Romantic Rumble Semifinal: Isidor Gunsberg vs. Johannes Zukertort

The finish line is in sight.

Unsurprisingly, the three World Championship Challengers have won their first two matches, but at least one of them will have met their match in this round. Will our first finalist be the first Challenger, Johannes Zukertort? Or will the upstart, Isidor Gunsberg, surpass the old master and punch his ticket? That choice is up to you; I'm here merely to help inform your decision. Let's waste no time.

These two didn't play their first serious, recorded game until 1886, but I'd like to do a little analysis of the preceding years. From 1880 until 1883, I think it's very nearly undeniable that Zukertort was the better player. While we can probably all agree with this based on "vibes," I would also like to base it on two key results: both played matches against Blackburne in 1881 (Zukertort won +7-2=5, Gunsberg lost +4-7=3), and both competed during London 1883 (Zukertort won the grand tournament—see here and here—while Gunsberg did not win the Vizayanagaram/minor tournament). Thus, in terms of results, the decision is clear

The years 1884-85 give us slightly less to work with, as there were no mutual competitions. Zukertort is still probably held in higher regard, though his health noticeably deteriorated during these years, so I'm not so certain in claiming anything. This is paired with Gunsberg having an excellent 1885, winning two large tournaments: the 1st BCA Congress in London, followed by the 4th DSB Congress in Hamburg (see here). There is a very real possibility that, if you combine these two phenomena, Gunsberg was actually playing chess at a higher level than Zukertort, but that's purely speculation. Regardless, I don't think you can claim Gunsberg takes this period with as much certainty as Zukertort in the previous paragraph, if you even want to claim it at all.

The framework I'm going into this matchup with (I also cast a vote in these, you know) is this: did Gunsberg surpass Zukertort enough during the last half of the decade to make up for everything before 1883? I think you can fairly well claim Gunsberg was the stronger player post-1886 (and especially post-1888), but whether he did enough remains to be seen. Let's look at some games to help us decide.

1886

These two played their first proper game at the London 1886 tournament, which was the first event Zukertort competed in after losing his match against Steinitz. The event was a complete disaster for him, as he finished well outside of the prizes, and games like this demonstrate why that happened. This is the first in a very disturbing pattern among Zukertort's games today, where he makes at least one costly mistake before move 10 and never really gets to play the game.

Gunsberg's 8/12 landed him in =3rd, while Zukertort's 6/12 was a full point behind the prize winners.

Their game from the Nottingham tournament about a month later went unpublished. It was a draw.

1887

A fun trivia fact about these two is that they were both frequent competitors in the annual handicap tournaments of the larger clubs, notably the British Chess Club. These were large events, featuring up to 20 players each, and were carried out over multiple months (the event we're discussing now went from the end of February until May). The 1887 edition was a very welcome sight for all of Zukertort's fans, as he comfortably won the event with 13.5/15, 1.5 points ahead of second place. This game was also a needed change of pace for the old champion, who got a very pleasant position out of his favourite opening system and was winning by the first time control. A creative sacrifice from Gunsberg made the win somewhat difficult, but Zukertort held on just long enough to usher in a winning Bishop endgame.

Again, Zukertort won this event with 13.5/15, while Gunsberg's 10.5/15 was enough for =3rd (again).

The Frankfurt tournament took place that July, and frankly speaking, it was an awful tournament for both of them. Both finished well below fifty percent, and between them, they scored just one win against the prize winners. Their mutual game was also quite poor, with Zukertort having his own borderline winning position by move 10, but somehow not converting. To use Zukertorts own words, he "over-finessed" around move 20, foregoing a direct win in exchange for something slower. This plan lead to him incorrectly trading down about 10 moves later, and Gunsberg escaped with the draw.

Both players scored only 8.5/20 and finished =14th.

Last up for the year was the 3rd BCA tournament in December. This is the second game in the aforementioned pattern, and I think I shared my thoughts well enough in Gunsberg's chapter for the event (see here). There's really nothing more that needs to be said.

Gunsberg finished =1st with 8/9, while Zukertort's 6/9 was good enough for 4th place, however only the top three won prizes.

1888

While a relatively slow year for international tournaments (especially compared to the following year), 1888 featured a couple of handicap tournaments that we care about quite a bit. The first took place between March and April, hosted by the chess club at Simpson's Divan, one of the larger chess clubs/cafes in London. This tournament was all Gunsberg, who lead from start to finish and demolished almost the entire field. His game with Zukertort was as textbook a demolition as it gets, with yet another opening mistake leading to yet another short, disappointing game for the former challenger.

Gunsberg won this event with an official score of 16.5/17 (a few people forfeited, so maybe this should be read as 13.5/14), defeating everyone except second-place James Mason. Zukertort's 10.5/17 was a half point shy of the prizes.

Our final event today is the rematch of the British Chess Club handicap. It's a very strange tournament to speak of, as Zukertort died in the middle of it, though it's perhaps worth mentioning that he was leading with 7/8 at the time. One of those eight was against Gunsberg, and it followed a very similar pattern as his other win, with an early advantage preceding a somewhat shaky conversion. Given Zukertort's fate in this decade, I always like ending with one of his wins, so this satisfies me on a more personal level.

Gunsberg and Blackburne tied for first with 11/14. Zukertort's remaining games were considered drawn, making his final score 10/14, good enough for =3rd.

One final mention should be given to Gunsberg's 1889 achievements. His 3rd-place finish at New York 1889 is doubtlessly at the top, as this event kicked off his World Championship campaign (though further advancements took place only in 1890, and should not be considered here). Further results include =4th at Breslau 1889 (10/17), 5th at Amsterdam 1889 (4/8), and =1st at London 1889 (7.5/10, though with lower tiebreaks than Henry Bird so formally 2nd).

Conclusion

Gunsberg winning the head-to-head +3-2=2 hopefully helps reinforce the narrative that he, by most objective measures, was the stronger player by the time these two began regularly competing against one another. The question then becomes, was the gap large enough to compensate for the fact that Zukertort was doubtlessly the better player beforehand, or did Zukertort do enough to ensure he remains the better player overall? I have my opinion on the matter, but this is a democratic process, so it's time to do democracy.

As usual, vote on who you think was the better player; the one with the fewest votes is the subject of my next blog. As I have a break from school next week, we should be able to make some serious progress on this series before the end of the month, and then it's on to new things. Exciting! Maybe.

Cheers