Editing Wilhelm Steinitz (section)

==Controversy on the beginning of Steinitz's success==
[[Image:JHBlackburne c1890.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.75|[[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.]]
There is a long-running debate among chess writers about whether Steinitz's reign as [[World Chess Champion]] began in 1866, when he beat Anderssen, or in 1886, when he beat Zukertort.<ref name="Thulin1899WorldChampionshipMatchOrNot" /><ref name="DateStartSteinitzReign">Dating the start of Steinitz's reign to 1886:
*{{cite book | title=The World Chess Championship |author1=Gligoric, S. |author2=Wade, R.G.  |name-list-style=amp | year=1972 | page=xi | publisher=Harper & Row | isbn=978-0-06-011573-9 }}
*{{Cite book | title=International Championship Chess: A Complete Record of FIDE Events | author=Kazic, B.M. | year=1974 | isbn=978-0-273-07078-8 | page=206 | publisher=Pitman Publishing Corporation }}
*{{cite book | title=The Oxford Companion to Chess | url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont0000hoop | url-access=registration | edition=2nd | year=1992 |author1=Hooper, D. |author2=Whyld, K.  |name-list-style=amp | page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont0000hoop/page/450 450] | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-866164-1 }}
<br/>Supporting 1866:
*{{cite news | newspaper=The 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 }}
*{{cite journal | journal=British Chess Magazine |date=April 1894 | title=(unknown) | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html | access-date=2008-09-04 }}
*{{cite book |title=William Steinitz: Selected Chess Games |last=Devide |first=C. |publisher=Dover |year=1974 |page=4 |orig-year=1901 |isbn=978-0-486-23025-2 }}
*{{cite journal | journal=Lasker's Chess Magazine |date=May 1908 | title=(unknown) | author=Lasker, Em. | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html | access-date=2008-09-04 }}
*{{cite book | author=Fine, R. | title=The World's Great Chess Games | publisher=André Deutsch | year=1952 | page=30 }}
*{{cite book | title=Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess | author=Golombek, H. | year=1977 | page=309 | publisher=Crown | isbn=978-0-517-53146-4 }}
*{{Cite news| newspaper= New York Times | author=Byrne, R. | title= Pastimes; Chess | date=December 17, 1989 | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7DB123DF934A25751C1A96F948260 | access-date=2008-09-04 }}
*{{cite book | title=The Batsford Chess Encyclopedia | author=Divinsky, N. | year=1990 | page=203 | publisher=Batsford | isbn=978-0-7134-6214-2 }}
*{{Cite news| newspaper=Washington Times | date=May 16, 2003 | title=Unsound but irresistible fun | url=http://www.washtimes.com/news/2003/may/16/20030516-102232-1025r/| access-date=2008-09-04 }}
*{{cite book | title=UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography | year=2003 | entry=Wilhelm Steinitz | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5229/is_2003/ai_n19151966 | access-date=2008-09-04 }}
*{{cite web | title=The World Chess Champions, by GM Raymond Keene OBE | author=Keene, R. | date=September 29, 2007 | url=http://www.impalapublications.com/blog/index.php?/archives/2147-THE-WORLD-CHESS-CHAMPIONS,-by-GM-Raymond-Keene-OBE.html | access-date=2008-09-04 }}
<br />Undecided:
*{{cite book | author=Sunnucks, A. | title=The Encyclopaedia of Chess | year=1970 | pages=441–42 }}
</ref> In April 1894 the ''[[British Chess Magazine]]'' described Steinitz as holding "the chess championship of the world for 28 years".<ref>{{cite journal | journal=British Chess Magazine | title=(unknown) | pages=163 | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html | author=Winter, E. | date=April 1894 }} [[Emanuel Lasker]] supported this view: {{cite journal | journal=Lasker's Chess Magazine |date=May 1908 | title=(article title unknown) | pages=1 | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html | author=Winter, E. }} Likewise [[Reuben Fine]] in {{cite book | author=Fine, R. | title=The World's Great Chess Games | year=1952 | publisher=André Deutsch (now as paperback from Dover) }}.</ref> 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.<ref>See the extracts from contemporary documents at {{cite web | title=Early Uses of 'World Chess Champion' | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html | author=Winter, E. }} The 1882 quote from Steinitz, two years before Morphy's death, might be interpreted as claiming that he was champion from 1866, but the 1888 extract is his first absolutely unambiguous claim to have been champion since 1866.</ref> It has been suggested that Steinitz could not make such a claim while [[Paul Morphy]] was alive.<ref>{{Cite book | title=The Centenary Match, Kasparov–Karpov III | last1=Keene | first1=Raymond | author1-link=Raymond Keene | last2=Goodman | first2=David | year=1986 | pages=1–2 | publisher=Collier Books | isbn=978-0-02-028700-1 }}</ref> Morphy had defeated Anderssen by a far wider margin, 8–3, in 1858, but retired from chess competition soon after he returned to the US in 1859, and died in 1884. The 1886 Steinitz vs. Zukertort match was the first that was explicitly described as being for the World Championship,<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Chess Monthly|date=January 1886|publisher=Chess History|title=Early Uses of 'World Chess Champion' | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html |last1=Winter|first1=E}}</ref> 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 [[London 1851 chess tournament|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.<ref name="Spinrad2006EarlyWorldRankings">{{cite web | url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/spinrad06.pdf | title=Early World Rankings | year=2006 | author=Spinrad, J.P. | publisher=chesscafe.com }}</ref> 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.<ref name="WinterWorldChessChampion">{{cite web | title=Early Uses of 'World Chess Champion' | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html | author=Winter, E. }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book
| author=MacDonnell, G.A. | title=The Knights and Kings of Chess | location=London | year=1894 }}:
*pages 7 and 10–11: [[Joseph Blackburne]] "won the championship of the world"
*page 31: "... 1887, just after [[George Henry Mackenzie|Mackenzie]] had won the Chess Championship of the World"
*page 78: [[Isidore Gunsberg]] "... by his victory at Bradford Place {{sic}} in 1888, ...won a place among the champions of the world"

Extracts are published at {{cite web
| title=Chess Note 3968: Nineteenth-century world champions | author=Winter, E.
| url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter15.html#3967._Benko_and_b5_C.N._3957 | access-date=2008-11-19
}}</ref> However, Steinitz regarded G.A. MacDonnell as "one of my bitterest and most untruthful persecutors".<ref>{{cite journal
| author=Steinitz, W. | title=(unknown) | journal=International Chess Magazine | pages=146–47 |date=May 1891
| url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter15.html#3974._The_Steinitz-Wormald-MacDonnell_ | access-date=2008-11-19
}}</ref>