Editing Adolf Anderssen (section)

==Assessment==

===Playing strength and style===
[[Image:AdolphAnderssen.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Adolf Anderssen in later life]]
Anderssen was very successful in European tournaments from 1851 to early 1878, taking first prize in over half of the events in which he played.<ref name="storiascacchiTorneiAl1879" /> His only recorded tournament failures were a one-game-per-round knock-out event in 1857 and sixth place at Paris 1878 when his health was failing and he had only about a year to live.<ref name="storiascacchiTorneiAl1879" /><ref name="endgameNLWorldExhibitions" /> His match record was much weaker: out of the 12 that he played, he won only two, drew four and lost six.
<!-- The following is inconsistent with what Fine says 2 paragraphs earlier about A's haphazard approach to development and failure to understand why Morphy won. But Fine had just written the section on Staunton, whom he found totally unimpressive. -->
Although outclassed by Morphy, and to a lesser extent by Steinitz, Anderssen has been called the first modern chess master.<ref>"The World's Great Chess Games", [[Reuben Fine]], McKay 1976, p.17</ref>

[[Arpad Elo]], inventor of the [[Elo rating system]], retroactively calculated ratings through history, and estimated that Anderssen was the first player with a rating over 2600.<ref>{{Cite book
|last=Elo|first=Arpad|author-link=Arpad Elo
|title=The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present
|year=1978
|page=191
|publisher=Arco
|isbn= 0-668-04721-6
}}
</ref> [[Chessmetrics]] ranks Anderssen as one of the top two players for most of the period from 1859 to 1873, and as the strongest player in the world seven months distributed between 1860 and 1870.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?Params=199510SSSSS3S003629000000111000000000001310100 | title=Chessmetrics Player Profile: Adolf Anderssen | access-date=17 June 2008 }}</ref>

Steinitz rated Anderssen as one of the two greatest attacking players of his time: "We all may learn from Morphy and Anderssen how to conduct a {{chessgloss|kingside|king's-side}} attack, and perhaps I myself may not have learnt enough."<ref name="WinterSteinitzQuotes">{{cite web | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/steinitz.html | title=Steinitz Quotes | author=Winter, E. | access-date=17 June 2008 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080509063357/http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/steinitz.html| archive-date= 9 May 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref> Although Anderssen is regarded as a member of the "heroic" attacking school,<ref name="Spinrad2006Bledow" /> he was not in favour of mindless aggression, for example he said: "Move that one of your pieces, which is in the worst plight, unless you can satisfy yourself that you can derive immediate advantage by an attack",<ref>{{cite book | title=Manual of Chess | author=Emanuel Lasker | url=http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/quotes.html | access-date=17 June 2008 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080524182118/http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/quotes.html| archive-date= 24 May 2008 | url-status= dead }}</ref> a principle more recently labelled "[[Vladimir Makogonov|Makogonov]]'s rule".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.chessdevon.co.uk/HTML/archives/chessbase/Arch13/base.htm | title=The secret weapons of the champions | access-date=17 June 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828030946/http://www.chessdevon.co.uk/HTML/archives/chessbase/Arch13/base.htm | archive-date=28 August 2008 | url-status=dead }}</ref> According to Fine, his approach to {{chessgloss|development}} was haphazard and he totally failed to understand why Morphy won.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" />

Anderssen's home town was so proud of him that in 1865 [[University of Wrocław|Breslau University]] awarded him an honourary doctorate.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" />

===Influence on chess===
[[File:Lasker, Emanuel - DPLA - bdb8fd5cff24c8359b4a5aaeeeb421ba.jpg|thumb|Anderssen (below, far left) depicted with other leading players]]

Due to the perceived beauty of its attacking style, some of Anderssen's games, such as the [[Immortal Game]] and the [[Evergreen Game]], are among the most famous in chess history.

The "heroic" attacking school of play to which Anderssen belonged was eclipsed by Steinitz' positional approach – by 1894 it was generally acknowledged that the only way to beat Steinitz was to apply Steinitz' principles.<ref name="NYTimes1894PreSteinitzLasker">{{cite journal | journal=New York Times | date=11 March 1894 | title=Ready for a big chess match | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/03/11/106900358.pdf  | access-date=17 June 2008 }}</ref>

Anderssen has had a more enduring influence on [[chess problem]] composition. He started composing in the last years of the "Old School", whose compositions were fairly similar to realistic {{chessgloss|over-the-board}} positions and featured spectacular {{chessprobgloss|key}} moves, multiple [[sacrifice (chess)|sacrifices]] and few variations.<ref name="Howard1970PioneerComposers" /> He was one of the most skillful composers of his time, and his work forms an early stage of the "Transition Period", between the mid-1840s and the early 1860s, when many of the basic problem ideas were discovered, the requirement for game-like positions was abandoned and the introduction of composing competitions (the first of which was in 1854) forced judges to decide on what features were the most desirable in a problem.<ref name="WeeninkChessProblem" />

Outside the field of chess problems, Anderssen was not a prolific author. He edited the magazine ''Schachzeitung der Berliner Schachgesellschaft'' (later called ''[[Deutsche Schachzeitung]]'') from 1846 to 1865, however, and was co-editor with Gustav Neumann of ''Neue Berliner Schachzeitung'' from 1864 to 1867.<ref name="sympaticoChessPeriodicals"/>

===Personality===
{{quote box
|align=right
|width=33%
|quote= It is impossible to keep one's excellence in a glass case, like a jewel, and take it out whenever it is required. 
|source=Adolf Anderssen, 1858<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Howard Staunton]]|date=1871|title=Chess Praxis, a Supplement to the Chess Player's Handbook|publisher=G. Bell & Daldy|url=https://archive.org/details/chesspraxisasup01staugoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/chesspraxisasup01staugoog/page/n523 502]
}} (quoting a contemporary interview with [[Max Lange]])</ref>}}
Steinitz wrote: "Anderssen was honest and honourable to the core. Without fear or favour he straightforwardly gave his opinion, and his sincere disinterestedness became so patent....that his word alone was usually sufficient to quell disputes...for he had often given his decision in favour of a rival..."<ref name="batgirlAnderssen" /> On the other hand, [[Reuben Fine]], a 20th-century player, wrote, "There is a curious contrast between his over-the-board brilliance and his uninspired safety-first attitude in everyday affairs."<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" />