The First World Chess Champion!

Introduction

We are all familiar with the likes of Magnus Carlsen and Bobby Fischer but not many people are familiar with Wilhelm Steinitz. Your probably thinking this is some obscure chess master who recently won a tournament right. "Wrong!" Wilhelm Steinitz was the first world chess champion ever. 

In this article I'll will explain his early life and how he rose to the top this is a summary and links to my sources will be included at the bottom if you are interested in a series were I explain his games leave a comment and let me know. Now without further adue!

Early Life

Wilhelm was born youngest to a family of over ten kids. From a very early age Wilhelm showed promise in mathematics and he had a very kine memory. This would later help him when he decided to drop out of college in his 20s to play chess full-time.

A Slow Climb To the Top

In the 1850s Wilhelm showed more and more promise eventually taking first in the Vienna City Championship in 1861. From their his progress en began to slow but not stop. 5 long years later after slaying many giants of the chess world and winning every serious game he played Wilhelm Steinitz a small boy you grew from poverty to become nicknamed the "Austrian Morphy" and the first World Chess Champion.

What He did next

After his career as a chess player Wilhelm eventually switched to doing journalism for big chess events.

He still continued to play every once in a while but never fully returned to the spot light.

This article was written by Tanner Lux

sources/work cited:

The World Chess Championship, by I.A, Macmillan, New York, 1973, p. 19; Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 72-80175

Shibut, Macon (May 7, 2014). Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. p. 82. ISBN 978-0486435749.

MacDonnell, G.A. (1894). The Knights and Kings of Chess.