[blind-chess] Annotated Game #015: Wilhelm Steinitz - Kurt Von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895
- From: Roderick Macdonald <rmacd@xxxxxxxx>
- To: Blind Chess Mailing List <blind-chess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:08:27 -1000 (HST)
Annotated Game #015:
Wilhelm Steinitz - Curt Von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895
Adapted and Condensed from
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
++1. Wilhelm Steinitz
++1.A Life and chess career
++1.A1 Early stages
++1.A2 Dominance and controversies
++1.A3 Final years of career
++1.A4 The beginning of Steinitz's reign
++1.A5 Personal life
++1.B Writings
++1.C Assessment
++1.C1 Influence on the game
++1.C2 Playing strength and style
++1.C3 Personality
++1.C4 Notable games
++1.C5 Tournament results
++1.C6 Match results
++1.C7 Miscellaneous
++2. Curt Von Bardeleben
++3. Steinitz - Von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895
++1. Wilhelm Steinitz
World Champion 1886-1894 (undisputed)
Earlier dates are debated by commentators
Wilhelm (later William) Steinitz (Prague, May 17, 1836 - August 12,
1900) was an Austrian and then American chess player and the first
undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. From the 1870s
onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively
the champion earlier. Steinitz lost his title to Emanuel Lasker in
1894 and also lost a rematch in 1897.
Statistical rating systems give Steinitz a rather low ranking among
world champions, mainly because he took several long breaks from
competitive play. However, an analysis based on one of these rating
systems shows that he was one of the most dominant players in the
history of the game.
Although Steinitz became "world number one" by winning in the all-
out attacking style that was common in the 1860s, he unveiled in
1873 a new positional style of play and demonstrated that it was
superior to the previous style. His new style was controversial and
some even branded it as "cowardly", but many of Steinitz's games
showed that it could also set up attacks as ferocious as those of
the old school. Steinitz was also a prolific writer on chess, and
defended his new ideas vigorously. The debate was so bitter and
sometimes abusive that it became known as the "Ink War". By the
early 1890s, Steinitz' approach was widely accepted and the next
generation of top players acknowledged their debt to him, most
notably his successor as world champion, Emanuel Lasker.
As a result of the "Ink War", traditional accounts of Steinitz'
character depict him as ill-tempered and aggressive; but more
recent research shows that he had long and friendly relationships
with some players and chess organizations. Most notably from 1888
to 1889 he co-operated with the American Chess Congress in a
project to define rules for the future conduct of contests for the
world championship title that he held. Steinitz was unskilled at
managing money and lived in poverty all his life.
++1.A Life and chess career
++1.A1 Early stages
Steinitz in 1866
Steinitz was born on May 17, 1836 in the Jewish ghetto of Prague
(now capital of the Czech Republic; then in Bohemia, a part of the
Austrian Empire). The last of a hardware retailer's thirteen sons,
he learned to play chess at age 12. He began playing serious chess
in his twenties, after leaving Prague to study mathematics in
Vienna, at the Vienna Polytecnic. He improved rapidly in the late
1850s, progressing from third place in the 1859 Vienna championship
to first in 1861 with a score of 30/31. In this period he was
nicknamed "the Austrian Morphy".
Steinitz was then sent to represent Austria in the London 1862
chess tournament. He placed sixth, but his win over Augustus
Mongredien was awarded the tournament's brilliancy prize. He
immediately challenged the fifth-placed contestant, the Italian
player Serafino Dubois, to a match, which Steinitz won (five wins,
one draw, three losses). This encouraged him to turn professional
and he took residence in London. In 1862-63 Steinitz scored a
crushing win in a match with Joseph Henry Blackburne, who went on
to be one of the world's top ten for 20 years but had only started
playing chess two years earlier. Steinitz then convincingly beat
most of the leading UK-resident players in matches: Frederic
Deacon, Augustus Mongredien, Green, and Robey. This charge up the
rankings had a price: in March 1863 Steinitz apologized in a letter
to Ignac Kolisch for not repaying a loan, because while Steinitz
had been beating Blackburne, Daniel Harrwitz had "taken over" all
of Steinitz' clients at the London chess club, who had been
Steinitz' main source of income.
Adolf Anderssen was recognized as the world's top player until
1866, when Steinitz won a match against him.
These successes established Steinitz as one of the world's top
players, and he was able to arrange a match in 1866 in London
against Adolf Anderssen, who was regarded as the world's strongest
active player because he had won the 1851 and 1862 London
International Tournaments and his one superior, Paul Morphy, had
retired from competitive chess. Steinitz won with eight wins and
six losses (there were no draws), but it was a hard fight; after 12
games the scores were level at 6-6, then Steinitz won the last two
games. As a result of this win Steinitz was generally regarded as
the world's best player. The prize money for this match was #100 to
the winner (Steinitz) and #20 for the loser (Anderssen). The
winner's prize was a large sum by the standards of the times,
equivalent to about #57,500 in 2007's money.
Steinitz won every serious match he played from 1862 until 1892
inclusive, sometimes by wide margins. In the years following his
victory over Anderssen he beat Henry Bird in 1866 (seven wins, five
losses, five draws) and comfortably beat Johannes Zukertort in 1872
(seven wins, four draws, one loss; Zukertort had proved himself one
of the elite by beating Anderssen convincingly in 1871). But it
took longer for him to reach the top in tournament play. In the
next few years he took: third place at Paris 1867 behind Ignatz
Kolisch and Simon Winawer; and second places at Dundee (1868;
Gustav Neumann won), and Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament; behind
Anderssen but ahead of Blackburne, Louis Paulsen and other strong
players. His first victory in a strong tournament was London 1872,
ahead of Blackburne and Zukertort; and the first tournament in
which Steinitz finished ahead of Anderssen was Vienna 1873, when
Anderssen was 55 years old.
++1.A2 Dominance and controversies
All of Steinitz' successes up to 1872 inclusive were achieved in
the attack-at-all-costs "Romantic" style exemplified by Anderssen.
But in the Vienna 1873 chess tournament Steinitz unveiled a new
"positional" style of play which was to become the basis of modern
chess. He tied for first place with Blackburne, ahead of Anderssen,
Samuel Rosenthal, Paulsen and Henry Bird, and won the play-off
against Blackburne. Steinitz made a shaky start but won his last 14
games in the main tournament (including 2-0 results over Paulsen,
Anderssen, and Blackburne plus the 2 play-off games - this was the
start of a 24-game winning streak in serious competition.
Between 1873 and 1882 Steinitz played no tournaments and only one
match (a 7-0 win against Blackburne in 1876). His other games
during this period were in simultaneous and blindfold exhibitions,
which contributed an important part of a professional chess-
player's income in those days (for example in 1887 Blackburne was
paid 9 guineas for two simultaneous exhibitions and a blindfold
exhibition hosted by the Teesside Chess Association; this was
equivalent to about #4,800 at 2007 values).
Instead Steinitz concentrated on his work as a chess journalist,
notably for The Field, which was Britain's leading sports magazine.
Some of Steinitz' commentaries aroused heated debates, notably from
Zukertort and Leopold Hoffer in The Chess Monthly (which they
founded in 1879). This "Ink War" escalated sharply in 1881, when
Steinitz mercilessly criticized Hoffer's annotations of games in
the 1881 Berlin Congress (won by Blackburne ahead of Zukertort).
Steinitz was eager to settle the analytical debates by a second
match against Zukertort, whose unwillingness to play provoked
scornful comments from Steinitz. In mid-1882 James Mason, a
consistently strong player, challenged Steinitz to a match, and
accused Steinitz of cowardice when Steinitz insisted the issue with
Zukertort should be settled first. Steinitz responded by inviting
Mason to name a sufficiently high stake for a match, at least #150
per player (equivalent to about #73,000 in 2007's money), but Mason
was unwilling to stake more than #100. Mason later agreed to play
a match with Zukertort for a stake of #100 per player, but soon
"postponed" that match, "circumstances having arisen that make it
highly inconvenient for me to proceed ..." Steinitz' rival and
bitter enemy Johannes Zukertort lost matches to him in 1872 and
1886. The second match made Steinitz the undisputed world champion.
Steinitz' long lay-off caused some commentators to suggest that
Zukertort, who had scored some notable tournament victories, should
be regarded as the world chess champion. Steinitz returned to
serious competitive chess in the Vienna 1882 chess tournament,
which has been described as the strongest chess tournament of all
time at that point. Despite a shaky start he took equal first place
with Simon Winawer, ahead of James Mason, Zukertort, George Henry
Mackenzie, Blackburne, Berthold Englisch, Paulsen and Mikhail
Chigorin, and drew the play-off match. While Steinitz was playing
in Vienna and sending weekly reports on the tournament to The
Field, there was a plot against him back in England. Just after the
end of the tournament The Field published a xenophobic article that
praised the efforts of the English players and those of English
origin in Vienna but disparaged the victory of Steinitz and
Winawer. Steinitz stopped working for The Field and was replaced by
Hoffer, a close friend of Zukertort and a bitter enemy of Steinitz.
Steinitz visited the USA, mainly the Philadelphia area, from
December 1882 to May 1883. He was given an enthusiastic reception,
played several exhibitions, many casual games, a match for stakes
of #50 with a wealthy amateur, and slightly more serious matches
with two New World professionals, Sellman and the Cuban champion
Celso Golmayo Zupide - the match with Golmayo was abandoned when
Steinitz was leading (eight wins, one draw, one loss). His hosts
even arranged a visit to New Orleans, where Paul Morphy lived.
Later in 1883 Steinitz took second place in the extremely strong
London 1883 chess tournament behind Zukertort, who made a brilliant
start, faded at the end but finished 3 points
ahead. Steinitz finished 2.5 points ahead of the third-placed
competitor, Blackburne. Zukertort's victory again led some
commentators to suggest that Zukertort should be regarded as the
world chess champion, while others said the issue could only be
resolved by a match between Steinitz and Zukertort.
In 1883, shortly after the London tournament, Steinitz decided to
leave England and moved to New York, where he lived for the rest of
his life. This did not end the "Ink War": his enemies persuaded
some of the American press to publish anti-Steinitz
articles, and in 1885 Steinitz founded the International Chess
Magazine, which he edited until 1895. In his magazine he chronicled
the lengthy negotiations for a match with Zukertort. He also
managed to find supporters in other sections of the American press
including Turf, Field and Farm and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat,
both of which reported Steinitz' offer to forgo all fees, expenses
or share in the stake and make the match "a benefit performance,
solely for Mr. Zukertort's pecuniary profit".
Eventually it was agreed that in 1886 Steinitz and Zukertort would
play a match in New York, St. Louis and New Orleans, and that the
victor would be the player who first won 10 games. At Steinitz'
insistence the contract said it would be "for the Championship of
the World". After the five games played in New York, Zukertort led
by 4-1, but in the end Steinitz won decisively by 12.5-7.5 (ten
wins, five draws, five losses). Though not yet officially an
American citizen, Steinitz wanted the United States flag to be
placed next to him during the match. He became a U.S. citizen on
November 23, 1888, having resided for five years in New York, and
changed his first name from Wilhelm to William.
In 1887 the American Chess Congress started work on drawing up
regulations for the future conduct of world championship contests.
Steinitz actively supported this endeavor, as he thought he was
becoming too old to remain world champion - he wrote in his own
magazine "I know I am not fit to be the champion, and I am not
likely to bear that title for ever".
In 1888 Havana Chess Club offered to sponsor a match between
Steinitz and whomever he would select as a worthy opponent.
Steinitz nominated the Russian Mikhail Chigorin, on the condition
that the invitation should not be presented as a challenge from
him. There is some doubt about whether this was intended to be a
match for the world championship: both Steinitz' letters and the
publicity material just before the match conspicuously avoided the
phrase. The proposed match was to have a maximum of 20 games, and
Steinitz had said that fixed-length matches were unsuitable for
world championship contests because the first player to take the
lead could then play for draws; and Steinitz was at the same time
supporting the American Chess Congress' world championship project.
Whatever the status of the match, it was played in Havana in
January to February 1889 and won by Steinitz (ten wins, one draw,
six losses).
The American Chess Congress' final proposal was that the winner of
a tournament to be held in New York in 1889 should be regarded as
world champion for the time being, but must be prepared to face a
challenge from the second- or third-placed competitor within a
month. Steinitz wrote that he would not play in the tournament and
would not challenge the winner unless the second and third placed
competitors failed to do so. The tournament was duly played, but
the outcome was not quite as planned: Mikhail Chigorin and Max
Weiss tied for first place; their playoff resulted in four draws,
and neither wanted to play a championship match - Chigorin had just
lost a match against Steinitz and Weiss wanted to get back to his
work for the Rothschild Bank. The third prize-winner Isidore
Gunsberg was prepared to play Steinitz for the title in New York,
and Steinitz won their match in 1890-1891 (six wins, nine draws,
four
losses). The American Chess Congress' experiment was not repeated
and Steinitz' last three world championship matches were private
arrangements between the players.
In 1891 the Saint Petersburg Chess Society and the Havana Chess
Club offered to organize another Steinitz-Chigorin match for the
world championship. Steinitz played against Chigorin in Havana in
1892 and won narrowly (ten wins, five draws, eight losses). This
was his last successful defense of his title.
++1.A3 Final years of career
Around this time Steinitz publicly spoke of retiring, but changed
his mind when Emanuel Lasker challenged him. Initially Lasker
wanted to play for $5,000 a side and a match was agreed at stakes
of $3,000 a side, but Steinitz agreed to a series of reductions
when Lasker found it difficult to raise the money, and the final
figure was $2,000 each, which was less than for some of Steinitz'
earlier matches (the final combined stake of $4,000 would be worth
about $495,500 at 2007 values. Although this was publicly praised
as an act of sportsmanship on Steinitz' part, Steinitz may have
desperately needed the money. The match was played in 1894, at
venues in New York, Philadelphia and Montreal. Steinitz had
previously declared he would win without doubt, so it came as a
shock when Lasker won the first game. Steinitz responded by winning
the second, and was able to maintain the balance until the sixth.
However Lasker won all the games from the seventh to the 11th, and
Steinitz asked for a one-week rest. When the match resumed,
Steinitz looked in better shape and won the 13th and 14th games.
Lasker struck back in the 15th and 16th, and Steinitz was unable to
compensate for his losses in the middle of the match. Hence Lasker
won convincingly with ten wins, five losses and four draws. Some
commentators thought Steinitz' habit of playing "experimental"
moves in serious competition was a major factor in his downfall.
After losing the title, Steinitz played in tournaments more
frequently than he had previously: he won at New York 1894 and was
fifth at Hastings 1895 (winning the first brilliancy prize for his
game with Curt von Bardeleben); at Saint Petersburg 1895, a four-
players round-robin event with Lasker, Chigorin and Pillsbury, he
took second place. Later his results began to decline: 6th in
Nuremberg 1896, 5th in Cologne 1898, 10th in London 1899.
In early 1896 Steinitz defeated the Russian Emanuel Schiffers in a
match (winning 6 games, drawing 1, losing 4). In November, 1896 to
January, 1897 Steinitz played a return match with Lasker in Moscow
but won only 2 games, drawing 5, and losing 10. This was the last
world chess championship match for eleven years. Shortly after the
match, Steinitz had a mental breakdown and was confined for 40 days
in a Moscow sanatorium, where he played chess with the inmates.
Joseph Blackburne. Steinitz beat him 7-0 in 1876, but George Alcock
MacDonnell hailed Blackburne as "World Champion" for his win in the
1881 Berlin Tournament.
++1.A4 The beginning of Steinitz's reign
Main article: Development of the World Chess Championship
There is a long-running debate among chess writers about whether
Steinitz' reign as World Chess Champion began in 1866, when he beat
Anderssen, or in 1886, when he beat Zukertort. In April 1894 the
British Chess Magazine described Steinitz as holding "the chess
championship of the world for 28 years". However there is no
evidence that he claimed the title for himself in 1866, although in
the 1880s he claimed to have been the champion since his win over
Anderssen. It has been suggested that Steinitz could not make such
a claim while Paul Morphy was alive. - Morphy had defeated
Anderssen by a far wider margin, 8-3, in 1858, but retired from
chess competition soon after he returned to the USA in 1859, and
died in 1884. The 1886 Steinitz-Zukertort match was the first that
was explicitly described as being for the World
Championship, but Howard Staunton and Paul Morphy had been
unofficially described as "World Chess Champion" around the middle
of the 19th century. In fact one of the organizers of the 1851
London International tournament had said the contest was for "the
baton of the World's Chess Champion", and in mid-1840s Ludwig
Bledow wrote a letter to Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa
suggesting they should organize a world championship tournament in
Germany. Some commentators described Steinitz as "the champion" in
the years following his 1872 match victory against Zukertort. In
the late 1870s and early 1880s some regarded Steinitz as the
champion and others supported Johannes Zukertort, and the 1886
match was not regarded as creating the title of World Champion but
as resolving conflicting claims to the title. On the other hand
George Alcock MacDonnell hailed Joseph Blackburne as "World
Champion" for his win in the 1881 Berlin Tournament, George Henry
Mackenzie as having "won the Chess Championship of the World" in
1887, and Isidore Gunsberg as "among the champions of the world"
following his win at "Bradford Place" in 1888. However Steinitz
regarded G.A. MacDonnell as "one of my bitterest and most
untruthful persecutors".
++1.A5 Personal life
Steinitz married a lady named Caroline (born 1846) in the 1860s,
and their only daughter Flora was born in 1867. Flora died in 1888
at the age of 21, and Caroline died in 1892. He married his second
wife a few years later and had two children by her. However, in
1897 he dedicated a pamphlet to the memory of his first wife and
their daughter.
In February 1897 the New York Times prematurely reported his death
in a New York mental asylum. Some authors claim that he contracted
syphilis, which may have been a cause of the mental breakdowns he
suffered in his last years. His chess activities had not yielded
any great financial rewards, and he died a pauper in the Manhattan
State Hospital (Ward island) of a heart attack on August 12, 1900.
Steinitz is buried in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn,
New York. His second wife and their two young children were still
alive at his death. Lasker, who took the championship from
Steinitz, wrote, "I who vanquished him must see to it that his
great achievement, his theories should find justice, and I must
avenge the wrongs he suffered."
++1.B Writings
Steinitz was the main chess correspondent of the Field (in London)
from 1872 to 1882, and used this to present his ideas about chess
strategy. In 1885 he founded the International Chess Magazine in
New York and edited it until 1891. In addition to game commentaries
and blow-by-blow accounts of the negotiations leading to his 1886
match with Johann Zukertort and of the American Chess Congress'
world championship project, he wrote a long series of articles
about Paul Morphy, who had died in 1884. He wrote the book of the
1889 New York tournament, in which he commented on all the games,
and in 1889 he published a textbook, The Modern Chess
Instructor.
++1.C Assessment
Plaque in honor of Wilhem Steinitz, in Prague's Josefov district.
The book of the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, written
collectively by the players, described Steinitz as follows:
Mr. Steinitz stands high as a theoretician and as a writer; he has
a powerful pen, and when he chooses can use expressive English. He
evidently strives to be fair to friends and foes alike, but appears
sometimes to fail to see that after all he is much like many others
in this respect. Possessed of a fine intellect, and extremely fond
of the game, he is apt to lose sight of all other considerations,
people and business alike. Chess is his very life and soul, the one
thing for which he lives.
++1.C1 Influence on the game
Steinitz' play up to and including 1872 was similar that of his
contemporaries: sharp, aggressive, and full of sacrificial play.
This was the style in which he became "world number one" by beating
Adolf Anderssen in 1866 and confirmed his position by convincingly
beating Zukertort in 1872 and winning the 1872 London International
tournament (Zukertort had claimed the rank of number two by beating
Anderssen in 1871).
In 1873, however, Steinitz' play suddenly changed, giving priority
to what is now called the positional elements in chess: pawn
structure, space, outposts for knights, the advantage of the two
bishops, etc. Although Steinitz often accepted unnecessarily
difficult defensive positions in order to demonstrate the
superiority of his theories, he also showed that his methods could
provide a platform for crushing attacks. Steinitz' successor as
world champion, Emanuel Lasker, summed up the new style as: "In the
beginning of the game ignore the search for combinations, abstain
from violent moves, aim for small advantages, accumulate them, and
only after having attained these ends search for the combination -
and then with all the power of will and intellect, because then the
combination must exist, however deeply hidden."
Although Steinitz' play changed abruptly, he said had been thinking
along such lines for some years: "Some of the games which I saw
Paulsen play during the London Congress of 1862 gave a still
stronger start to the modification of my own opinions, which has
since developed, and I began to recognize that Chess genius is not
confined to the more or less deep and brilliant finishing strokes
after the original balance of power and position has been
overthrown, but that it also requires the exercise of still more
extraordinary powers, though perhaps of a different kind to
maintain that balance or respectively to disturb it at the proper
time in one's own favor."
During his nine-year lay-off from tournament play (1873-1882) and
later in his career, Steinitz used his chess writings to present
his theories - while in the UK he wrote for The Field; in 1885
after moving to New York he founded the "International Chess
Magazine", of which he was the chief editor; and in 1889 he edited
the book of the great New York 1889 tournament (won by Mikhail
Chigorin and Max Weiss), in which he did not compete as the
tournament was designed to produce his successor as World Champion.
Many other writers found his new approach incomprehensible, boring
or even cowardly; for example Adolf Anderssen said, "Kolisch is a
highwayman and points the pistol at your breast. Steinitz is a
pick-pocket, he steals a pawn and wins a game with it."
But when he contested the first World Championship match in 1886
against Johannes Zukertort, it became evident that Steinitz was
playing on another level. Although Zukertort was at least Steinitz'
equal in spectacular attacking play, Steinitz often out-maneuvered
him fairly simply by the use of positional principles.
By the time of his match in 1890-1891 against Gunsberg, some
commentators showed an understanding of and appreciation for
Steinitz' theories. Shortly before the 1894 match with Emanuel
Lasker even the New York Times, which had earlier published attacks
on his play and character, paid tribute to his playing record, the
importance of his theories, and his sportsmanship in agreeing to
the most difficult match of his career despite his previous
intention of retiring.
By the end of his career Steinitz was more highly esteemed as a
theoretician than as a player. The comments about him in the book
of the Hastings 1895 chess tournament focus on his theories and
writings, and Emanuel Lasker was more explicit: "He was a thinker
worthy of a seat in the halls of a University. A player, as the
world believed he was, he was not; his studious temperament made
that impossible; and thus he was conquered by a player ..."
As a result of his play and writings Steinitz, along with Paul
Morphy, is considered by many chess commentators to be the founder
of modern chess. Vladmir Kramnik emphasizes Steinitz' importance as
a pioneer in the field of chess theory: "Steinitz was the first to
realise that chess, despite being a complicated game, obeys some
common principles. ... But as often happens the first time is just
a try. ... I can't say he was the founder of a chess theory. He was
an experimenter and pointed out that chess obeys laws that should
be considered."
++1.C2 Playing strength and style
Statistical rating systems are unkind to Steinitz. "Warriors of the
Mind" gives him a surprisingly low ranking of 47th, below several
obscure Soviet grandmasters; Chessmetrics places him only 15th on
its all-time list. Chessmetrics penalizes players who play
infrequently; opportunities for competitive chess were infrequent
in Steinitz' best years, and Steinitz had a few long absences from
competitive play (1873-1876, 1876-1882, 1883-1886, 1886-1889).
However in 2005 Chessmetrics' author, Jeff Sonas, wrote an article
which examined various ways of comparing the strength of "world
number one" players, using data provided by Chessmetrics, and found
that: Steinitz was further ahead of his contemporaries in the 1870s
than Bobby Fischer was in his peak period (1970-1972); that
Steinitz had the third-highest total number of years as the world's
top player, behind Emanuel Lasker and Garry Kasparov; and that
Steinitz placed 7th in a comparison of how long the great players
were ranked in the world's top three. Between his victory over
Anderssen (1866) and his loss to Emanuel Lasker (1894), Steinitz
won all his "normal" matches, sometimes by wide margins; and his
worst tournament performance in that 28-year period was third place
in Paris (1867). (He also lost two handicap matches and a match by
telegraph in 1890 against Mikhail Chigorin, where Chigorin was
allowed to choose the openings in both games and won both)
Initially Steinitz played in the all-out attacking style of
contemporaries like Anderssen, and then changed to the positional
style with which he dominated competitive chess in the 1870s and
1880s. Max Euwe wrote, "Steinitz aimed at positions with clear-cut
features, to which his theory was best applicable." However he
retained his capacity for brilliant attacks right to the end of his
career; for example in the 1895 Hastings tournament (when he was
59) he beat von Bardeleben in a spectacular game in which in the
closing stages Steinitz deliberately exposed all his pieces to
attack simultaneously (except his king, of course). His most
significant weaknesses were his habits of playing "experimental"
moves and getting into unnecessarily difficult defensive positions
in top-class competitive games.
++1.C3 Personality
"Traditional" accounts of Steinitz describe him as having a sharp
tongue and violent temper, perhaps partly because of his short
stature (barely five feet) and congenital
lameness. He admitted that "Like the Duke of Parma, I always hold
the sword in one hand and the olive branch in the other", and under
severe provocation he could become abusive in published articles.
He was aware of his own tendencies and said early in his career,
"Nothing would induce me to take charge of a chess column
...Because I should be so fair in dispensing blame as well as
praise that I should be sure to give offence and make enemies."
When he embarked on chess journalism, his brutally frank review of
Wormald's "The Chess Openings" in 1875 proved him right on both
counts.
However, his personal correspondence, his own articles and some
third-party articles show that he had long and friendly
relationships with many people and groups in the chess world,
including Ignac Kolisch (one of his earliest sponsors), Mikhail
Chigorin, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, Bernhard Horwitz, Amos Burn and
the Cuban and Russian chess
communities. He even co-operated with the American Chess Congress
in its project to regulate future contests for the world title that
he had earned.
Steinitz strove to be objective in his writings about chess
competitions and games, for example he attributed to sheer bad luck
a poor tournament score by Henry Edward Bird, whom he considered no
friend of his, and was generous in his praise of great play by even
his bitter enemies. He could poke fun at some of his own rhetoric,
for example "I remarked that I would rather die in America than
live in England. ... I added that I would rather lose a match in
America than win one in England. But after having carefully
considered the subject in all its bearings, I have come to the
conclusion that I neither mean to die yet nor to lose the match."
At a joint simultaneous display in Russia around the time of the
1895-96 Saint Petersburg tournament, Emanuel Lasker and Steinitz
formed an impromptu comedy double act.
Although he had a strong sense of honour about repaying
debts, Steinitz was poor at managing his finances: he let a
competitor "poach" many of his clients in 1862-63, offered to play
the 1886 world title match against Johannes Zukertort for free, and
died in poverty in 1900, leaving his widow to survive by running a
small shop.
++1.C4 Notable games
Wilhelm Steinitz
* Wilhelm Steinitz vs Augustus Mongredien, London 1862 was
awarded the brilliancy prize at the 1862 London
International Tournament.
* Adolf Anderssen vs Wilhelm Steinitz; 13th match game,
London 1866 - Emanuel Lasker regarded this well-prepared
attack as a precursor of the positional approach that
Steinitz later advocated.
* Johannes Zukertort vs Wilhelm Steinitz, Ch World (9th game
of the match) 1886, Queen's Gambit Declined: Vienna. Quiet
Variation (D37), 0-1 Steinitz exchanges his powerful centre
to create two weak hanging Pawns on White's Queen-side and
creates strong pressure against them. Zukertort eventually
tries to slug his way out of trouble, but Steinitz wins
with a sharp
counter-attack.
* Wilhelm Steinitz vs Mikhail Chigorin, Havana WCH 1892 (2nd
game of the match), Ruy Lopez, 1-0 - Steinitz weakens
Chigorin's pawns, gains superior mobility then forces a
pawn promotion with the aid of a little combination.
* Wilhelm Steinitz vs Mikhail Chigorin, Havana WCH 1892 (4th
game of the match), Spanish Game: General (C65), 1-0
Positional preparation creates the opportunity for a swift
attack leading to checkmate on the 29th move.
* Wilhelm Steinitz vs Curt von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895,
Italian Game: Classical Variation. Greco Gambit Traditional
Line (C54), 1-0 A great attacking combination in the old
1860s style. After White's 22nd move, all the White pieces
are en prise but Black is lost. The game won the first
brilliancy prize of the tournament.
++1.C5 Tournament results
Date Location
Place Score Notes
1859 Vienna championship
3rd ??? Behind Carl Hamppe and Eduard Jenay.
1860 Vienna championship
2nd ??? Hamppe won.
1861 Vienna championship
1st 30/31
1862 London International Tournament
6th 8/13 Behind Adolf Anderssen, Louis Paulsen, John Owen,
George Alcock MacDonnell and Serafino Dubois. Draws were
not scored in this tournament. Steinitz was awarded the
brilliancy prize for his win over Augustus Mongredien.
1862 London championship
1st 7/7
1865 Dublin
1st-2nd 3.5/4 Tied with MacDonnell.
1866 London handicap tournament
1st 8/9 Steinitz won against Cecil Valentine De Vere (2-1),
MacDonnell (2-0), Mocatta (2-0) - Steinitz gave odds of
pawn and move, and in the final S. Green (2-0) - Steinitz
gave odds of pawn and two moves.
1867 Dundee handicap tournament
1st-2nd 3/3 Tied with J.C. Fraser. Steinitz won against
MacDonnell (1-0), Keating (1-0) - Steinitz gave odds of a
knight, and Scott (1-0) - Steinitz gave odds of a knight.
1867 Dundee
2nd 7/9 Behind Neumann (7.5/9); ahead of MacDonnell, De
Vere, Joseph Henry Blackburne, Robertson, J.C. Fraser, G.B.
Fraser, Hamel and Spens.
1867 Paris
3rd (+18 -3 =3) Draws counted as zero; third behind Ignaz
von Kolisch (+20 -2 =2) and Simon Winawer (+19 -4 =1); ;
ahead of Gustav Neumann, De Vere, Jules Arnous de Rivihre,
Hieronim Czarnowski, Celso Golmayo Zupide, Samuel
Rosenthal, Sam Loyd, D'Andre, Martin Severin From, and
Eughne Rousseau.
1870 Baden-Baden
2nd 12.5/18 Behind Anderssen (13/18); ahead of Neumann,
Blackburne, Louis Paulsen, De Vere, Simmon Winawer,
Rosenthal and Johannes von Minckwitz.
1872 London
1st 7.5/8 Ahead of Blackburne (5/8), Johannes Zukertort,
MacDonnell and De Vere.
1873 Vienna
1st-2nd 10/11: 20.5/25 Tied with Blackburne (10/11:
22.5/30) and won the play-off 2-0; ahead of Anderssen
(8.5/11: 19/30), Rosenthal (7.5/11: 17/28), Louis Paulsen,
Henry Edward Bird, Heral, Max Fleissig, Philipp Meitner,
Adolf Schwarz, Oscar Gelbfuhs and Karl Pitschel. This
tournament had a very unusual scoring system: each player
played a 3-game mini-match with each of the others and
scored 1 for a won mini-match and .5 for a drawn mini-
match. Steinitz won his last 14 games and therefore
completed his mini-matches by playing fewer games than
anyone else. The numbers before the colons (:) are the
points awarded; the other 2 numbers are the usual "games
won / games played" scoring.
1882 Vienna
1st-2nd 24/34 Tied with Winawer and drew the play-off;
ahead of Mason (23/34), Zukertort (22.5/34), Mackenzie,
Blackburne, Berthold Englisch, Paulsen and others including
Mikhail Chigorin and Bird.
1883 London 2nd 19/26 Behind Zukertort (22/26); ahead of Blackburne
(16.5/24), Chigorin 16/24, Englisch (15.5/24), Mackenzie (15.5/24),
Mason (15.5/24), Rosenthal, Winawer, Bird and four others.
1894 New York championship
1st 8.5/10 After losing the world title to Emanuel Lasker.
1895 Hastings
5th 13/21 Behind Harry Nelson Pillsbury (16.5/24), Chigorin
(16/21), Emanuel Lasker (15.5/21), Siegbert Tarrasch
(14/21); ahead of Emanuel Schiffers (12/21), Curt von
Bardeleben (11.5/21), Richard Teichmann (11.5/21), Carl
Schlechter (11/21), Blackburne (10.5/21), Carl August
Walbrodt, Amos Burn, Dawid Janowski, Mason, Bird, Isidore
Gunsberg, Adolf Albin, Georg Marco, William Pollock,
Jacques Mieses, Samuel Tinsley and Beniamino Vergani.
1895-96 Saint Petersburg 2nd 9.5/18 Behind Emanuel Lasker
(11.5/18); ahead of Pillsbury (8/18) and Chigorin (7/18). The
world's top 4 players played 6 games against each of the others.
1896 Nuremberg
6th 11/18 Behind Emanuel Lasker 13.5/18, Giza Marsczy
(12.5/18), Pillsbury (12/18), Tarrasch (12/18), Janowski
(11.5/18); ahead of Walbrodt, Schiffers, Chigorin,
Blackburne, Rudolf Charousek, Marco, Albin, Winawer,
Jackson Showalter, Moritz Porges, Emil Schallopp and
Teichmann.
1897 New York
1st-2nd 2.5/4 A triangular "Thousand Islands" tournament;
tied with S. Lipschuetz and ahead of William Ewart Napier.
1898 Vienna 4th 23.5/36 Behind Tarrasch (27.5/36), Pillsbury
(27.5/36), Janowski (25.5/36); ahead of Schlechter, Chigorin, Burn,
Paul Lipke, Maroczy, Simon Alapin, Blackburne, Schiffers, Marco,
Showalter, Walbrodt, Alexander Halprin, Horatio Caro, David Graham
Baird and Herbert William Trenchard.
1898 Cologne
5th 9.5/15 Behind Burn, Charousek, Chigorin and Wilhelm
Cohn; ahead of Schlechter, Showalter, Johann Berger,
Janowski and Schiffers.
1899 London
10-11th 11.5/27 Behind Emanuel Lasker (23.5/27), Janowski
(19/27), Marsczy (19/27), Pillsbury (19/27), Schlechter
(18/27), Blackburne (16.5/27), Chigorin (16/27), Showalter
(13.5/27), Mason (13/27). This was the first time he had
not won any prize money since 1859.
++1.C6 Match results
1860 Eduard Jenay
Drew Vienna 2/4 2 - 2
1860 Max Lange
Won Vienna 3/3 +3 =0 -0
1862 Serafino Dubois
Won London 5.5/9 +5 =1 -3
1862 Adolf Anderssen
Lost London 1/3 +1 =0 -2 Offhand games
1862-63 Joseph Henry Blackburne
Won London 8/10 +7 =2 -1 Only 2 years after Blackburne
started playing chess.
1863 Frederic Deacon
Won London 5.5/7 +5 =1 -1
1863 Augustus Mongredien
Won London 7/7 +7 =0 -0
1863-64 Valentine Green
Won London 8/9 +7 =2 -0
1865 James Robey
Won London 4/5 4 - 1
1866 Adolf Anderssen
Won London 8/14 +8 =0 -6 As a result of this win Steinitz
was generally regarded as the world's best player.
1866 Henry Edward Bird
Won London 9.5/17 +7 =5 -5
1867 George Brunton Fraser
Won Dundee 4/6 +3 =2 -1
1870 Blackburne
Won London 5.5/6 +5 =1 -0
1872 Johannes Zukertort
Won London 9/12 +7 =4 -1
1873 Blackburne
Won Vienna 2/2 +2 =0 -0 Play-off match.
1876 Blackburne
Won London 7/7 +7 =0 -0
1882 Simon Winawer
Drew Vienna 1/2 1 - 1 Play-off match.
1882 Dion Martinez
Won Philadelphia 7/7 +7 =0 -0
1882 Alexander Sellman
Won Baltimore 3.5/5 +2 =3 -0
1883 George Henry Mackenzie
Won New York 4/6 +3 =2 -1
1883 Martinez
Won Philadelphia 4.5/7 +3 =3 -1
1883 Celso Golmayo Zupide
Won Havana 9/11 9 - 2
1883 Martinez
Won Philadelphia 10/11 10 - 1
1885 Alexander Sellman
Won Baltimore 3/3 +3 =0 -0
1886 Zukertort
Won New York, St. Louis and New Orleans 12.5/20 +10 =5 -5
World Chess Championship 1886; the contract for this match
said it was "for the Championship of the World".
1888 Alberto Ponce
Won Havana 4/5 4 - 1
1888 Andris Vasquez
Won Havana 5/5 +5 =0 -0
1888 Golmayo
Won Havana 5/5 +5 =0 -0
1889 Vicente Carvajal
Won Havana 4/5 4 : 1
1889 Mikhail Chigorin
Won Havana 10.5/17 +10 =1 -6 World Chess Championship 1889;
often described as a World Championship match, but may not
have been.
1890-91 Isidor Gunsberg
Won New York 10.5/19 +6 =9 -4 World Chess Championship 1891
match.
1892 Chigorin
Won Havana 12.5/23 +10 =5 -8 World Chess Championship 1892
match.
1894 Emanuel Lasker
Lost New York, Philadelphia and Montreal 7/19 +5 =4 -10
World Chess Championship 1894 match; Steinitz' first
recorded defeat in a serious match.
1896 Emanuel Schiffers
Won Rostov-on-Don 6.5/11 +6 =1 -4
1896-97 Lasker
Lost Moscow 4.5/17 +2 =5 -10 World Chess Championship 1897
match.
1897 S. Lipschuetz
Drew New York 1/2 1 - 1 Play-off match.
++1.C7 Miscellaneous
* Steinitz expressed the opinion that the reason Jews do so
well at chess is because of their patience, pure breeding,
and good nature.
* Steinitz is featured on a stamp.
++2. Curt Von Bardeleben
Curt Von Bardeleben was born on March 4, 1861, to an aristocratic
family in Berlin. His family was well-to-do, and the young Curt had
many privileges as a result.
As a young man Von Bardeleben studied law, but once he discovered
chess he gave up that profession to become a full-time chess player
and journalist. From 1887 to 1891 he assisted Hermann von
Gottschall in editing Deutsche Schachzeitung, the first German
chess magazine.
In tournament play he placed first at Berlin (SV Centrum) in 1897,
shared first place with Riemann at Leipzig in 1888, and shared
first place with Walbrodt at Kiel in 1893. He also narrowly lost a
match to the rising star Emanuel Lasker (+1 -2 =1) in 1890. He was
regarded among the 10 best players in the world during this period.
The British Chess Magazine (October 1895, page 412) described Von
Bardeleben as `a very reserved gentleman, with somewhat wearied
look, probably from ill-health, fragile figure, suggestive of
highly strung nervous temperament, with hat upon head - he
generally wore it - in his favourite attitude, right elbow upon the
table and hand supporting his face on that side.'
Von Bardeleben was 34 years old when he was invited to play in the
1895 Hastings International Tournament. It was a star-studded field
with Emanuel Lasker, Wilhelm Steinitz, Siegbert Tarrasch and
Mikhail Chigorin. 22-year-old Harry Nelson Pillsbury, the eventual
winner was at that time a virtual unknown.
Von Bardeleben had an very promising start in this tournament,
beating Amos Burn in the first round. Two draws followed, with Bird
and Albin. In the fourth round he beat Emanuel Lasker, who had
defeated Steinitz for the World Championship the year before. After
nine rounds Von Bardeleben was undefeated, with six wins and three
draws, and tied for first with Steinitz. The two leaders met in the
tenth round.
Steinitz gave a most majestic performance that is still hailed as
one of his Immortal games. But there are conflicting accounts of
what happened at the end of the game. What is certain is that Von
Bardeleben left the hall and he was forfeited on time.
After this loss Von Bardeleben's play just collapsed in the second
half of the tournament, and he finished equal seventh with
Teichmann.
He had few successes thereafter. He was first at Berlin in 1897,
ahead of Rudolf Charousek, Wilhelm Cohn and Jacques Mieses.
The only other notable result was his tie for first place with
Schlechter and Swiderski at Coburg in 1904. In 1908 he played a
match with the young Alexander Alekhine in Duesseldorf, losing 4.5-
.5 (-4 +0 =1.) He received few invitations to important tournaments
thereafter.
Then first World War intervened and Germany was defeated. It was
a very difficult time for many German chess players. Poverty and
despair finally drove him to death.
On January 31, 1924, Curt Von Bardeleben committed suicide by
throwing himself out of the second floor window of his house in
Berlin. He was 63 years old.
His life and death were the basis for that of the main character in
the novel The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov, which was made into the
movie The Luzhin Defense.
++3. Steinitz - Von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895
Hastings International Tournament 1895, Round 10
White: Wilhelm Steinitz
Black: Curt Von Bardeleben
Result: 1-0
ECO: C54 - Giuco Piano, Greco Variation
Notes by R.J. Macdonald. Additional notes by John Hillery from the
Western Chess blog.
(Steinitz was past his best in 1895, but as he himself put it, "I
may be an old lion, but I can still bite someone's hand off if he
puts it in my mouth." The choleric von Bardeleben left the room
after move 25 and permitted his time to expire, whereupon Steinitz
demonstrated to the onlookers a brilliant 10-move mating
combination.)
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4
(This sequence of moves would be known as the Italian Game if black
does not play 3. ... Bc5 (the Giuoco Piano) or 3. ... Nf6 (the Two
Knights Defense.)
3. ... Bc5
(the Giuoco Piano, one of the oldest known opening systems. One
major offshoot of the Giuoco Piano is the Evans Gambit, 4. b4 Bxb4
5. c3.)
4. c3
(White's fourth move is made in preparation for 5. d4.)
4. ... Nf6
5. d4 exd4
(This line is known as the Greco Variation.)
6. cxd4 Bb4+
7. Nc3 d5
(A rarely-played alternative to 7. ... Nxe4 8. 0-0, when Black may
choose between (a) 8. ... Nxc3 9. bxc3 d5 (9. ... Bxc3 10. Qb3 has
been known to favor White since the time of Greco); or (b) the
speculative Moeller Attack, 8. ... Bxc3 9. d5, which remains
unclear after a century of analysis.)
8. exd5 Nxd5
9. 0-0 Be6
10. Bg5 Be7
11. Bxd5 Bxd5
12. Nxd5 Qxd5
13. Bxe7 Nxe7
(Black still hopes to connect his Rooks by castling, but he will be
unable to shake off the pressure on the central files. A slightly
better try is 13. ... Kxe7 14. Re1+ Kf8.)
14. Re1 f6
15. Qe2 Qd7
16. Rac1
(Better is 16. Rad1 Kf8 17. Nd2, with a moderate advantage for
white.)
16. ... c6?
(This allows a powerful pawn sacrifice. Better is 16. ... Kf7,
giving Black air to breathe. White would have only a slight
advantage. if 17. Qxe7+ Qxe7 18. Rxe7+ Kxe7 19. Rxc7+, where the
outcome remains unclear, though White surely has enough pawns for
the Exchange.)
Key Move Diagram:
r3k2r/
pp1qn1pp/
2p2p2/
8/
3P4/
5N2/
PP2QPPP/
2R1R1K1
Position after black's 16th move.
17. d5!
(A fine move - the d5 square, which Black has been using for his
pieces, will be occupied by a black pawn, the d4 square made
accessible to White, and the c-file opened. The text move gives
white a very strong advantage.)
17. ... cxd5
(17. ... Kf8 18. dxc6 Nxc6 19. Rcd1 gives white a decisive
advantage.)
18. Nd4 Kf7
19. Ne6 Rhc8?
(19. ... Nc6 20. Nc5 Qf5 21. Nxb7 Qd7 also gives white a decisive
advantage.)
20. Qg4 g6
Key Move Diagram:
r1r5/
pp1qnk1p/
4Npp1/
3p4/
6Q1/
8/
PP3PPP/
2R1R1K1
Position after black's 20th move.
21. Ng5+!
(Discovered attack: e6, g4-d7.)
21. ... Ke8
(21. ... fxg5 22. Qxd7 with a Discovered attack.)
Key Move Diagram:
r1r1k3/
pp1qn2p/
5pp1/
3p2N1/
6Q1/
8/
PP3PPP/
2R1R1K1
Position after black's 21st move.
22. Rxe7+!
(Of course the Rook cannot be captured by the Queen (22. ... Qxe7
23. Rxc8+), and 22. ... Kxe7 leads to 23. Re1+ Kd6 24. Qb4+ Kc7 25.
Ne6+ Kb8 26. Qf4+. But after Black's next move, every White piece
is en prise, and mate is threatened on c1 ...)
22. ... Kf8
23. Rf7+ Kg8
24. Rg7+ Kh8
(No better is 24. ... Kf8 25. Nxh7+.)
25. Rxh7+
1-0
(For as Steinitz immediately demonstrated, White wins after 25. ...
Kg8 with 26. Rg7+ Kh8 27. Qh4+ Kxg7 28. Qh7+ Kf8 29. Qh8+ Ke7 30.
Qg7+ Ke8 31. Qg8+ Ke7 32. Qf7+ Kd8 33. Qf8+ Qe8 34. Nf7+ Kd7 35.
Qd6#.)
`But Bardeleben didn't resign. He stared at 25 Rxh7+, shot a glance
at Steinitz, and without a word got up from his chair and left the
room. He didn't come back. Tournament officials searched and found
Bardeleben pacing angrily. No, he wouldn't return to the board so
that outrageous Austrian could mate him. So Steinitz had to wait
for Bardeleben's time to run out before he could claim the win. Not
only claim it - he demonstrated the final ten-move mate and the
crowd cheered." - Andrew Soltis, The Great Chess Tournaments and
Their Stories, pages 67-68.
(Von Bardeleben `suddenly stood up and silently walked out of the
room (later he sent a note by special delivery tendering his
resignation.)' - garry Kasparov, "My Great Predecessors", vol. 1,
page 110.
However, Edward Winter asserts that "von Bardeleben left the hall
without resigning and allowed his time to run out because of the
disturbance caused by spectators applauding winners of games, and
he informed Steinitz personally of this. The above-mentioned
tournament book confirms the remark by Pollock that von
Bardeleben's grievance was acted upon promptly, for regarding the
next round of play the book reported (page 171):
`On this day also the Committee, finding that applause, even if
slight, was liable to be misunderstood by our foreign competitors,
and in any case was annoying to the players, put up a notice asking
visitors to refrain, and the directors of play and stewards had
strict instructions to enforce the notice.'"
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