The clergyman Rodrigo (Ruy) López de Segura was born in 1530 in Zafra (Badajoz), being the parish priest of La Candelaria in the same town. He excelled in humanities and grammar, but where he is universally known is in the world of sixty-four squares, chess. After his chess successes, he entered the royal court of Felipe II, being his confessor and adviser.
In 1560 he went to Rome to attend the consecration of the new Pope Pius IV. There he had the opportunity to challenge and defeat the best Italian chess players, considered the best in Europe, including Leonardo da Cutri (the Italian would defeat him at El Escorial in 1575 in the first international tournament for masters). Ruy López repeated the feat around 1573 on the occasion of the accession of the new Pope Gregory XIII, for which he is considered the first unofficial world chess champion, at least between 1570 and 1575.
In 1561, in Alcalá de Henares, he published the famous "Book of the Liberal Invention and Art of the Game of Chess", one of the first theoretical chess texts in Europe, where he explains the rules of the game, the known openings, the development of the pieces, as well as memorable examples of attacking and counterattacking play, practical advice, etc.
The zafrense brought into play one of the best-known openings in chess, the “Spanish” or “Ruy López” (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5), in addition to the king's gambit and other openings. He helped implement the en passant capture rule and successfully practiced the art of playing blind against multiple opponents at once.
In 1570 he requested to travel to Lima (Peru), where his brother Alonso was, traveling a few years later, where he died at the end of the 16th century.
Correos has chosen a portrait of Ruy López for the image of the stamp and in the background a chessboard with the Spanish opening, that movement that Ruy López de Segura imagined and put into play.
