View source for Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona

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{{Infobox chess player
|name = Giovanni Leonardo di Bona
|image = Luigi Mussini- Leonardo da Cutro e Ruy Lopez giocano a scacchi alla corte di Spagna.jpg
|caption = Leonardo di Cutro (center-right) defeats [[Ruy López de Segura|Ruy López]] in Spain
|birthname = Giovanni Leonardo di Bona
|country = [[Kingdom of Naples]]
|birth_date = 1533
|birth_place = [[Cutro]], [[Calabria]], [[Kingdom of Naples]]
|death_date = August 2, 1578 (aged c. 45)
|death_place = [[Taranto]], [[Kingdom of Naples]]
|title = 
|worldchampion = 
|womensworldchampion =
|rating = 
|peakrating = 
}}

'''Giovanni Leonardo di Bona''' or '''Giovanni Leonardo da Cutro''' (both given names can also be seen in the reversed order '''Leonardo Giovanni'''), known as '''[[Il Puttino]]''' ({{langx|it|Small Child}}) (1533–1578), was an early [[Italian people|Italian]] [[chess]] master. 

Giovanni Leonardo was born in [[Cutro]], [[Calabria]]. He studied law in [[Rome]]. In 1560, he lost a match to [[Ruy López de Segura|Ruy López]] in Rome. In the years 1566–1572, he traveled and played chess in [[Rome]], [[Genoa]], [[Marseille]], and [[Barcelona]]. He had played many times against [[Paolo Boi]] in Italy, and they were regarded as being equal in strength.

Giovanni Leonardo di Bona won the first known international master tournament in the history of chess in [[Madrid]] in 1575, becoming the strongest chess master of the time. After their success at the [[Philip II of Spain|Court of Spain]], Leonardo and Paolo Boi both travelled, albeit separately, to [[Lisbon]], where they tested their chess skill against ''Il Moro'', the eminent chess champion of [[Sebastian of Portugal|King Don Sebastian, of Portugal]]. Again, they both succeeded—first Leonardo, soon followed by Paolo Boi—in defeating Il Moro.

After he won with Ruy Lopez in Spain, he asked for his town [[Cutro]] to be forgiven of taxes and called Cutro the "City of Chess," where every year, this event is remembered on a traditional day in August.
  
And again, the King was generous with his rewards. After this triumph, Giovanni Leonardo di Bona, having been called the wandering knight (''Il Cavaliere errante'') by King Don Sebastian, left Portugal to return to Italy and settle in [[Naples]], where he became the chess master for the Prince of [[Bisignano]].

Although only a small number of his games have reached us, we are certain that he did not play chess like his peers, who were all aggressive attackers. Instead, he was a slow, positional player who consistently favored sound tactics over spectacular combinations. 

==External links==
*{{chessgames player|id=77044}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070301065158/http://e4e6.com/cutro/leonardouk.php Biography] {{in lang|it}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bona, Giovanni Leonardo Di}}
[[Category:1542 births]]
[[Category:1597 deaths]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Crotone]]
[[Category:Italian chess players]]
[[Category:16th-century chess players]]
{{italy-chess-bio-stub}}