L'Analyse des Échecs

François-André Danican Philidor (1726-1795) is widely regarded as the best chess player of his age; his book "Analyse du jeu des Échecs" was first published in 1749 and was considered a standard chess manual for at least a century. The book was such an advance in chess knowledge that, by 1871, it had gone through about 70 editions and had been translated into English, Spanish, German, Russian and Italian. In it, Philidor analyzed nine different types of game openings. Most of the openings of Philidor are designed to strengthen and establish a strong defensive center using pawns. He is the first one to realize the new role of the pawn in the chess game, and his most famous advice was the saying "The pawns are the soul of chess."