STEINITZ, WILHELM

STEINITZ, WILHELM (1836–1900), chess master. Born and educated in Prague, he went to London in the early 1860s and took an active part in the chess life of the city. Soon after his arrival he defeated Blackburne in a match and in 1866 challenged Anderssen for the unofficial championship of the world. Steinitz won, and is often regarded as having been world chess champion for 28 years, until he was defeated by emanuel lasker in 1894. Formally, however, Steinitz became world champion only in 1886, when he defeated zukertort in the first official championship match. From 1866 until 1894 Steinitz won all the matches he played (some for title, some informally) against the greatest players including Blackburne, Zukertort (twice), Tchigorin (twice), Gunsberg, and Schiffers. In 1894 he lost the title to emanuel lasker and failed to regain it. He was the first to be aware of the strategic elements in the great tactical performances of players such as Morphy, Anderssen, Blackburne, and Zukertort. On the basis of this analysis he developed the Steinitzian technique which is now a basic principle accepted by all chess players. Steinitz stressed in his teaching the importance (in the opening moves) of the center, the desirability of accumulating small advantages, and above all, the value of a well-integrated defense system, the main components of the so-called classical school of chess strategy. These teachings appear in his book The Modern Chess Instructor (2 vols., 1889–95), in the columns of the London Field, a journal in which he was the chess editor, and in The Chess Monthly which he edited. The latter years of his life were spent in New York, where he died in poverty. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Devide, A Memorial to William Steinitz (1901); H.F. Chesire, Hastings Tournament 1895 (1896); The Living Age (Dec. 22, 1900), 759–67; L. Bachmann, Schachmeister Steinitz (1910). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: D. Hooper and K. Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess (1996), 395–97; C. Devide, William Steinitz: Selected Games (1974); K. Landsberger, William Steinitz, Chess Champion: A Biography of the Bohemian Caesar (1993); idem, The Steinitz Papers (2002). (Gerald Abrahams / William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)