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Chess legends series: Adolf Anderssen

Chess legends series: Adolf Anderssen

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Sometime after Howard Staunton made himself quite a name in the chess world, his dream to create an international chess tournament came true during the Great Exhibition in 1851.16 players from Hungary, France, and other nations competed in a knock-out tournament. German competitor von der Lasa couldn't make it to the game therefore his substitution was Adolf Anderssen, at that time, was not a much-recognized player. It was fate or luck that the first pairing for the tournament was Lionel Kieseritzky. Anderssen won their match in the contest with 2 wins and 1 draw, however, they have played together a number of casual games where Kieseritzky was more successful (9 wins,5 losses,2 draws). That was the birthplace of what we call an "immortal game".

Adolf Anderssen (1818-1879)
His father taught him chess when he was 9 years of age. He was inspired by William Lewis and his book "fifty games between Labourdonnais and Mac Donnell". The chess world first heard about him in 1842 when he released a chess puzzle collection book. He continued publishing in chess magazines but his name became legendary in 1851. Since the Great Exhibition and his sensational victory, he was one of the best players in the world. His playing career was quite long (1851-1878) in which he managed to keep his strength consistently. His influence on chess seems to be both as an impressive player with serious combinational skills and also as a chess composer. His personality was rather the opposite of what he was showing on a chessboard. He was introverted, always trying to think everything through properly, honest and honorable. His one of the authors of both the famous "Immortal game" and also the "Evergreen game".

Adolf Anderssen was a strong player with a classical romantical touch filled with combinations and sacrifices. It is quite extraordinary that both these famous games ended with bishop on e7 with checkmate. He was considered by many the best however a new name entered the chess world. Paul Morphy-legend that we will discuss next time.