian school of chess dominated the game until the 18th century and one of its main openings, the King's Gambit, is still important today.