Wilhelm Steinitz (Prague, 18 May 1836 – New York, 12 August 1900) was an Austrian chess player who became a naturalized American from 1888, the first world chess champion.
Steinitz is considered the "father of modern chess" for having introduced the concepts of positional play, which are the basis of chess practice today. He has been called "the Michelangelo of chess" for his passionate dedication to this game.
Garri Kasparov said of him: "His teaching marked a turning point in the history of chess. With Steinitz the era of modern chess begins. The contribution of the first world champion to the evolution of chess is comparable to the great scientific discoveries of Nineteenth century".
Steinitz began playing chess at the age of 12, but his interest in the game developed while studying at the Vienna Polytechnic. Following the exploits of Paul Morphy and the first major international tournaments, chess experienced ever-increasing popularity among different social classes at the turn of the mid-nineteenth century. Steinitz thought it best to exploit his chess skills in Viennese cafés, playing for money and thus paying for his university studies. At 26 he became champion of Vienna and, thanks to contributions collected among his supporters, he signed up for the London tournament of 1862. The tournament was won by the German Adolf Anderssen with a score of 11/12 and Steinitz finished in sixth place. However, he won the beauty award for the match against Augustus Mongredien. After the tournament he played a match with the Italian Serafino Dubois, who had ranked fifth. The victory in this match (+5 -3 =1) was decisive, as he later declared, in his decision to dedicate himself completely to chess. In 1866 he challenged Anderssen, considered by many to be the champion of the virtual world, although this title did not yet officially exist (he had won the London 1851 tournament, the first international tournament in the history of chess). The match was played in London and ended on August 10th in favor of Steinitz (8 wins and 6 losses). Steinitz always maintained that this date was the start of his "reign" as world champion. In 1870 he placed second, behind Anderssen, at the Baden-Baden tournament, considered the strongest held up to then. In 1873 he won the Vienna tournament, ahead of Blackburne and Anderssen. In 1876 he played a match in London with Blackburne, winning by +7 -0 =0. In 1882 he won, on a par with Simon Winawer, the strong double group tournament in Vienna with 24 points out of 34 (+20 –6 =8), ahead of James Mason with 23 points, George Mackenzie and Johannes Zukertort with 22.5 points .
In the third round Mackenzie found a perpetuity in an otherwise lost position, ending Steinitz's unbroken streak of 25 victories. This constitutes a chess record that still stands for high-level players.
Steinitz was also a strong blind chess player (he played up to six simultaneous blind games), surpassed perhaps in this type of game, in his era, only by Paul Morphy, Joseph Blackburne and Harry Nelson Pillsbury.
In 1883 a historic tournament was held in London, because for the first time a mechanical watch was used and 14 of the best players of the time faced each other, with the final victory going to Zukertort (Anderssen's student), who beat Steinitz by three points. On January 11, 1886, the Steinitz-Zukertort match, the first official world championship, began in New York. The rules included matches in various American cities: New York, Saint Louis and New Orleans. The world champion title would go to the player who was the first to reach 10 victories.
After the first part Zukertort was leading 4 to 1, but in the second phase, in Saint Louis, Steinitz evened the score: 4 to 4. After moving to New Orleans, the match continued in balance until the 15th, when Steinitz prevailed by one the opponent won: 6 to 5. The following five games showed a psychological and physical collapse of Zukertort, who finally gave in, exhausted: the final score was 10 to 5 (+10 -5 =5). His rule lasted until 1894 and he won three more world championship challenges: against the Russian Michail Čigorin in Havana in 1889, against the Hungarian Isidor Gunsberg in Havana in 1890 and again against Čigorin in Havana in 1891. In 1894, in a match played in New York, Philadelphia and Montreal, he lost the challenge against the German Emanuel Lasker (+5 -10 =4). The last match took place on May 26th. It was the end of his reign as the first world champion, which officially lasted eight years, but more than 27 if we start from when he won the match with Anderssen in 1866. Two years later a rematch took place in Moscow; Steinitz was not in good health and Lasker won even more clearly (+10 –2 =5).
