Wilhelm steinitz

Wilhelm Steinitz (Prague, May 14, 1836 - New York, August 12, 1900) was an Austrian chess player, the first official world champion between 1886, by defeating Johannes Zukertort, and 1894, when he was defeated by Emanuel Lasker. He spent much of his career in the United States where he passed away in a mental asylum near New York.

Steinitz is not only important in chess history as the first official world champion, but also as the discoverer of many of the strategic principles on which the modern positional game is based.

Biography

Childhood and youth (1836-1861)

Wilhelm Steinitz was born in 1836 in the Prague ghetto, a city that then belonged to the Austrian Empire, into a modest family of hardware merchants. He was the ninth of thirteen children, although his four younger brothers died in infancy. After finishing high school he went to Vienna to study engineering at the Higher Polytechnic School. Vienna was at that time a city with a great tradition and chess activity and Steinitz soon became interested in the game, which he had learned from his father. His progress was rapid and Steinitz, who earned good money betting in cafes, gave up his studies to devote himself fully to chess and soon became the strongest player in Vienna.

The beginning of his career (1862-1871)

Steinitz's first international experience was in the 1862 London tournament, finally won by Adolf Anderssen ahead of other great players of the time such as Paulsen, MacDonnell or Blackburne. Steinitz's result was not bad, finishing sixth among fourteen participants and obtaining a sensational victory over Mongredien that brought him the beauty prize.

W. Steinitz - A. Mongredien
London (1862)

16.Txh7!?... (1-0)

After the promising start Steinitz decided to settle in London, at that time one of the chess capitals of the world, disputing with great results several matches with outstanding players such as Blackburne (+7 -1 =2), Deacon (+5 -1 =1) and Mongredien himself (+7 =1).

About this time, at the age of 30, Steinitz married 19-year-old Caroline Golder, and in 1867 their only daughter, Flora, was born. Flora died in 1888 and Caroline a few years later in 1892.

In 1866, when the American genius Morphy retired, a duel between Anderssen and Steinitz could be considered to decide who was the best player in the world and, in fact, that is how it is considered today to have happened when in a match without a draw Steinitz prevailed by eight victories to six.

However, Steinitz's subsequent results were not brilliant enough for his superiority to be unquestionably accepted by the chess community. At the end of 1866 he beat Henry Bird (+7 -5 = 5) although the latter, despite the fact that he was a very strong player, had been defeated by Morphy by a more forceful +10 -1 = 1. In the Paris tournament of 1867 he could only be third after Kolisch and Winawer, while that same year he did not go beyond second place in Dundee, a tournament won by Neumann. He eventually also came second in the 1870 Baden-Baden tournament behind Anderssen, who also defeated him in both of his individual matches.

Evolution of positional style (1872-1885)

It was this slump in his career that, in his own words, led Steinitz to rethink the foundations of his game. In the early part of his career, Steinitz's chess was similar to that of his contemporaries Adolf Anderssen or Paul Morphy, characterized by quick attacks on the king and a preference for gambit openings. But gradually Steinitz developed his own style, which is the foundation of the positional style, without which it would be impossible to understand modern chess. The in-depth study of these positional criteria establishes the foundations of a solid defense, to which Steinitz attached great importance, and of the criteria to weaken the opposing position that justify the initiation of a correct attack.

International Chess Magazine
New York, 1888.

In 1872 Steinitz won the international tournament in London ahead of Blackburne and a rising young star, Johannes Zukertort, whom he then easily defeated in a match (+7 -1 =4). The following year, in 1873, he also won the Vienna tournament ahead of Blackburne and Anderssen. In 1876 he defeated Blackburne again in a singles match by a resounding +7, being the only interruption in a long period of inactivity in competition that would last until 1882. Meanwhile he devoted himself to his work as a commentator in the magazine The Field, to the simultaneous exhibitions and, without a doubt, to the study of new strategies that ranged from the opening to the middle game and that are classic today, such as the "Steinitz" variations of the French defense and the opening Spanish.

On his return to competition, Steinitz won the 1882 Vienna international tournament ahead of Zukertort, although Zukertort achieved the greatest success of his career the following year by winning the London tournament and relegating Steinitz to second place. position. The possibility of a match to decide who was the best player in the world was immediately raised. The rivalry between the two went beyond the board to the point that Steinitz lost his job at The Field when the magazine editor handed over the chess column to Zukertort. As a consequence, at the end of 1883 Steinitz emigrated to the United States where he began to publish his articles and comments in the New York Tribune and in his own magazine, the International Chess Magazine. .

World Champion (1886-1894)

Paul Morphy disappeared, it was in the United States where the expected duel between Steinitz and Zukertort was organized, for the first time with official consideration as a match for the title of World Chess Champion. At Steinitz's proposal, ten games won were played, without counting draws, although in the event of equality at nine the game would not continue but would be considered tied.

The match began in New York on January 11, 1886 in a disastrous way for Steinitz who, although he won the first game, immediately afterwards suffered four consecutive defeats. However, the game had to continue in Saint Louis and New Orleans (Morphy's hometown) and there Steinitz, after equalizing 4-4, overwhelmingly prevailed by +10 -5 =5.

Later, in 1888, the Havana Chess Club contacted Steinitz to have him designate an opponent for a new match. Without hesitation, he chose the Russian master Mikhail Chigorin and, having gathered the necessary bag, the match was played in Havana in 1889 for the best of twenty games. It was hotly contested, with only a draw in the last game, and ended with a clear 10.5-6.5 victory for Steinitz.

Steinitz's next rival for the world title was the Anglo-Hungarian master Isidor Gunsberg, who, after drawing a match with Chigorin in Havana in 1890, challenged Steinitz. The match was held in New York between 1890 and 1891, also a best-of-twenty game, and Steinitz retained the title, winning in less haste than the final score of 10.5-8.5 would seem to indicate.

M. Chigorin - W. Steinitz
Havana (1892)
World Championship, 23rd game

16 Ab4? Txh2+ (0-1)

At this time Steinitz had published a famous opening guide, The Modern Chess Instructor, with novel ideas that were also reproduced in Russian magazines of the time. Chigorin expressed his disagreement with Steinitz's variations and the two played games by telegraph in which they settled their differences over the Evans gambit and the two-knight defense. Chigorin won both games in great style and the expectation was such that Great interest was aroused in many countries by holding a new match for the world title. Saint Petersburg and Havana presented offers and the champion decided on the latter. The first game of the match began on January 1, 1892, this time with the system of ten games won, except in the case of a tie at nine, which would be resolved by winning three additional games. The purse doubled that of his duel with Zukertort and amounted to $2,000 at the time.

Steinitz's general understanding of chess is still considered superior today, but Chigorin was an enormously talented player and the outcome of the championship was not only very close (+10 -8 =5) but the twenty-third and final game was decided by one of the most incredible mistakes to occur in a match for the world title.

Steinitz (left) and Lasker (right)
World Championship, United States (1894).

At this time Steinitz was approaching sixty, and besides Chigorin, there were other players of a new generation eager to challenge him for the title of world champion. The first of these was the medical doctor Siegbert Tarrasch, famous for a solid positional style more similar to Steinitz's than to the brilliant Chigorin, whom he challenged to a match that took place in 1893 in San Petersburg. Tarrasch, confident in his game's superiority, hoped to defeat Chigorin which would make him an obvious contender for Steinitz's throne; however he could only tie +9 -9 = 4 after a very tough competition.

The one who finally challenged Steinitz for the title was Emanuel Lasker who, after a tour of the United States in 1892 and 1893, proposed the challenge to Steinitz. He accepted, and the match was played in the spring of 1894 in New York, Philadelphia, and Montreal. Until the seventh game the score was even, but after being defeated in a very difficult position, Steinitz, who was not in good health, lost another four consecutive games to end up giving up the title by a clear +10 -5 =4. Lasker would dominate world chess until 1921 when the Cuban genius José Raúl Capablanca would take over.

The final years (1895-1900)

W. Steinitz - K. von Bardeleben
Hastings (1895)

22 Txe7+! Rf8! 23 Tf7+! Rg8! 24 Tg7+! Rh8! 25 Txh7+! (1-0)

Steinitz relinquished the title and would not get any more big wins. Thus, in the Hastings tournament of 1895 he could only be fifth after Pillsbury, Chigorin, Lasker and Tarrasch, but his victory against Bardeleben is still remembered as one of the most beautiful in the history of chess.

A few months later he would place second to Lasker in a six-round home run tournament held in St. Petersburg, leaving Pillsbury and Chigorin behind. Although he continued to get good ratings, he found himself outclassed by the young players, and could only get sixth place in the Nuremberg super-tournament (1896). In late 1896 and early 1897, in Moscow, he lost the first match revenge in history, starting the match with four consecutive losses. His health also suffered to the point that he was hospitalized for a whole month, and finally Lasker prevailed by a clear +10 -2 = 5.

Even without strength, he achieved fourth place in the tournament in Vienna in 1898 and, the following year, he played the last tournament of his life in London without being able to enter the prizes. There he played his last game against David Janowsky before whom he also got the last of his many victories.

After this he returned to the United States, but his health and mental problems were severe—apparently he imagined himself playing electrically or telegraphically against Lasker or against God himself—and he died in a mental hospital on Ward's Island, in New York.

His chess legacy was enormous. Tarrasch, Lasker, Pillsbury, Schlechter, Maróczy, Rubinstein, Capablanca, Alekhine or even later Euwe were examples of players, including all subsequent world champions, for whom Wilhelm Steinitz's teachings were essential.