Editing Wilhelm Steinitz (section)

==Comeback success==
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 [[Szymon Winawer]], ahead of [[James Mason (chess player)|James Mason]], Zukertort, [[George Henry Mackenzie]], Blackburne, [[Berthold Englisch]], Paulsen and [[Mikhail Chigorin]], and drew the play-off match.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.endgame.nl/wien.htm | title=Vienna 1882 and 1898 | access-date=2008-11-19 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216145316/http://www.endgame.nl/wien.htm | archive-date=2008-12-16 }}</ref><ref name="chessbaseVienna1882">{{cite web | url=http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2117 | title=International Chess Tournament Vienna 1882 | access-date=2008-11-19 | date=2005-01-03 }}</ref>

===Visits the United States===
Steinitz visited the United States, mainly the [[Philadelphia]] area, from December 1882 to May 1883. He was given an enthusiastic reception. Steinitz played several exhibitions, many casual games, and a match for stakes of £50 with a wealthy amateur. He also won three more serious matches with two New World professionals, Alexander Sellman (Steinitz won both) and the Cuban champion [[Celso Golmayo Zúpide]]. 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.<ref name="LandsbergerSteinitzPapers" />

===Return to London===
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 three points ahead.<ref name="chesscornerWorldchampsSteinitz">{{cite web | url=http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/steinitz/steinitz.htm | title=World Chess Champions: Wilhelm Steinitz | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> Steinitz finished 2½ points ahead of the third-placed competitor, Blackburne.<ref name="WeeksLondon1883">Mark Weeks' Chess Pages: {{cite web | url=http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/y3lon-ix.htm | title=1883 London Tournament | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="WinterWorldChessChampion" />

===Settles in United States===
In 1883, shortly after the London tournament, Steinitz decided to leave England and moved to New York City, where he lived for the rest of his life.<ref name="chessbaseVienna1882" /> This did not end the "Ink War": his enemies persuaded some of the American press to publish anti-Steinitz articles,<ref name="LandsbergerSteinitzPapers" /><ref name="NYTimes1887OnSteinitz" /> 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|St. Louis ''Globe-Democrat'']], both of which reported Steinitz's 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".<ref name="WinterWorldChessChampion" />

===World Championship match===

{{Main| World Chess Championship 1886}}

Eventually it was agreed that in 1886 Steinitz and Zukertort would play a [[World Chess Championship 1886|match]] in New York, [[St. Louis]] and New Orleans, and that the victor would be the player who first won 10 games. At Steinitz's insistence the contract said it would be "for the Championship of the World".<ref name="WinterWorldChessChampion" /><ref name="LandsbergBiographySteinitz">{{Cite book | last=Landsberg | first=K. | title=William Steinitz: A biography of the Bohemian Caesar | publisher=McFarland & Co. | year=1993}}</ref> After the five games played in New York, Zukertort led by 4–1, but in the end Steinitz won decisively by 12½–7½ (ten wins, five draws, five losses), becoming the first official world champion on March 29.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=53788 | title=Steinitz vs. Zukertort World Championship Match (1886) }}</ref> The collapse by Zukertort, who won only one of the last 15 games, has been described as "perhaps the most thoroughgoing reversal of fortune in the history of world championship play."<ref>Horowitz, p. 30</ref>

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 US citizen on November 23, 1888, having resided for five years in New York, and changed his first name from Wilhelm to William.<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}}

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&nbsp;– 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".<ref name="Thulin1899WorldChampionshipMatchOrNot" />

===Defeats Chigorin===

{{Main|World Chess Championship 1889}}

In 1888 the [[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]],<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}} 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's letters and the publicity material just before the match conspicuously avoided the phrase. The proposed match was to have a maximum of 20 games,<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}} 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's world championship project.<ref name="Thulin1899WorldChampionshipMatchOrNot">{{cite web | url=http://www.anders.thulin.name/SUBJECTS/CHESS/SteinitzChigorin1889.pdf | title=Steinitz—Chigorin, Havana 1899 – A World Championship Match or Not? | author=Thulin, A. |date=August 2007 | access-date=2008-05-30}} Based on {{cite book | title=The Steinitz Papers: Letters and Documents of the First World Chess Champion | author=Landsberger, K. | publisher=McFarland | year=2002 | isbn=978-0-7864-1193-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NltT4BinugsC&q=steinitz+%22the+field%22+hoffer&pg=PA28 | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> 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).{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}}

====New York 1889 tournament====
The American Chess Congress's 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.<ref name="Thulin1899WorldChampionshipMatchOrNot" /> 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.<ref>{{cite journal | journal=International Chess Magazine | author=Wilhelm Steinitz | volume=3 | pages=370–71 |date=December 1887 | title=(title unknown) | url=http://www.anders.thulin.name/SUBJECTS/CHESS/SteinitzChigorin1889.pdf | access-date=2008-06-15 }}</ref> The tournament was duly played, but the outcome was not quite as planned: [[Mikhail Chigorin]] and [[Max Weiss]] tied for first place; their play-off resulted in four draws, and Weiss then wanted to get back to his work for the [[S. M. von Rothschild|Rothschild Bank]], conceding the title to Chigorin{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}. However, the third prize-winner [[Isidor Gunsberg]] was prepared to play for the title.

{{Main|World Chess Championship 1890–1891}}

A Steinitz–Gunsberg match was played in New York in 1890 and ended in a 10½–8½ victory for Steinitz. The American Chess Congress's experiment was not repeated, and Steinitz's last three matches were private arrangements between the players.<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}}<ref name="NYTimes1894PreSteinitzLasker" />

===Wins rematch against Chigorin===

{{Main|World Chess Championship 1892}}

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).{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}}

German Dr. [[Siegbert Tarrasch]] turned down an opportunity in 1892 to challenge Steinitz in a world championship match, because of the demands of his medical practice.{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}}

===Loses title to Lasker===

{{Main|World Chess Championship 1894}}

[[Image:Lasker-Steinitz.jpg|thumb|right|[[Emanuel Lasker]] (right) playing Steinitz for the [[World Chess Championship]], New York 1894]]
Around this time Steinitz publicly spoke of retiring, but changed his mind when [[Emanuel Lasker]], 32 years younger and comparatively untested at the top level, challenged him. Lasker had been earlier that year refused a non-title challenge by fellow German, Dr. [[Siegbert Tarrasch]], who was at the time the world's most dominant tournament player.<ref>''The World Chess Championship'', by [[I.A. Horowitz]], New York, Macmillan, 1973, p. 41</ref>

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's earlier matches (the final combined stake of $4,000 would be worth about $114,000 at 2016 values<ref>Using incomes for the adjustment factor, as the outcome depended on a few months' hard work by the players; if prices are used for the conversion, the result is about $114,000 – see {{cite web | url=http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ | title=Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to Present | access-date=2017-03-28}} However, Lasker later published an analysis showing that the winning player got $1,600 and the losing player $600 out of the $4,000, as the backers who had bet on the winner got the rest: {{cite journal | journal=[[Lasker's Chess Magazine]] | volume=1 |date=January 1905 | title=From the Editorial Chair | author=[[Emanuel Lasker]] | url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lasker%27s_Chess_Magazine/Volume_1 | access-date=2008-05-31 }}</ref>). Although this was publicly praised as an act of sportsmanship on Steinitz's part,<ref name="NYTimes1894PreSteinitzLasker" /> Steinitz may have desperately needed the money.<ref name="chessvilleSteinitzPapers" />

The match was played in 1894, at venues in New York, Philadelphia and [[Montreal]], Canada. The 32-year age difference between the combatants was the largest in the history of world championship play, and remains so today.<ref>''The World Chess Championship'' by [[I.A. Horowitz]], Macmillan, New York, 1973, p. 42</ref> 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 [[World Chess Championship 1894|won]] with ten wins, five losses and four draws.<ref name="Giffard394">{{cite book
 | author=Giffard, Nicolas
 | year=1993
 | title=Le Guide des Échecs
 | language=fr
 | publisher=[[Éditions Robert Laffont]]
 | page=394
}}</ref><ref name="chessvilleSteinitzLasker1894">{{cite web
 | url=http://www.chessville.com/instruction/Lasker_v_Steinitz/instr_annogames_laskervsteinitz1894.htm
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030208044641/http://www.chessville.com/instruction/Lasker_v_Steinitz/instr_annogames_laskervsteinitz1894.htm
 | url-status=usurped
 | archive-date=February 8, 2003
 | title=Lasker v. Steinitz – World Championship Match 1894
 | access-date=2008-05-30
}}</ref> Some commentators thought Steinitz's habit of playing "experimental" moves in serious competition was a major factor in his downfall.<ref name="NYTimesSteinitzObit1900" />

====Increased tournament activity====
After losing the title, Steinitz played in tournaments more frequently than he had previously. He won at New York City 1894, and was fifth at [[Hastings 1895 chess tournament|Hastings 1895]] (winning the first brilliancy prize for his game with [[Curt von Bardeleben]]). At [[Saint Petersburg 1895–96 chess tournament|Saint Petersburg 1895]], a super-strong four player, multi-round-robin event, with Lasker, Chigorin and [[Harry Pillsbury|Pillsbury]], he took second place behind Lasker. Later his results began to decline: 6th in [[Nuremberg]] 1896, 5th in Cologne 1898, 10th in London 1899.<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}}<ref name="sympatico19thCentMatchesTournaments" />

In early 1896, Steinitz defeated the Russian [[Emanuel Schiffers]] in a match (winning 6 games, drawing 1, losing 4).<ref name="chessvilleSteinitzPapers" />

====Rematch with Lasker====
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.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/z6ls$wix.htm | access-date=2008-11-19
| title=World Chess Championship: 1896 Lasker–Steinitz Title Match | author=Weeks, M.
}}</ref> 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.<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}}