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Wilhelm Steinitz

First World Chess Champion and founder of modern positional play.

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Wilhelm Steinitz

via Wikipedia: Wilhelm Steinitz · see source

At age 12, Steinitz acquired the ability to play chess; after departing Prague in 1857 to pursue mathematics at the Vienna Polytechnic, he started engaging in serious chess during his twenties.[1]

Life and work

He represented Austria at the London 1862 chess tournament, placed sixth, and won the brilliancy prize for his game against Augustus Mongredien.[2] After moving to London, he defeated Joseph Henry Blackburne in a match in 1862–63.[3] In 1866, Steinitz beat Adolf Anderssen in a match with eight wins and six losses, establishing himself as the world's best player.[4][5] Steinitz unveiled a new positional style of play at the Vienna 1873 chess tournament, which became the basis of modern chess.[6]

He took a nine-year hiatus from tournament play between 1873 and 1882, focusing on chess journalism for The Field.[7][8] During the late 1850s, Steinitz's chess skill advanced quickly; he captured the Vienna City championship in 1861 with a record of 30 points out of 31.[9] Steinitz lost the world title to Lasker in 1894, with Lasker winning ten games to Steinitz's five.[10] On August 12, 1900, Steinitz died of a heart attack while a pauper at the Manhattan State Hospital.[11]

What the cited sources add

Bill Wall's account notes that from 1863 to 1894, Steinitz played 29 matches, winning 27, losing one, and drawing one.[12] The New York Times obituary reported that from 1863 to 1894, Steinitz won 240 games, lost 71, and drew 74 out of 395 games against top players.[13] Jeremy Silman's article states that Steinitz was born on May 17, 1836, and moved to Vienna in 1858 hoping to earn a living as a journalist.[14] Silman also describes Steinitz's first-place finish at the Vienna 1873 tournament, where he won his last sixteen games in a row.[14]

Lasker's magazine article notes that the stakes for the match were $2,000 a side, with the winner receiving only $1,000 after repaying backers.[15]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schoenberg, "Grandmasters of Chess", W.W. Norton & Co., 1981, p. 99; Schulz, "The Big Book of World Chess Championships: 46 Title Fights – from Steinitz to Carlsen", New In Chess, May 11, 2016; Harding, "Steinitz in London: A Chess Biography with 623 Games", McFarland, September 10, 2020; Schoenberg, "Grandmasters of Chess", W.W. Norton & Co., 1981, p. 99; Landsberger, "William Steinitz, Chess Champion", McFarland & Co, 2006, p. 17; The World Chess Championship, by I.A. Horowitz, Macmillan, New York, 1973, p. 19; Library of Congress Ca en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bill Wall, "William Steinitz", Bill Wall's Chess Page; Kasparov, "My great predecessors: Part I", Everyman Chess, 2003, p. 46; "Scores of various important chess results from the Romantic era" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Joseph Blackburne"; Silman, Jeremy, "Wilhelm Steinitz"; Landsberger, K., "The Steinitz Papers: Letters and Documents of the First World Chess Champion", McFarland, 2002 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schoenberg, "Grandmasters of Chess", W.W. Norton & Co., 1981, p. 99; The World Chess Championship, by I.A. Horowitz, 1973, Macmillan, New York, pp. 23–24, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-80175 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Winter, E., "Early Uses of 'World Chess Champion'" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Silman, Jeremy, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bill Wall, "William Steinitz", Bill Wall's Chess Page; "History of the CCA"; "Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound Amount, 1830 to Present" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Rosenthal–Zukertort Match, London 1880", December 2013}} For example, he wrote commentaries on the {{cite web; Winter, E., "Kasparov, Karpov and the Scotch" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Scores of various important chess results from the Romantic era"; Shibut, "Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory", Dover Publications, May 7, 2014, p. 82 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Giffard, Nicolas, "Le Guide des Échecs", Éditions Robert Laffont, 1993, p. 394; "Lasker v. Steinitz – World Championship Match 1894"; "Steinitz Obituary (Part 2 of 2)", New York Times, August 14, 1900 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Wilhelm Steinitz" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Steinitz free once more", Baltimore American, April 10, 1900; Steinitz, "My Advertisement to Antisemites in Vienna and Elsewhere by "a Schacherjude" (mercenary Jew), Or, An Essay on Capital, Labor, and Charity", W.Steinitz, 1900 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Bill Wall, "William Steinitz", Bill Wall's Chess Page. facts only, no text reused. billwall.phpwebhosting.com
  13. "Steinitz Obituary (Part 2 of 2)", New York Times, August 14, 1900. facts only, no text reused. web.archive.org
  14. Silman, Jeremy, "Wilhelm Steinitz". facts only, no text reused. web.archive.org
  15. Emanuel Lasker, "From the Editorial Chair", Lasker's Chess Magazine, January 1905. facts only, no text reused. en.wikisource.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Wilhelm Steinitz (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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