François-André Danican Philidor Portrait from L’analyze des
échecs. London, second edition, 1777. |Full name||François-André
Danican Philidor| |Born||September 7, 1726 |Died||August 31,
1795 François-André Danican Philidor (September 7, 1726 – August
31, 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during
his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He
contributed to the early development of the opéra comique. He
was also regarded as the best chess player of his age; his book
Analyse du jeu des Échecs was considered a standard chess manual
for at least a century, and a well-known chess opening and a
checkmate method are both named after him. Musical family
François-André Danican Philidor came from a well-known musical
family, which included: - Jean Danican Philidor (c. 1620–79),
André Danican Philidor's grandfather, was a musician at the
Grande Écurie (literally, the Great Stable; figuratively, the
Military Band) in Paris. The original name of his family was
Danican (D'Anican) and was of Scott