Cleveland Public Library; Wikipedia

Wilhelm Steinitz

DonMcKim

Jan 20, 2022, 4:44 AM | 7

Wilhelm (William) Steinitz (1836-1900) is acknowledged as the first World Chess Champion. He reigned for eight years, from 1886-1894. During that time, he defended his title three times before he lost. In retrospect, Steinitz claimed to have been the World Champion since his 1866 match against Adolf Anderssen, then considered the strongest player in the world.

Steinitz’s life took shape in three phases. He first began to make his way as a chess player in his native Austria.

For twenty years, Steinitz lived in London and participated in the great chess scene of that city. His experiences there are chronicled in detail in Tim Harding’s, Steinitz in London: A Chess Biography with 623 Games (McFarland & Company, 2020). See my review in Choice (February 2021).

After rejecting, and being rejected by the British, Steinitz emigrated to America where he enjoyed great successes and then bitter failures.

As for Steinitiz’s style, Charles Devidé wrote:

Successively Steinitz had completely changed his style. Formerly brilliant but not safe, he became safe but not brilliant. Daring and impetuous, he became cautious and deliberate, aiming at the accumulation of small advantages, deprecating any attack on the king’s side, but seeking rather to win in the ending. While his games lost much of their attractiveness to the general player, they became highly appreciated by the connoisseur and form an invaluable source of instruction. [A Memorial to William Steinitz (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1901), 4.]

In a contemporary assessment, Craig Pritchett wrote:

One of the most original and successful players that the game has ever seen, Steinitz produced many ideas and games of long-lasting and insightful brilliance that still bear comparison with those of any subsequent, modern great and remain just as instructive [Craig Pritchett, Steinitz Move by Move (London: Gloucester Press, 2015), Introduction.]

In addition to the sources cited above, other resources for studying Steinitz are:

Tony Cullen, Chess Rivals of the 19th Century with 300 Annotated Games (McFarland & Company, 2021).

Tim Harding, Eminent Victorian Chess Players: Ten Biographies (McFarland & Company, 2012).

Be sure also to check out these resources at Chess.com:

https://www.chess.com/blog/simaginfan/my-favorite-game-of-number-19-wilhelm-steinitz

https://www.chess.com/article/view/steinitz-the-official-world-chess-champion

https://www.chess.com/article/view/steinitz-changes-the-chess-world

https://www.chess.com/article/view/behold-steinitz-the-austrian-morphy

https://www.chess.com/article/view/steinitz-defense-openings-of-world-champions

https://www.chess.com/blog/FederFredericksen/steinitz-crushes-mongredien

https://www.chess.com/blog/God_Gangster/the-1st-official-world-chess-champion-wilhelm-steinitz

https://www.chess.com/blog/FederFredericksen/lasker-crushes-steinitz