Very interesting! thank you!
Murray
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The is the centenial year of the publication of HJR Murray's massive undertaking, "The History of Chess." While I won't go into detail now about Murray, suffice it to say that he was possibly, even probably, the greatest chess historian ever born. I've been reading, not just the aforementioned book, but his many contributions to "The British Chess Magazine," some of which I plan to post on my blog (I made the initial one recently, called George Walker) in commemoration.
That said, the purpose of this thread is to show the final words from "The History of Chess," which I found surprising. Thoughout the book Murray is the objective observer, but as the book approaches the contemporary times (or the turn of the 20th century), Murray expresses his own feelings on the state of chess at that time...
First, however, it should be noted that as he approached the current time, his descriptions became shorter and shorter. He gave about a paragraph to Anderssen and a few lines to Morphy, summarizing them this way:
In the play of Morphy and Anderssen, the principles of the Lewis school reached reached its highest development. Both were players of rare imaginative gifts, and their play has never been paralleled for brilliancy of style, beauty of conception, and depth of design. In Morphy these qualities blazed forth from sheer natural genius; in Anderssen they were the result of long practice and study, the foundation being laid in the composition of the problem.
Talking about Steinitz, there is a certain disdain noticable:
William Steinitz ... was the first player to use the title of Champion of the World, and to realize the monetary value of the position.
The last paragraph is very interesting - and unexpected:
During the long championship of Steinitz a great change came over the style of play adopted by the leading players, and the attractive methods of the period 1830-60 were dropped in Tournaments and matches. This new method of play, generally known as the Modern School, is usually associated with the name of Steinitz, though he was not the sole originator and not the most successful exponent of it. The Modern School is the direct result of the modern Tournament system, which penalizes a player heavily for the loss of a game. When the result of each round depends upon a single game, the player naturally declines to risk anything by direct attack when the failure of the attack will leave him with a compromised position. The Modern School is essentially safety play. The range of Openings is restricted to those in which the chances of surprises are the fewest, the Ruy Lopez, the Queen's Gambit Declined, &c., and the Gambits and Open Games are eschewed. The tactics of the early part of the game are directed toward the establishment of a safe position which presents no weak points by which the opponent can force an entry. This has substituted strategy for the older attacking combinationsm and has given rise to the new theory of Pawn-play. The Pawn is now regarded as strongest at home, and weaker the more it is advanced, because in its advance it leaves behind "holes" or squares which cannont be guarded by Pawns. The tactics of Mid-game consist in making use of any small weakness in the opponent's position, or in compelling him to create small weaknesses, and the minute advantages that are gained in this way are helpd stubbornly until with the reduction of forces they become of sufficient value to decide the game, The Modern School is dull and unenterprising in comparison to the school it displaced, but it keeps the draw 'in hand,' and is supposed to pay better in matches and tournaments. But when we see a player like H.N. Pillsbury (b.1872, d.1906), possessing the gift of imagination and the courage to adopt the older methods in a Tournament, repeaedly taking the high position among the prize-winnersm we may be permitted to doubt whether the Modern School is all that it is claimed to be, or has said the last word upon the tactics of play.