Editing Wilhelm Steinitz (section)

===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" />