Wilhelm Steinitz - First World Chess Champion and Father of Positional Play
I, having been a chess player for more than a year now, have noticed that most new-age chess players know only about Grandmaster's of the recent past. But they don't know about quite old GM's like Paul Morphy, Emanuel Lasker and Jose Raul Capablanca.
In this blog, I'll bring more information about Wilhelm Steinitz, the World's First Chess Champion and often called the Father of Positional Play.
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Steinitz was born on May 17, 1836, the youngest of thirteen sons in Prague, which was then part of the Austrian Empire. He studied math in Vienna, but dropped out of college to play chess professionally. After winning the Vienna Championship in 1861, he moved to London and participated in the international tournament in London, 1862, where he finished 6th and won the tournament's brilliancy prize for his win over Augustus Mongredien.
In 1883, Steinitz emigrated to the USA, where, in 1886, he played the first official World Championship match against Johannes Zukertort. The match took place in New York, St. Louis and New Orleans and Steinitz won decisively by 12½–7½ (ten wins, five draws, five losses).
Steinitz became a U.S. citizen in 1888, and lived there until his deat, August 12, 1900.
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Playing Style
When Steinitz entered the chess scene in the 1850s, aggressive play was all the rage. He played in this romantic fashion full of gambits and sacrifices at first, but he later changed the landscape of chess forever when he revealed a new positional style of play. He defended his new positional ideas furiously, and they were eventually accepted by many other masters. This new positional style laid the groundwork for modern chess.
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End Life
A superb defensive player, particularly in his later years, he sought to systematize chess and devoted much time and effort to arguing his theories. Following his defeat by Lasker, Steinitz suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized in Moscow. He recovered for a time but fell ill again and died a pauper.
