Gioachino Greco was an Italian chess player, considered by some to be the first professional of the game. Lacking formal education, but possessing a remarkable aptitude for chess, Greco left his native Calabria in the hope of earning a living by his skill. By his early twenties, he had defeated the reigning champions of several major European cities, and written manuals for wealthy patrons in which he innovatively recorded entire games, move by move.

Greco’s extensive corpus was not published during his lifetime. Le Jeu de Echets, adapted from a manuscript presented by Greco to the King of Naples in 1619, was first published in France in 1669. It found a wide and appreciative audience and went into many editions. After instructing the reader in the rules of chess, Greco provides nearly one hundred examples of complete games, of which fifty-five involve gambits and countergambits. Some of these remain in use today, and are named after the great early master.