Wilhelm Steinitz (1886 world chess champion)
Today I'm going to talk about a chess champion his name is Wilhem Steinitz
He was born in Prague as a citizen of the Austrian Empire. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1888, at which time he changed his name to William. Steinitz was the first person to study chess scientifically and develop rules of strategy. He is therefore considered the father of modern chess.
In 1886 he was officially declared world chess champion. At that time, the world champion had the right to choose his opponents. He lost the title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894.
Steinitz, who wrote a book called The Modern Chess Instructor, challenged Philidor's theories about pawn structure. He adopted a style based on the accumulation of small strategic successes in closed solid pawn positions. He analyzed the weaknesses in the pawn structure. In the face of Steinitz's solid play, the old game of attacking the opponent's king directly collapsed
Early years
At the age of 2, he learned to play chess.[2] He started playing chess seriously in his 20s,
Chess career (until 1881)
Steinitz was rapidly improving his chess in the late 1850s, winning the Vienna City Tournament in 1861 with a score of 30/31, having placed 3rd in 1859. During this period he was nicknamed the "Austrian Murphy". This success meant that he was the strongest player in Austria.
First international experience
Steinitz was then sent to represent Austria at the London 1862 chess tournament. He placed sixth, but his victory over Augustus Mongredien was awarded the tournament's prize for brilliance. He immediately challenged the fifth-ranked competitor. Steinitz won the match between the powerful veteran Italian Master Serafino Dubois and Steinitz (five wins, one draw, three losses). This encouraged him to turn professional and he took up residence in London. In 1862-63 Steinitz scored a crushing victory in a match against Joseph Henry Blackburne, who had been among the top ten chess players in the world for 20 years, but had only started playing chess two years earlier.
Steinitz later defeated some of England's leading players in matches: Frederic Deacon and the aforementioned Mongredien in 1863, followed by Valentine Green in 1864. His rise in the rankings came at a price: in March 1863, Steinitz apologized in a letter to Ignác Kolisch for not repaying a loan because while Steinitz was defeating Blackburne, Daniel Harrwitz had taken over all Steinitz's clients at the London Chess Club, which provided Steinitz's main source of income.
Since it is long, I will do it in 3 parts, the first half in part 1, the second half in part 2, and at the end I will combine them all and publish part 3.
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