The First Chess Tournament in History: El Escorial, 1575

Did you know chess was already played competitively almost 450 years ago? Let’s travel back to the 16th century to meet the first documented chess tournament in history.

At that time, the best players weren’t professionals in the modern sense. Still, they already enjoyed fame and privileges thanks to the passion certain European rulers had for the game. Four of them stood out above the rest: the Spaniards Alfonso Cerón (1535 – 16th century) and Ruy López de Segura (1540 – 1580), and the Italians Leonardo da Cutri (1552 – 1597) and Paolo Boi (1528 – 1598). In fact, the latter three are considered unofficial world champions during their years of greatest splendor. They were, without a doubt, the best players in history of their time.

The El Escorial tournament, 1575

In 1575, King Philip II of Spain summoned all four of them to his residence at the Monastery of El Escorial. The occasion was a tournament, held while that imposing building was still under construction and following the victory at Lepanto. It was a match of three games, and that gathering can be considered the first international chess tournament.

Who won? Leonardo da Cutri. And the prize he received was far from modest: 1,000 ducats, an ermine cloak, and tax exemption for his city for 20 years. An extraordinary reward for the time.

The image illustrating this article is a photograph of a work by the Italian painter Luigi Mussini, recreating that occasion. It’s believed that most of the figures depicted in the painting were actually present during the tournament.

The games that survived

Unfortunately, not all the games have survived. We do have the full text of some, like the one shown below. It’s thought to be one of the first in which the King’s Gambit was used, that opening in which White gives up the king’s pawn (1. e4 e5, 2. f4) to gain initiative and control of the center.

In that game, Ruy López achieves a combination that gives him a two-pawn advantage. Soon after, he takes advantage of a serious mistake by the Italian and wins a rook, forcing Leonardo to resign.

Ruy López’s legacy

Although he lost the tournament, Ruy López left an enormous mark on the history of chess. Two fundamental milestones are attributed to him:

1. Playing the King’s Gambit for the first time in a documented tournament (1. e4 e5, 2. f4).
2. Conceiving the opening that bears his name: the Ruy López or Spanish Opening (1. e4 e5, 2. Nf3 Nc6, 3. Bb5). An opening that, several centuries later, remains one of the most played at the highest level.

It’s worth mentioning that for many years descriptive notation was used — P-K4 instead of e4 — before algebraic notation was officially adopted in 1997.

A seed that changed chess

That gathering at El Escorial wasn’t just a one-off event. It was the seed of organized competition. It proved that chess could attract the best in the world, generate rivalry between nations, and spark the interest of the powerful. The origin of modern competitive chess owes a great deal to those four men who sat down at the board in 1575.

Three centuries later, in 1886, the first official World Championship was held, and in 1924 FIDE was founded to organize international chess. But it all started here, at El Escorial, with a patron king and four masters ready to prove who was the best.