Editing Wilhelm Steinitz

{{short description|Austrian-American chess player (1836–1900)}}
{{Good article}}
{{Infobox chess player
|name = Wilhelm Steinitz
|image= Wilhelm Steinitz2.jpg
|caption=
|country = [[Austrian Empire]] → [[Austria-Hungary]]<br />United States
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1836|5|14}}
|birth_place = [[Prague]], [[Kingdom of Bohemia]], [[Austrian Empire]]
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1900|8|12|1836|5|7}}
|death_place = New York City, United&nbsp;States
|worldchampion = 1886–1894 
}}

'''William Steinitz''' (born '''Wilhelm Steinitz'''; May 14, 1836&nbsp;– August 12, 1900) was a Bohemian-Austrian, and later American, [[chess]] player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first [[World Chess Championship|World Chess Champion]]. He was also a highly influential writer and [[Chess theory|chess theoretician]].

When discussing chess history from the 1850s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz could be effectively considered the champion from an earlier time, perhaps as early as 1866. Steinitz lost his title to [[Emanuel Lasker]] in 1894, and lost a rematch in 1896–97.

Statistical rating systems give Steinitz a rather low ranking among world champions, mainly because he took several long breaks from competitive play. However, an analysis based on one of these rating systems shows that he was one of the most dominant players in the history of the game. Steinitz was unbeaten in match play for 32 years, from 1862 to 1894.

Although Steinitz became "world number one" by winning in the all-out attacking style that was common in the 1860s, he unveiled in 1873 a new {{chessgloss|positional play|positional}} style of play, and demonstrated that it was superior to the previous style. His new style was controversial and some even branded it as "cowardly", but many of Steinitz's games showed that it could also set up attacks as ferocious as those of the old school.

Steinitz was also a prolific writer on chess, and defended his new ideas vigorously. The debate was so bitter and sometimes abusive that it became known as the "Ink War". By the early 1890s, Steinitz's approach was widely accepted, and the next generation of top players acknowledged their debt to him, most notably his successor as world champion, [[Emanuel Lasker]].

Traditional accounts of Steinitz's character depict him as ill-tempered and aggressive, but more recent research shows that he had long and friendly relationships with some players and chess organizations. Most notably from 1888 to 1889 he co-operated with the [[American Chess Congress]] in a project to define rules governing the conduct of future world championships. Steinitz was unskilled at managing money, and lived in poverty all his life.

==Early life==
Steinitz was born on May 14, 1836, in the Jewish [[ghetto]] of [[Prague]] (now capital of the [[Czech Republic]]; then in [[Bohemia]], a part of the [[Austrian Empire]]). The youngest of  tailor Josef-Salomon Steinitz's thirteen sons by his first wife, he learned to play chess at age 12.<ref name="SchoenbergGrandmasters">{{Cite book | last=Schoenberg | first=Harold C. | title=Grandmasters of Chess | publisher=W.W. Norton & Co. | location=New York | edition=Rev. | year=1981 | page=99}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schulz |first=Andre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4NUlDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 |title=The Big Book of World Chess Championships: 46 Title Fights – from Steinitz to Carlsen |date=2016-05-11 |publisher=New In Chess |isbn=978-90-5691-636-7 |language=en}}</ref> After studying Talmud in his youth,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harding |first=Tim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dc7xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 |title=Steinitz in London: A Chess Biography with 623 Games |date=2020-09-10 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-6953-3 |language=en}}</ref> he began playing serious chess in his twenties, after leaving Prague in 1857 to study [[mathematics]]<ref name="SchoenbergGrandmasters" /> at the [[Vienna University of Technology|Vienna Polytechnic]].<ref>{{Cite book | last=Landsberger | first =Kurt | title=William Steinitz, Chess Champion | publisher =McFarland & Co | year =2006 | pages =17 | isbn =978-0-7864-2846-5 }}</ref> Steinitz spent two years at the university.<ref>''The World Chess Championship'', by [[I.A. Horowitz]], Macmillan, New York, 1973, p. 19; Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 72-80175</ref>

==Chess career (through 1881)==
Steinitz improved rapidly in chess during the late 1850s, progressing from third place in the 1859 Vienna City championship to first in 1861, with a score of 30/31.<ref name="ScoresRomanticEra" /> During this period he was nicknamed "the Austrian [[Paul Morphy|Morphy]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Shibut |first=Macon |date=May 7, 2014 |title=Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory |location=Mineola, New York |publisher=Dover Publications |page=82 |isbn=978-0486435749 }}</ref> This achievement meant that he had become the strongest player in Austria.<ref name="Horowitz, p. 20">Horowitz, p. 20</ref>

===International debut===
<!--[[Image:WSteinitz.jpg|thumb|right|Wilhelm Steinitz]]-->
[[Image:Steinitz1866.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.90|Steinitz in 1866]]
Steinitz was then sent to represent Austria in the [[London 1862 chess tournament]]. He placed sixth, but his win over [[Augustus Mongredien]] was awarded the tournament's brilliancy prize.<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz">{{cite web | url=http://billwall.phpwebhosting.com/articles/steinitz.htm | title=William Steinitz | author=Bill Wall | website=Bill Wall's Chess Page | access-date=2023-03-30 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kasparov |first=Garry |title=My great predecessors: Part I |publisher=Everyman Chess |year=2003 |isbn=1-85744-330-6 |pages=46}}</ref> He immediately challenged the fifth-placed contestant, the strong veteran Italian Master [[Serafino Dubois]], to a match, which Steinitz won (five wins, one [[draw (chess)|draw]], three losses).<ref name="ScoresRomanticEra" /> This encouraged him to turn professional, and he took up residence in London.<ref name="Horowitz, p. 20"/> In 1862–63 Steinitz scored a crushing win in a match with [[Joseph Henry Blackburne]], who went on to be one of the world's top ten for 20&nbsp;years, but who had only started playing chess two years earlier.<ref name="ChessmetricsPlayerProfileBlackburne">{{cite web | url=http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?Params=199510SSSSS3S012785000000111000000000000010100 | title=Chessmetrics Player Profile: Joseph Blackburne | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> Steinitz then beat some leading UK players in matches: [[Frederick Deacon]] and the aforementioned Mongredien in 1863 followed by Valentine Green in 1864.<ref name="SilmanSteinitz">{{cite web | url=http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_history/grt_plyr_w_steinitz.html | title=Wilhelm Steinitz | author=Silman, Jeremy | access-date=2008-11-19 | author-link=Jeremy Silman | archive-date=2008-06-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619024745/http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_history/grt_plyr_w_steinitz.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> This charge up the rankings had a price: in March 1863 Steinitz apologized in a letter to [[Ignác Kolisch]] for not repaying a loan, because while Steinitz had been beating Blackburne, [[Daniel Harrwitz]] had "taken over" all of Steinitz's clients at the London Chess Club, who had provided Steinitz's main source of income.<ref name="LandsbergerSteinitzPapers" />

===Match against Anderssen===
[[Image:AdolphAnderssen.jpg|thumb | right | 250px | [[Adolf Anderssen]] was recognized as the world's top player until 1866, when Steinitz won a match against him.]]
These successes established Steinitz as one of the world's top players, and he was able to arrange a match in 1866 in London against [[Adolf Anderssen]], who was regarded as the world's strongest active player because he had won the 1851 and 1862 London International Tournaments and his one superior, [[Paul Morphy]], had retired from competitive chess.<ref name="SchoenbergGrandmasters" /> Steinitz won with eight wins and six losses (there were no draws), but it was a hard fight; after 12 games the scores were level at 6–6, then Steinitz won the last two games.<ref>''The World Chess Championship'', by [[I.A. Horowitz]], 1973, Macmillan, New York, pp. 23–24, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-80175</ref>

As a result of this match victory, Steinitz was generally regarded as the world's best player.<ref name="WinterWorldChessChampion" /> The prize money for this match was £100 to the winner (Steinitz) and £20 for the loser (Anderssen). The winner's prize was a large sum by the standards of the times, equivalent to about £57,500 in 2007's money.<ref>Conversion based on average incomes, which are the most appropriate measure for a few weeks' hard work. If we use average prices for the conversion, the result is about £6,500. {{cite web | url=http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php?use%5B%5D=CPI&use%5B%5D=DEFIND&use%5B%5D=WAGE&use%5B%5D=GDPCP&use%5B%5D=GDPC&year_early=1866&pound71=100&shilling71=0&pence71=0&amount=100&year_source=1866&year_result=2008 | title=Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound Amount, 1830 to Present | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216145224/http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php?use%5B%5D=CPI&use%5B%5D=DEFIND&use%5B%5D=WAGE&use%5B%5D=GDPCP&use%5B%5D=GDPC&year_early=1866&pound71=100&shilling71=0&pence71=0&amount=100&year_source=1866&year_result=2008 | archive-date=2008-12-16 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Continued match play success===
In the years following his victory over Anderssen, Steinitz beat [[Henry Bird (chess player)|Henry Bird]] in 1866 (seven wins, five losses, five draws). He also comfortably beat [[Johannes Zukertort]] in 1872 (seven wins, four draws, one loss; Zukertort had proved himself one of the elite by beating Anderssen by a large margin in 1871).<ref name="SilmanSteinitz" />

===Gradually improves tournament results===
It took longer for Steinitz to reach the top in tournament play. In the next few years he took: third place at Paris 1867 behind [[Ignatz Kolisch]] and [[Simon Winawer]]; and second place at [[Dundee]] (1867; [[Gustav Neumann]] won), <!--- *************

Bill Wall is the only source who says Steinitz played in a German Chess Championship and came second to Anderssen, but Wall dates this to 1868! Also, there were separate West, North and Central Championship tournaments. All other sources says [[Max Lange]] won the West and North tournaments in 1868; there is no mention of a Central tournament in 1868. Looks like Wall's wrong.

the 1869 [[German Chess Championship]] (won by Anderssen),<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />

************  --> and [[Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament]]; behind Anderssen but ahead of Blackburne, [[Louis Paulsen]] and other strong players.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.endgame.nl/bad1870.htm | title=Baden-Baden 1870 | access-date=2008-11-19 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081026085730/http://www.endgame.nl/bad1870.htm | archive-date=2008-10-26 }}</ref> His first victory in a strong tournament was London 1872, ahead of Blackburne and Zukertort;<ref name="NYTimes1894PreSteinitzLasker" /> and the first tournament in which Steinitz finished ahead of Anderssen was the [[Vienna 1873 chess tournament]], when Anderssen was 55 years old.{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}}

===Changes style, introduces positional school===
All of Steinitz's successes up to 1872 were achieved in the attack-at-all-costs "[[Romantic chess|Romantic]]" style exemplified by Anderssen. But in the [[Vienna 1873 chess tournament]], Steinitz unveiled a new "positional" style of play which was to become the basis of modern chess.<ref name="SilmanSteinitz" /> He tied for first place with Blackburne, ahead of Anderssen, [[Samuel Rosenthal]], Paulsen and [[Henry Bird (chess player)|Henry Bird]], and won the play-off against Blackburne. Steinitz made a shaky start, but won his last 14 games in the main tournament (including 2–0 results over Paulsen, Anderssen, and Blackburne<ref name="SilmanSteinitz" />) plus the two play-off games&nbsp;– this was the start of a 25-game winning streak in serious competition.<ref name="endgameNLWorldExhibitions" />

===Hiatus from competitive chess===
Between 1873 and 1882 Steinitz played no tournaments and only one match (a 7–0 win against Blackburne in 1876). His other games during this period were in [[Simultaneous exhibition|simultaneous]] and [[Blindfold chess|blindfold]] exhibitions,<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}} which contributed an important part of a professional chess-player's income in those days (for example in 1887 Blackburne was paid 9 [[guinea (coin)|guineas]] for two simultaneous exhibitions and a blindfold exhibition hosted by the Teesside Chess Association;<ref name="ClevelandChessAssocHist">{{cite web | url=http://www.clevelandchessassociation.org.uk/cca/history/index.htm | title=History of the CCA | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217031526/http://www.clevelandchessassociation.org.uk/cca/history/index.htm <!--Added by H3llBot--> | archive-date=2008-12-17 }}</ref> this was equivalent to about £4,800 at 2007 values<ref>Conversion based on average incomes: {{cite web | url=http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php?use%5B%5D=CPI&use%5B%5D=DEFIND&use%5B%5D=WAGE&use%5B%5D=GDPCP&use%5B%5D=GDPC&year_early=1887&pound71=9&shilling71=9&pence71=0&amount=9.45&year_source=1887&year_result=2008 | title=Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound Amount, 1830 to Present | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216145235/http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php?use%5B%5D=CPI&use%5B%5D=DEFIND&use%5B%5D=WAGE&use%5B%5D=GDPCP&use%5B%5D=GDPC&year_early=1887&pound71=9&shilling71=9&pence71=0&amount=9.45&year_source=1887&year_result=2008 | archive-date=2008-12-16 | url-status=dead }}</ref>).

====Chess journalist====
Instead, Steinitz concentrated on his work as a chess journalist, notably for ''[[The Field (magazine)|The Field]]'', which was Britain's leading sports magazine.<ref name="chessarchSteinitzWroteForTheField">From 1873 to 1882, Steinitz was a regular chess columnist for ''The Field'', see {{cite web | url=http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/steinitz.htm | title=Bill Wall's Chess Master Profiles – Steinitz | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803195031/http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/steinitz.htm | archive-date=2009-08-03 }}{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}} For example, he wrote commentaries on the {{cite web | url=http://www.chessarch.com/excavations/000B_blac_stei/1876blst.shtml | title=Blackburne–Steinitz Match, London 1876 | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-date=2008-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216151510/http://www.chessarch.com/excavations/000B_blac_stei/1876blst.shtml | url-status=dead }} in collaboration with his opponent and on the {{cite web | url=http://www.chessarch.com/excavations/000E_rose_zuke/1880rozu.shtml | title=Rosenthal–Zukertort Match, London 1880 | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-date=2008-11-21 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121043803/http://www.chessarch.com/excavations/000E_rose_zuke/1880rozu.shtml | url-status=dead }}</ref> Some of Steinitz's commentaries aroused heated debates, notably from Zukertort and [[Leopold Hoffer]] in ''The Chess Monthly'' (which they founded in 1879).<ref name="WinterKKSCotch">{{cite web | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/scotch.html | title=Kasparov, Karpov and the Scotch | author=Winter, E. }}</ref> This "Ink War" escalated sharply in 1881, when Steinitz mercilessly criticized Hoffer's annotations of games in the [[Berlin 1881 chess tournament|1881 Berlin Congress]] (won by Blackburne ahead of Zukertort). Steinitz was eager to settle the analytical debates by a second match against Zukertort, whose unwillingness to play provoked scornful comments from Steinitz. In mid-1882 [[James Mason (chess player)|James Mason]], a consistently strong player,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://chessmetrics.com/cm/PL/PL25209.htm | title= Chessmetrics: Career ratings for Mason, James | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> challenged Steinitz to a match, and accused Steinitz of cowardice when Steinitz insisted the issue with Zukertort should be settled first. Steinitz responded by inviting Mason to name a sufficiently high stake for a match, at least £150 per player ({{Inflation|UK|150|1882|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}), but Mason was unwilling to stake more than £100. Mason later agreed to play a match with Zukertort for a stake of £100 per player, but soon "postponed" that match, writing that "circumstances having arisen that make it highly inconvenient for me to proceed ..."<ref name="LandsbergerSteinitzPapers">{{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 }}</ref>

====Rivalry with Zukertort====
[[Image:Johannes Zukertort.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.85|Steinitz's rival and bitter enemy [[Johannes Zukertort]] lost matches to him in 1872 and 1886. The second match made Steinitz the undisputed [[World Chess Championship|world champion]].]]

Steinitz's long lay-off caused some commentators to suggest that Zukertort, who had scored some notable tournament victories, should be regarded as the world chess champion.<ref name="WinterWorldChessChampion" /> As an example, The ''Chess Player's Chronicle'' in July 1883 opined that 'Steinitz was, at one time, fairly entitled to the position of champion...He has just taken an inferior place to Zukertort, in a tournament, and for the time being Zukertort, in the opinion of some, becomes champion'.<ref name="WinterWorldChessChampion" /> Zukertort, the son of Jewish converts to [[Protestantism]] who missionized among Polish Jews,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Domański |first=Cezary W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jy1wAAAAMAAJ |title=Arcymistrz z Lublina: prawda i legenda o Janie Hermanie Zukertorcie, wybitnym szachiście XIX wieku, uczestniku meczu o mistrzostwo świata |last2=Lissowski |first2=Tomasz |last3=Macieja |first3=Bartłomiej |date=2002 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Szachowe "Penelopa" |language=pl}}</ref> told Steinitz: "You are not a chessplayer, but a Jew".<ref>Stadtler, Bea. "For the Young Reader: Is Chess a Jewish Game." ''Jewish Advocate (1909–1990),'' Jun 15 1989, p. 10.</ref>

==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}}

==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>

==Personal life==
Steinitz lived with Caroline Golder (born 1846) in the 1860s, and their only daughter Flora was born in 1866.<ref name="LandsbergerSteinitzPapers" /><ref name="WinterChessNotes29">See extracts from UK census records for 1871 and 1881 at {{cite web | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter29.html#4754._Chess_and_warfare_C.N._4745 | title=Chess Note 4756: Census information | author=Edward Winter | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> Flora died in 1888 at the age of 21,<ref name="chessvilleSteinitzPapers">{{cite web | url=http://www.chessville.com/reviews/SteinitzPapers.htm | title=The Steinitz Papers – review | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-date=2007-11-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071124072844/http://chessville.com/reviews/SteinitzPapers.htm | url-status=usurped }}</ref> and Caroline died in 1892.<ref name="LandsbergerSteinitzPapers" /> He married his second wife a few years later, and had two children by her. In 1897 he dedicated a pamphlet to the memory of his first wife and their daughter.<ref name="NYTimesSteinitzObit1900">{{cite news | newspaper=New York Times | date=August 14, 1900 | title=William Steinitz dead | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E06E4DC1039E733A25757C1A96E9C946197D6CF | access-date=2008-11-19 }} Also available in 2 parts at {{cite web | url=http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=177 | title=Steinitz Obituary (Part 1 of 2) | access-date=2008-11-19 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216145221/http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=177 | archive-date=2008-12-16 }} and {{cite web | url=http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=182 | title=Steinitz Obituary (Part 2 of 2) | access-date=2008-11-19 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216145225/http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=182 | archive-date=2008-12-16 }}</ref>

In February 1897, ''[[The New York Times]]'' prematurely reported his death in a New York mental asylum.<ref name="NYTimes1897ChessAndBrainDisease">{{cite news | newspaper=New York Times | date=February 23, 1897 | title=Chess and Brain Disease | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/02/23/102485855.pdf | access-date=2008-11-19 }} The key passage is also quoted at {{cite web | url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/spinrad20.pdf | title=Obituaries | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> Some authors claim that he contracted [[syphilis]],<ref name="Kmoch">{{cite web
| url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kmoch06.pdf | access-date=2008-11-19
| title=Grandmasters I Have Known – Emanuel Lasker| author=[[Hans Kmoch]] |
publisher=[[ChessCafe.com]] }} (see last sentence)</ref> which may have been a cause of the mental breakdowns he suffered in his last years. In the months prior to his death, he spent some time in institutions as a result of his failing mental health.<ref name="BaltimoreAmerican1900SteinitzFreeOnceMore">{{cite journal | journal=Baltimore American | date=April 10, 1900 | title=Steinitz free once more | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NOlBAAAAIBAJ&dq=steinitz%20-chess%20-yuval&pg=4450%2C6685109 | access-date=2011-11-30 | format=PDF}}</ref> Before his confinement, Steinitz had been attempting to publish an essay calling for the emancipation of [[Austrian Jews]], and Steinitz himself attributed his symptoms entirely to mental fatigue.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinitz |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=INjglaRIMdgC&pg=PP22 |title=My Advertisement to Antisemites in Vienna and Elsewhere by "a Schacherjude" (mercenary Jew), Or, An Essay on Capital, Labor, and Charity |date=1900 |publisher=W.Steinitz |language=en}}</ref> His chess activities had not yielded any great financial rewards, and he died a pauper in the [[Manhattan Psychiatric Center|Manhattan State Hospital]] ([[Wards Island]]) on August 12, 1900, of a heart attack.  Steinitz is buried in the [[Cemetery of the Evergreens]] in [[Brooklyn]], [[New York (state)|New York]].<ref>[https://en.chessbase.com/post/visiting-steinitz-and-lasker-at-their-final-resting-places ChessBase: Visiting Steinitz and Lasker at Their Final Resting Places]</ref> His second wife and their two young children were still alive at the time of his death.<ref name="NYTimesSteinitzObit1900" />
{{clear}}

==Assessment==
[[Image:Wilhelm Steinitz plaque.JPG|thumb|right|upright=1.0|Plaque in honor of Wilhelm Steinitz, in [[Prague]]'s Josefov district]]
The book of the [[Hastings 1895 chess tournament]], written collectively by the players, described Steinitz as follows:<ref name="Hastings1895TournamentBook">{{cite book | editor=Pickard, Sid | title=Hastings 1895: The Centennial Edition | publisher=Pickard and Son | year=1995 | isbn=978-1-886846-01-2}}</ref>
<blockquote>Mr. Steinitz stands high as a theoretician and as a writer; he has a powerful pen, and when he chooses can use expressive English. He evidently strives to be fair to friends and foes alike, but appears sometimes to fail to see that after all he is much like many others in this respect. Possessed of a fine intellect, and extremely fond of the game, he is apt to lose sight of all other considerations, people and business alike. Chess is his very life and soul, the one thing for which he lives.</blockquote>

===Influence on the game===
Steinitz's play up to and including 1872 was similar to that of his contemporaries: sharp, aggressive, and full of [[Sacrifice (chess)|sacrificial]] play. This was the style in which he became "world number one" by beating [[Adolf Anderssen]] in 1866 and confirmed his position by beating [[Johannes Zukertort|Zukertort]] in 1872 and winning the 1872 London International tournament (Zukertort had claimed the rank of number two by beating Anderssen in 1871).<ref name="SilmanSteinitz" />

In 1873, however, Steinitz's play suddenly changed, giving priority to what is now called the positional elements in chess: [[pawn structure]], space, outposts for knights, the advantage of the two bishops, etc. Although Steinitz often accepted unnecessarily difficult defensive positions in order to demonstrate the superiority of his theories, he also showed that his methods could provide a platform for crushing attacks.<ref name="SilmanSteinitzBook">{{cite web | title=Wilhelm Steinitz | url=http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_history/grt_plyr_w_steinitz.html | author=Silman, J. | publisher=Jeremy Silman | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-date=2008-06-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619024745/http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_history/grt_plyr_w_steinitz.html | url-status=dead }} Several examples of Steinitz testing his theories in top-class play.</ref><ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames">{{cite book | author=Fine, R. | title=The World's Great Chess Games | year=1952 | chapter=Wilhelm Steinitz | pages=30–37
 | publisher=Andre Deutsch (now as paperback from Dover) }}</ref><ref>The "Notable games" section contains two examples of positional play leading to powerful attacks, [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1132645 Johannes Zukertort vs Wilhelm Steinitz, 9th game of their 1886 World Championship match] and [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1036342 4th game of his 1892 match] against [[Mikhail Chigorin]]</ref> Steinitz's successor as world champion, [[Emanuel Lasker]], summed up the new style as: "In the beginning of the game ignore the search for [[Combination (chess)|combination]]s, abstain from violent moves, aim for small advantages, accumulate them, and only after having attained these ends search for the combination&nbsp;– and then with all the power of will and intellect, because then the combination must exist, however deeply hidden."<ref>{{cite book
| author=Lasker, Emanuel | title=Lasker's Manual of Chess | page=199 | chapter=The Evolution of the Theory of Steinitz | year=1947 | publisher=David McKay
}}</ref>

Although Steinitz's play changed abruptly, he said he had been thinking along such lines for some years: <blockquote>Some of the games which I saw [[Louis Paulsen|Paulsen]] play during the London Congress of 1862 gave a still stronger start to the modification of my own opinions, which has since developed, and I began to recognize that Chess genius is not confined to the more or less deep and brilliant finishing strokes after the original balance of power and position has been overthrown, but that it also requires the exercise of still more extraordinary powers, though perhaps of a different kind to maintain that balance or respectively to disturb it at the proper time in one's own favor.<ref name="LandsbergBiographySteinitz" /></blockquote>

During his nine-year layoff from tournament play (1873–1882) and later in his career, Steinitz used his chess writings to present his theories&nbsp;– while in the UK he wrote for ''The Field'';<ref name="chessarchSteinitzWroteForTheField" /> in 1885 after moving to New York he founded the "International Chess Magazine", of which he was the chief editor;<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jw/jw_intl_chess_magazine.html | title=International Chess Magazine | author=Watson, J. | year=2004 | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-date=2008-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216150220/http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jw/jw_intl_chess_magazine.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> and in 1889 he edited the book of the great [[American Chess Congress#Sixth American Chess Congress (1889)|New York 1889 tournament]] (won by [[Mikhail Chigorin]] and [[Max Weiss]]),<ref>{{Cite book|title=The book of the Sixth American Chess Congress|publisher=Edition Olms| orig-year=1891| year=1982 | editor=Steinitz, W. | isbn=978-3-283-00152-0}}</ref> in which he did not compete as the tournament was designed to produce his successor as World Champion.<ref name="endgameNLNewYork1889And1924"/> Many other writers found his new approach incomprehensible, boring or even cowardly; for example [[Adolf Anderssen]] said, "[[Ignatz Kolisch|Kolisch]] is a highwayman and points the pistol at your breast. Steinitz is a pick-pocket, he steals a pawn and wins a game with it."<ref name="NYTimes1887OnSteinitz">{{Cite news | title=Steinitz, the chess champion | newspaper=[[New York Times]] | date=January 23, 1887 | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1887/01/23/104007957.pdf | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref>

But when he contested the first World Championship match in 1886 against [[Johannes Zukertort]], it became evident that Steinitz was playing on another level. Although Zukertort was at least Steinitz's equal in spectacular attacking play, Steinitz often outmaneuvered him fairly simply by the use of positional principles.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" /><ref>For example in [[#Notable_games|the 9th game]] of Steinitz vs Zukertort 1886.</ref>

By the time of his match in 1890–91 against Gunsberg, some commentators showed an understanding of and appreciation for Steinitz's theories.<ref name="chessarchGunsbergSteinitzMatch1890To91">See the individual game reports by 3 US journals, linked to in {{cite web | url=http://www.chessarch.com/excavations/000C_guns_stei/1890gust.shtml | title=Gunsberg–Steinitz Match, World Championship 1890–91 | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-date=2008-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216151515/http://www.chessarch.com/excavations/000C_guns_stei/1890gust.shtml | url-status=dead }}</ref> Shortly before the 1894 match with Emanuel Lasker, even the ''New York Times'', which had earlier published attacks on his play and character,<ref name="NYTimes1887OnSteinitz" /><ref name="NYTimes1888TheoryAndPractice">{{cite news
 | journal=New York Times | date=May 13, 1888 | title=A New Chess Book | pages=13
 | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F02EEDA173AEF33A25750C1A9639C94699FD7CF
 | access-date=2008-06-19
}}</ref> paid tribute to his playing record, the importance of his theories, and his sportsmanship in agreeing to the most difficult match of his career despite his previous intention of retiring.<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=2008-11-19 }} Note this article implies that the final combined stake was US $4,500, but Lasker's financial analysis says it was $4,000: {{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>

By the end of his career, Steinitz was more highly esteemed as a theoretician than as a player. The comments about him in the book of the Hastings 1895 chess tournament focus on his theories and writings,<ref name="Hastings1895TournamentBook" /> and [[Emanuel Lasker]] was more explicit: "He was a thinker worthy of a seat in the halls of a University. A player, as the world believed he was, he was not; his studious temperament made that impossible; and thus he was conquered by a player ..."<ref name="Lasker1925ManualOnSteinitz">{{cite book | title=Lasker's Manual of Chess | author=[[Emanuel Lasker]] | publisher=Dover | orig-year=1925| year=1960 | isbn=978-0-486-20640-0 | url=http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/z4ls$wix.htm | access-date=2008-05-31 }} Also at {{cite web
| url=http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Morphy | access-date=2008-11-19
| title=WikiQuote: Paul Morphy }}</ref>

As a result of his play and writings Steinitz, along with [[Paul Morphy]], is considered by many chess commentators to be the founder of modern chess.<ref>See, e.g., {{Cite book | last=Lasker | first=Emanuel | author-link=Emanuel Lasker | title=Lasker's Manual of Chess | edition=2d | publisher=David McKay Co. | location=New York | year=1947 | page=187}} [[Siegbert Tarrasch]] wrote: "He has learned of the game only as much as a second-class player&nbsp;– the rest he has done from his own means. The whole of the modern conduct of the game, or at least by far the greatest part of it, is his work": {{cite web
| url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter29.html#4772._Nimzowitsch_v | access-date=2008-11-19
| title=Chess Note 4773: Tarrasch parody of Steinitz | author=Edward Winter
}}</ref>
Lasker, who took the championship from Steinitz, wrote, "I who vanquished him must see to it that his great achievement, his theories should find justice, and I must avenge the wrongs he suffered."<ref name="Lasker1925ManualOnSteinitz" />
[[Vladimir Kramnik]] emphasizes Steinitz's importance as a pioneer in the field of chess theory: "Steinitz was the first to realise that chess, despite being a complicated game, obeys some common principles. ... But as often happens the first time is just a try. ... I can't say he was the founder of a chess theory. He was an experimenter and pointed out that chess obeys laws that should be considered."<ref name="KramnikSteinitzToKasparov">{{cite web
 |url          = http://www.kramnik.com/eng/interviews/getinterview.aspx?id=61
 |access-date   = 2008-11-19
 |title        = Kramnik Interview: From Steinitz to Kasparov
 |author       = Kramnik, V.
 |publisher    = [[Vladimir Kramnik]]
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080512052013/http://www.kramnik.com/eng/interviews/getinterview.aspx?id=61
 |archive-date = 2008-05-12
 |url-status     = dead
}}</ref><!--Perhaps Steinitz's impact on chess can best be evaluated by a fellow World Champion and master of strategy, [[Tigran Petrosian]]: "The significance of Steinitz's teaching is that he showed that in principle chess has a strictly defined, logical nature." Can we find a good ref for this? 3 of the 4 on Google are Wikipedia clones.-->

===Writings===
{{wikisource|A Literary Steinitz Gambit}}
Steinitz was the main chess correspondent of ''[[The Field (magazine)|The Field]]'' (in London) from 1873 to 1882, and used this to present his ideas about chess strategy.<ref name="chessarchSteinitzWroteForTheField"/> In 1885 he founded the ''[[International Chess Magazine]]'' in New York City and edited it until 1891. In addition to game commentaries and blow-by-blow accounts of the negotiations leading to his 1886 match with [[Johann Zukertort]] and of the American Chess Congress's world championship project, he wrote a long series of articles about [[Paul Morphy]], who had died in 1884.<ref name="Thulin1899WorldChampionshipMatchOrNot" /><ref name=InternationalChessMagazine>{{cite book | author=Steinitz, W. | title=InternationalChessMagazine | editor=Fiala, V. | publisher=Moravian Chess | date=1885–1891 | url=http://www.moravian-chess.cz/katalog.php?idkat=12 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080520221127/http://moravian-chess.cz/katalog.php?idkat=12 | archive-date=2008-05-20 }} Reviewed at {{cite web | url=http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jw/jw_intl_chess_magazine.html | title=International Chess Magazine | year=2004 | author=Watson, J. | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-date=2008-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216150220/http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jw/jw_intl_chess_magazine.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> He wrote the book of the 1889 New York tournament, in which he annotated all 432 of the games,<ref name="endgameNLNewYork1889And1924">{{cite web | url=http://www.endgame.nl/newyork.htm | title=New York 1889 and 1924 | access-date=2008-11-19 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619023938/http://www.endgame.nl/newyork.htm | archive-date=2008-06-19 }}</ref><ref name="CollectedWorksOfSteinitz" /> and in 1889 he published a textbook, ''The Modern Chess Instructor''.<ref name="CollectedWorksOfSteinitz">Available as part of the CD collection {{Cite book | editor=Pickard, S. | title=The Collected Works of Wilhelm Steinitz | publisher=Chess Central | access-date=2008-11-19 | url=http://www.chesscentral.com/wilhelm-steinitz/collected_works_steinitz.htm | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081028165018/http://www.chesscentral.com/wilhelm-steinitz/collected_works_steinitz.htm | archive-date=2008-10-28 }}</ref>

Steinitz also allegedly wrote a pamphlet entitled ''Capital, Labor, and Charity'' while confined at [[River Crest Sanitarium]] in New York during the final months of his life.<ref name="BaltimoreAmerican1900SteinitzFreeOnceMore"/>

===Playing strength and style===
{{Chess diagram small
|tright
|Steinitz vs. von Bardeleben, 1895
|rd|  |rd|  |kd|  |  |
|pd|pd|  |qd|nd|  |  |pd
|  |  |  |  |  |pd|pd|
|  |  |  |pd|  |  |nl|
|  |  |  |  |  |  |ql|
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|pl|pl|  |  |  |pl|pl|pl
|  |  |rl|  |rl|  |kl|
|{{hidden |multiline=y |ta1=left |fw1=normal |White to move. Steinitz produced this {{chessgloss|brilliancy}} at age 59. |22.Rxe7+ Kf8 23.Rf7+ Kg8 24.Rg7+ Kh8 25.Rxh7+ and Black [[Resign (chess)|resigned]], as White gets a huge advantage or {{chessgloss|forced mate|forces mate}} in 10 moves.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" /><ref name=Steintiz_VanBardeleben_Hastings1895>{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1132699 |title=Steinitz vs. van Bardeleben, Hastings 1895 |website=[[Chessgames.com]]}}</ref>}}
}}
{{AN chess|pos=egright}}

Statistical rating systems are unkind to Steinitz. "Warriors of the Mind" gives him a ranking of 47th, below several obscure Soviet grandmasters;<ref name="WarriorsOfTheMind">{{Cite book | title=Warriors of the Mind | last1=Keene | first1=Raymond | author1-link=Raymond Keene | last2=Divinsky | first2=Nathan | author2-link=Nathan Divinsky | year=1989 | publisher=Hardinge Simpole | location=Brighton, UK }} See the summary list at {{cite web | url=http://chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk/Chess/Trivia/AlltimeList.html | title=All Time Rankings | access-date=2008-05-02 | archive-date=2009-11-26 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091126000035/http://chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk/Chess/Trivia/AlltimeList.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Chessmetrics]] places him only 15th on its all-time list.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PeakList.asp | title=Peak Average Ratings: 3 year peak range | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> Chessmetrics penalizes players who play infrequently;<ref>{{cite web | url=http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/Formulas.asp | title=Chessmetrics: Formulas | author=Sonas, Jeff | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> opportunities for competitive chess were infrequent in Steinitz's best years,<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" /> and Steinitz had a few long absences from competitive play (1873–1876, 1876–1882, 1883–1886, 1886–1889). However, in 2005, Chessmetrics' author, Jeff Sonas, wrote an article which examined various ways of comparing the strength of "world number one" players, using data provided by Chessmetrics, and found that: Steinitz was further ahead of his contemporaries in the 1870s than [[Bobby Fischer]] was in his peak period (1970–1972); that Steinitz had the third-highest total number of years as the world's top player, behind [[Emanuel Lasker]] and [[Garry Kasparov]]; and that Steinitz placed 7th in a comparison of how long players were ranked in the world's top three.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2345 | title=The Greatest Chess Player of All Time&nbsp;– Part I |author =Sonas, J. | publisher=Chessbase | year=2005 | access-date=2008-11-19 }} Part IV gives links to all 3 earlier parts: {{cite web | url=http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2409 | title=The Greatest Chess Player of All Time&nbsp;– Part IV |author =Sonas, J. | publisher=Chessbase | year=2005 | access-date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> Between his victory over Anderssen (1866) and his loss to Emanuel Lasker (1894), Steinitz won all his "normal" matches, sometimes by wide margins; and his worst tournament performance in that 28-year period was third place in Paris (1867).<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" /> (He also lost two handicap matches and a match by telegraph in 1890 against [[Mikhail Chigorin]], where Chigorin was allowed to choose the openings in both games and won both.)<ref name="silmanCollectedWorksOfSteinitz">{{cite web | url=http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jw/jw_cllctd_wrks_w_stntz.html | title=The Collected Works of Wilhelm Steinitz | author=Watson, J. | year=2004 | publisher=[[Jeremy Silman]] | author-link=John L. Watson | access-date=2008-04-03 | archive-date=2012-04-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419061207/http://jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jw/jw_cllctd_wrks_w_stntz.html | url-status=dead }} review of a book edited by Sid Pickard</ref>  The Edo rating system<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.edochess.ca/top.graphs/g1820.1937.html | title=Edo Ratings – Top Players Peak Average Ratings | access-date=2023-07-18 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719033738/http://www.edochess.ca/top.graphs/g1820.1937.html | archive-date=2023-07-19 }}</ref> that covers the years from 1821 to 1937 places Steinitz 3rd in top peak rating; behind Jose Capablanca and Paul Morphy but ahead of Emanuel Lasker and Alexander Alekhine.

Initially Steinitz played in the all-out attacking style of contemporaries like Anderssen, and then changed to the positional style with which he dominated competitive chess in the 1870s and 1880s.<ref name="SilmanSteinitz" /> [[Max Euwe]] wrote, "Steinitz aimed at positions with clear-cut features, to which his theory was best applicable."<ref>{{Cite book | title=From Steinitz to Fischer | last=Euwe | first=Max | author-link=Max Euwe | publisher=Chess Informant | year=1976 | location=Belgrade }}</ref> However, he retained his capacity for brilliant attacks right to the end of his career; for example, in the [[Hastings 1895 chess tournament|1895 Hastings tournament]] (when he was 59), he beat [[Curt von Bardeleben|von Bardeleben]] in a [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1132699 spectacular game] in which in the closing stages Steinitz deliberately exposed all his pieces to attack simultaneously (except his king, of course).<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" /> His most significant weaknesses were his habits of playing "experimental" moves and getting into unnecessarily difficult defensive positions in top-class competitive games.<ref name="SilmanSteinitz" /><ref name="NYTimesSteinitzObit1900" />

===Personality===
[[Image:Wilhelm Steinitz.jpg|right|thumb|Steinitz]]
"Traditional" accounts of Steinitz describe him as having a sharp tongue and violent temper, perhaps partly because of his short stature (barely five feet) and congenital lameness.<ref name="SchoenbergGrandmasters" /><ref name="NYTimes1887OnSteinitz" /><ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" /> He admitted that "Like the Duke of Parma, I always hold the sword in one hand and the olive branch in the other",<ref name="WinterSteinitzQuotes" /> and under severe provocation he could become abusive in published articles.<ref name="WinterChessWithViolence">{{cite web | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/violence.html | title=Chess with Violence | author=Winter, E. }}</ref> He was aware of his own tendencies and said early in his career, "Nothing would induce me to take charge of a chess column ...Because I should be so fair in dispensing blame as well as praise that I should be sure to give offence and make enemies."<ref>{{cite book
| author=MacDonnell, G.A. | title=The Knights and Kings of Chess | location=London | year=1894 | pages=39–40
| url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter15.html#3974._The_Steinitz-Wormald-MacDonnell_ | access-date=2008-11-19
}}</ref> When he embarked on chess journalism, his brutally frank review of Wormald's ''The Chess Openings'' in 1875 proved him right on both counts.<ref name="WinterChessNotesArchive15">{{cite journal
| journal=City of London Chess Magazine
| author=Steinitz, W. | title=(review of Wormald's ''The Chess Openings'')
|date=November 1875 | pages=297–304
}} and {{cite journal
| journal=City of London Chess Magazine
| author=Steinitz, W. | title=(review of Wormald's ''The Chess Openings'')
|date=December 1875 | pages=331–36
}} Extracts at {{cite web
| url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter15.html#3974._The_Steinitz-Wormald-MacDonnell_
| title=Chess Note 3974: The Steinitz–Wormald–MacDonnell controversy | author=Winter, E. | access-date=2008-11-19 }} Winter concludes his commentary with, "If instances can be identified of Steinitz being wrong in his denunciation of Wormald, we should like to be informed."</ref>

His personal correspondence, his own articles and some third-party articles, however, show that he had long and friendly relationships with many people and groups in the chess world, including [[Ignác Kolisch]] (one of his earliest sponsors), [[Mikhail Chigorin]], [[Harry Nelson Pillsbury]],<ref name="chessvilleSteinitzPapers" /> [[Bernhard Horwitz]], [[Amos Burn]]<ref name="WinterSteinitzQuotes">{{cite web | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/steinitz.html | title=Steinitz Quotes | author=Winter, E. }}</ref> and the Cuban and Russian chess communities.<ref name="LandsbergerSteinitzPapers" /><ref name="chessvilleSteinitzPapers" /> He even co-operated with the American Chess Congress in its project to regulate future contests for the world title that he had earned.<ref name="Thulin1899WorldChampionshipMatchOrNot" />

Steinitz strove to be objective in his writings about chess competitions and games; for example, he attributed to sheer bad luck a poor tournament score by [[Henry Edward Bird]], whom he considered no friend of his,<ref name="WinterSteinitzQuotes" /> and was generous in his praise of great play by even his bitter enemies.<ref>for example he described Zukertort's win over Blackburne in the London 1883 tournament (where Steinitz finished second behind Zukertort) as "one of the most brilliant games on record", and Blackburne's win over Schwarz in Berlin, 1881, with the words "White's design, especially from the 21st move in combination with the brilliant finish, belongs to the finest efforts of chess genius in modern match play." {{cite book | author=Fine, R. | title=The World's Great Chess Games | year=1952
 | publisher=Andre Deutsch (now as paperback from Dover) }} Zukertort's win is at {{cite web | url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1001854 | title=Zukertort's Immortal: Johannes Zukertort vs Joseph Henry Blackburne, London, 1883}} Blackburne's win is at {{cite web | url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1029022 | title=Joseph Henry Blackburne vs Jacques Schwarz, Berlin, 1881 }}</ref> He could poke fun at some of his own rhetoric; for example: "I remarked that I would rather die in America than live in England. ... I added that I would rather lose a match in America than win one in England. But after having carefully considered the subject in all its bearings, I have come to the conclusion that I neither mean to die yet nor to lose the match."<ref name="WinterSteinitzQuotes" /> At a joint simultaneous display in Russia around the time of the 1895–96 [[Saint Petersburg]] tournament, [[Emanuel Lasker]] and Steinitz formed an impromptu comedy double act.<ref>{{cite journal | journal=Quarterly for Chess History | issue=3 | year=1999 | title=Wilhelm Steinitz in Russia 1895–96 | url=http://www.chessville.com/reviews/QCH19993.htm | access-date=2008-05-06 | archive-date=2012-10-25 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025202325/http://www.chessville.com/reviews/QCH19993.htm | url-status=usurped }}</ref>

Although he had a strong sense of honour about repaying debts,<ref name="LandsbergerSteinitzPapers" /><ref name="chessvilleSteinitzPapers" /> Steinitz was poor at managing his finances: he let a competitor "poach" many of his clients in 1862–63,<ref name="chessvilleSteinitzPapers" /> offered to play the 1886 world title match against [[Johannes Zukertort]] for free,<ref name="WinterWorldChessChampion" /> and died in poverty in 1900, leaving his widow to survive by running a small shop.<ref name="NYTimesSteinitzObit1900" />

==Competitive record==
===Tournament results===
Sources:<ref name="ScoresRomanticEra" /><ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}}<ref name="endgameNLWorldExhibitions">{{cite web | url=http://www.endgame.nl/wfairs.htm | title=World Exhibitions | access-date=2008-11-19 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619170844/http://www.endgame.nl/wfairs.htm | archive-date=2008-06-19 }}</ref><ref name="sympatico19thCentMatchesTournaments">{{cite web | url=http://www3.sympatico.ca/g.giffen/19thcent.htm | title=Major Chess Matches and Tournaments of the 19th century | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221345/http://www3.sympatico.ca/g.giffen/19thcent.htm | archive-date=2007-09-26 }}</ref><ref name="storiascacchiTorneiAl1879">{{cite web | url=http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scacchi/storiascacchi/tornei/pagine/itorneifino1880.htm | title=I tornei di scacchi fino al 1879 | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-date=2008-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216145235/http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scacchi/storiascacchi/tornei/pagine/itorneifino1880.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="storiascacchiTorneiAl1880To1899">{{cite web | url=http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scacchi/storiascacchi/tornei/pagine/itornei1880-99.htm | title=I tornei di scacchi dal 1880 al 1899 | access-date=2008-11-19 | archive-date=2008-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216145230/http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scacchi/storiascacchi/tornei/pagine/itornei1880-99.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; margin:1em auto 1em auto;"
! Date !! Location !! Place !! Score !! class="unsortable"|Notes
|-
| 1859 || align=left| [[Vienna]] chess society || 3rd || ? || align=left | Behind [[Carl Hamppe]] and [[Eduard Jenay]].
|-
| 1860 || align=left| Vienna chess society || 2nd || ? || align=left | Hamppe won.
|-
| 1861 || align=left| Vienna chess society || 3rd || ? || align=left | Behind Hamppe and [[Daniel Harrwitz]].
|-
| 1862 || align=left| Vienna chess society || 1st || 30/31 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| [[London 1862 chess tournament|1862]] || align=left| London International Tournament || 6th || 8/13 || align=left | Behind [[Adolf Anderssen]], [[Louis Paulsen]], [[John Owen (chess player)|John Owen]], [[George Alcock MacDonnell]] and [[Serafino Dubois]].<br />Draws were not scored in this tournament. Steinitz was awarded the brilliancy prize for his win over [[Augustus Mongredien]].
|-
| 1862 || align=left| London championship || 1st || 7/7 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1865 || align=left| [[Dublin]] || 1st–2nd || 3½/4 || align=left | Won play-off after tie with G. A. MacDonnell.
|-
| 1866 || align=left| London handicap tournament|| 1st || 8/9 || align=left | Steinitz won against [[Cecil Valentine De Vere]] (2–1), MacDonnell (2–0), Mocatta (2–0) – Steinitz gave odds of pawn and move, and in the final S. Green (2–0) – Steinitz gave odds of pawn and two moves.
|-
| 1867 || align=left| [[Dundee]] handicap tournament|| 1st–2nd || 3/3 || align=left | Tied with J.C. Fraser. Steinitz won against MacDonnell (1–0), Keating (1–0) – Steinitz gave odds of a knight, and Scott (1–0) – Steinitz gave odds of a knight.
|-
| 1867 || align=left| Dundee || 2nd || 7/9 || align=left | Behind Neumann (7½/9); ahead of MacDonnell, De Vere, [[Joseph Henry Blackburne]], Robertson, J.C. Fraser, G.B. Fraser, Hamel and Spens.
|-
| [[Paris 1867 chess tournament|1867]] || align=left| Paris || 3rd || +18−3=3 || align=left | Draws counted as zero; third behind [[Ignác Kolisch|Ignaz von Kolisch]] (+20−2=2) and [[Szymon Winawer]] (+19−4=1); ahead of [[Gustav Neumann]], De Vere, [[Jules Arnous de Rivière]], [[Hieronim Czarnowski]], [[Celso Golmayo Zúpide]], [[Samuel Rosenthal]], [[Sam Loyd]], D'Andre, [[Martin Severin From]], and [[Eugène Rousseau (chess player)|Eugène Rousseau]].
|-
| [[Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament|1870]] || align=left| [[Baden-Baden]] || 2nd || 12½/18 || align=left | Behind Anderssen (13/18); ahead of Neumann, Blackburne, Louis Paulsen, De Vere, [[Szymon Winawer]], Rosenthal and [[Johannes von Minckwitz]].
|-
| 1872 || align=left| London || 1st || 7½/8 || align=left | Ahead of Blackburne (5/8), [[Johannes Zukertort]], MacDonnell and De Vere.
|-
| [[Vienna 1873 chess tournament|1873]] || align=left| Vienna || 1st–2nd || 10/11: 20½/25 || align=left | Tied with Blackburne (10/11: 22½/30) and won the play-off 2–0; ahead of Anderssen (8½/11: 19/30), Rosenthal (7½/11: 17/28), Louis Paulsen, [[Henry Edward Bird]], Heral, [[Max Fleissig]], [[Philipp Meitner]], [[Adolf Schwarz]], [[Oscar Gelbfuhs]] and [[Karl Pitschel]].<br / >This tournament had a very unusual scoring system: each player played a 3-game mini-match with each of the others and scored 1 for a won mini-match and ½ for a drawn mini-match. Steinitz won his last 14 games and therefore completed his mini-matches by playing fewer games than anyone else. The numbers before the colons (:) are the points awarded; the other 2 numbers are the usual "games won / games played" scoring.
|-
| [[Vienna 1882 chess tournament|1882]] || align=left| Vienna || 1st–2nd || 24/34 || align=left | Tied with Winawer and drew the play-off; ahead of Mason (23/34), Zukertort (22½/34), Mackenzie, Blackburne, [[Berthold Englisch]], Paulsen and others including [[Mikhail Chigorin]] and Bird.
|-
| 1883 || align=left| London || 2nd || 19/26 || align=left | Behind Zukertort (22/26); ahead of Blackburne (16½/24), Chigorin 16/24, Englisch (15½/24), Mackenzie (15½/24), Mason (15½/24), Rosenthal, Winawer, Bird and four others.
|-
| 1894 || align=left| New York City championship || 1st || 8½/10 || align=left | After losing the world title to Emanuel Lasker.
|-
| [[Hastings 1895 chess tournament|1895]] || align=left| [[Hastings]] || 5th || 13/21 || align=left | Behind [[Harry Nelson Pillsbury]] (16½/21), Chigorin (16/21), [[Emanuel Lasker]] (15½/21), [[Siegbert Tarrasch]] (14/21); ahead of [[Emanuel Schiffers]] (12/21), [[Curt von Bardeleben]] (11½/21), [[Richard Teichmann]] (11½/21), [[Carl Schlechter]] (11/21), Blackburne (10½/21), [[Carl August Walbrodt]], [[Amos Burn]], [[Dawid Janowski]], Mason, Bird, [[Isidore Gunsberg]], [[Adolf Albin]], [[Georg Marco]], [[William Pollock (chess player)|William Pollock]], [[Jacques Mieses]], [[Samuel Tinsley]] and [[Beniamino Vergani]].
|-
| 1895–96|| align=left| [[Saint Petersburg]] || 2nd || 9½/18 || align=left | Behind Emanuel Lasker (11½/18); ahead of Pillsbury (8/18) and Chigorin (7/18). The world's top 4 players played 6 games against each of the others.
|-
| [[Nuremberg 1896 chess tournament|1896]] || align=left| [[Nuremberg]] || 6th || 11/18 || align=left | Behind Emanuel Lasker 13½/18, [[Géza Maróczy]] (12½/18), Pillsbury (12/18), Tarrasch (12/18), Janowski (11½/18); ahead of Walbrodt, Schiffers, Chigorin, Blackburne, [[Rudolf Charousek]], Marco, Albin, Winawer, [[Jackson Showalter]], [[Moritz Porges]], [[Emil Schallopp]] and Teichmann.
|-
| 1897 || align=left| New York || 1st–2nd || 2½/4 || align=left | A ''triangular'' "Thousand Islands" tournament; tied with [[S. Lipschütz]] and ahead of [[William Ewart Napier]].
|-
| [[Vienna 1898 chess tournament|1898]] || align=left| Vienna || 4th || 23½/36 || align=left | Behind Tarrasch (27½/36), Pillsbury (27½/36), Janowski (25½/36); ahead of Schlechter, Chigorin, Burn, [[Paul Lipke]], Maroczy, [[Simon Alapin]], Blackburne, Schiffers, Marco, Showalter, Walbrodt, [[Alexander Halprin]], [[Horatio Caro]], [[David Graham Baird]] and Herbert William Trenchard.
|-
| 1898 || align=left| [[Cologne]] || 5th || 9½/15 || align=left | Behind Burn, Charousek, Chigorin and [[Wilhelm Cohn]]; ahead of Schlechter, Showalter, [[Johann Berger]], Janowski and Schiffers.
|-
| 1899 || align=left| London || 10–11th || 11½/27 || align=left | Behind Emanuel Lasker (23½/27), Janowski (19/27), Maróczy (19/27), Pillsbury (19/27), Schlechter (18/27), Blackburne (16½/27), Chigorin (16/27), Showalter (13½/27), Mason (13/27). This was the first time he had not won any prize money since 1859.
|}

===Match results===
Sources:<ref name="ScoresRomanticEra">{{cite web | url=http://www.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/~spin/chessmatches.html | title=Scores of various important chess results from the Romantic era | access-date=2008-05-05 | archive-date=2008-05-28 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528014326/http://www.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/~spin/chessmatches.html | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}}<ref name="sympatico19thCentMatchesTournaments" /><ref>[http://www.edochess.ca/players/p34.html Edo Historical Chess Ratings]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scacchi/storiascacchi/matches/1880-99.htm |title=I matches dal 1880 al 1899 |access-date=2008-06-19 |archive-date=2008-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524085111/http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scacchi/storiascacchi/matches/1880-99.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; margin:1em auto 1em auto;"
! Date !! Opponent !! Result !! class="unsortable" | Location !! class="unsortable" colspan="2"|Score !! class="unsortable"|Notes
|-
| 1860 || [[Eduard Jenay]] || Drew|| [[Vienna]] || 2/4 || 2 : 2 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1860 || Lang || Won|| Vienna || 3/3 || +3−0=0 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1862 || [[Serafino Dubois]] || Won|| London || 5½/9 || +5−3=1 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1862 || [[Adolf Anderssen]] || Lost|| London || 1/3 || +1−2=0 || align=left | Offhand games
|-
| 1862–63 || [[Joseph Henry Blackburne]] || Won|| London || 8/10 || +7−1=2 || align=left | Only 2 years after Blackburne started playing chess
|-
| 1863 || [[Frederick Deacon]] || Won|| London || 5½/7 || +5−1=1 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1863 || [[Augustus Mongredien]] || Won|| London || 7/7 || +7−0=0 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1863–64 || Valentine Green || Won|| London || 8/9 || +7−0=2 || &nbsp;
|-
| 1865 || James Robey || Won|| London || 4/5 || 4 : 1 ||Probably not a formal match
|-
| 1866 || [[Adolf Anderssen]] || Won|| London || 8/14 || +8−6=0 || align=left | As a result of this win Steinitz was generally regarded as the world's best player.<ref name="WinterWorldChessChampion" />
|-
| 1866 || [[Henry Edward Bird]] || Won || London || 9½/17 || +7−5=5 || align="left" |Bird was forced to discontinue match when sent on business to America.
|-
| 1867 || George Brunton Fraser || Won|| [[Dundee]] || 4/6 || +3−1=2 || &nbsp;
|-
| 1870 || Blackburne || Won || London || 1½/2 || +1−0=1 || align=left | &nbsp;<ref>Tim Harding, Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography (McFarland 2015) {{ISBN|978-0-7864-7473-8}}</ref>
|-
| 1872 || [[Johannes Zukertort]] || Won || London || 9/12 || +7−1=4 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1873 || Blackburne || Won || Vienna || 2/2|| +2−0=0 || align=left | Play-off match
|-
| 1876 || Blackburne || Won || London || 7/7 || +7−0=0 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1882 || [[Szymon Winawer]] || Drew || Vienna || 1/2|| 1 : 1 || align=left | Play-off match
|-
| 1882 || [[Dion Martinez]] || Won || [[Philadelphia]] || 7/7 || +7−0=0 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1882 || Alexander Sellman || Won || [[Baltimore]] || 3½/5 || +2−0=3 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1883 || [[George Henry Mackenzie]] || Won || New York City || 4/6 || +3−1=2 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1883 || Martinez || Won || Philadelphia || 4½/7 || +3−1=3 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1883 || [[Celso Golmayo Zúpide]] || Won || [[Havana]] || 9/11 || 9 : 2 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1883 || Martinez || Won || Philadelphia || 10/11 || 10 : 1 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1885 || Alexander Sellman || Won || Baltimore || 3/3 || +3−0=0 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1886 || Zukertort || Won || New York, [[St. Louis]] and [[New Orleans]] || 12½/20 || +10−5=5 || align=left | [[World Chess Championship 1886]]; the contract for this match said it was "for the Championship of the World".<ref name="WinterWorldChessChampion" />
|-
| 1888 || Alberto Ponce || Won || Havana || 4/5 || 4 : 1 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1888 || Andrés Vásquez || Won || Havana || 5/5 || +5−0=0 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1888 || Golmayo || Won || Havana || 5/5 || +5−0=0 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1889 || Vicente Carvajal || Won || Havana || 4/5 || 4 : 1 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1889 || [[Mikhail Chigorin]] || Won || Havana || 10½/17 || +10−6=1 || align=left | [[World Chess Championship 1889]]; often described as a World Championship match, but may not have been<ref name="Thulin1899WorldChampionshipMatchOrNot" />
|-
| 1890–91 || [[Isidor Gunsberg]] || Won || New York || 10½/19 || +6−4=9 || align=left | [[World Chess Championship 1891]] match
|-
| 1892 || Chigorin || Won || Havana || 12½/23 || +10−8=5 || align=left | [[World Chess Championship 1892]] match
|-
| 1894 || [[Emanuel Lasker]] || Lost || New York, Philadelphia and [[Montreal]] || 7/19 || +5−10=4 || align=left | [[World Chess Championship 1894]] match; Steinitz's first recorded defeat in a serious match
|-
| 1896 || [[Emanuel Schiffers]] || Won || [[Rostov-on-Don]] || 6½/11 || +6−4=1 || align=left | &nbsp;
|-
| 1896–97 || Lasker || Lost || Moscow || 4½/17 || +2−10=5 || align=left | [[World Chess Championship 1897]] match
|-
| 1897 || [[S. Lipschütz]] || Drew || New York || 1/2|| 1 : 1 || align=left | Play-off match
|}

==Notable games==
* Steinitz vs. Augustus Mongredien, London 1862.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1001497 |title=Wilhelm Steinitz vs. Augustus Mongredien, London 1862 |website=[[Chessgames.com]] }}</ref> Awarded the {{chessgloss|brilliancy prize}} at the 1862 London International Tournament.<ref name="WallProfileSteinitz" />{{Unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}}
* Adolf Anderssen vs. Steinitz; 13th match game, London 1866.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1019315 |title=Adolf Anderssen vs. Wilhelm Steinitz, London 1866 |website=[[Chessgames.com]] }}</ref> [[Emanuel Lasker]] regarded this well-prepared attack as a precursor of the positional approach that Steinitz later advocated.<ref>{{cite book |author=Lasker, Emanuel |title=Lasker's Manual of Chess |pages=200–02 |chapter=The Evolution of the Theory of Steinitz |year=1947 |publisher=David McKay }}</ref>
* Johannes Zukertort vs. Steinitz, WCH (9th game of the match) 1886, Queen's Gambit Declined: Vienna. Quiet Variation (D37), {{chessAN|0–1}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1132645 |title=Johannes Zukertort vs. Wilhelm Steinitz, WCH 1886 |website=[[Chessgames.com]] }}</ref> Steinitz exchanges his powerful centre to create two weak [[Pawn structure|hanging pawns]] on White's queenside and creates strong pressure against them. Zukertort eventually tries to slug his way out of trouble, but Steinitz wins with a sharp counterattack.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" />
* Steinitz vs. Mikhail Chigorin, Havana WCH 1892 (16th game of the match), Ruy Lopez, {{chessAN|1–0}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1036356 |title=Wilhelm Steinitz vs. Mikhail Chigorin, Havana WCH 1892 |website=[[Chessgames.com]] }}</ref> Steinitz weakens Chigorin's pawns, gains superior mobility then forces a pawn promotion with the aid of a little combination.<ref name="Golombek1954GameOfChess">{{cite book |title=The Game of Chess |author=Golombek, H. |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1954 |chapter=The Great Masters: Steinitz |pages=209–12 }}</ref>
* Steinitz vs. Mikhail Chigorin, Havana WCH 1892 (4th game of the match), Spanish Game: General (C65), 1–0.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1036342 |title=Wilhelm Steinitz vs. Mikhail Chigorin, Havana WCH 1892 |website=[[Chessgames.com]] }}</ref> Positional preparation creates the opportunity for a swift attack leading to mate on the 29th move.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" />
* Steinitz vs. Curt von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895, Italian Game: Classical Variation. Greco Gambit Traditional Line (C54), 1–0.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1132699 |title=Wilhelm Steinitz vs. Curt von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895 |website=[[Chessgames.com]] }}</ref> A great attacking combination in the old 1860s style. After White's 22nd move, all the white pieces are {{chessgloss|en prise}} but Black is lost. The game won the first brilliancy prize of the tournament.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames" />

==See also==
*[[List of Jewish chess players]]
*[[Steinitz Memorial]], a [[blitz chess]] tournament held from May 15 to May 17, 2020, in honor of Wilhelm Steinitz
*[[Steinitz Variation]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
*{{Cite book
 | last=Winter | first=Edward G. | author-link=Edward G. Winter
 | year=1981 | title=World chess champions
 | publisher=Pergamon Press | isbn=978-0-08-024094-7}}
*{{Cite book
|last=Kasparov|first=Garry|author-link=Garry Kasparov
|year=2003
|title=My Great Predecessors, part I
|publisher = [[Everyman Chess]]
|isbn=978-1-85744-330-1
|title-link=My Great Predecessors}}
* ''The Games of Wilhelm Steinitz'', ed. Pickard & Son 1995. A collection of 1,022 Steinitz's games with annotations.
* ''Steinitz, primo campione del mondo'', Jakov Nejstadt, ed. Prisma 2000. {{in lang|it}}
* ''From Steinitz to Fischer'', ed. Sahovski Informator, Belgrade 1976.
* ''Steinitz Chess Champion'' by Landsberger, McFarland pub.
* ''Steinitz Papers'' by Soltis, McFarland pub.
* ''The Games of Wilhelm Steinitz, first world chess champion'' by Sid Pickard (in Algebraic notation) {{ISBN|1-886846-00-6}}, Pickard & Son publishers in 1995.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Wilhelm Steinitz}}
{{Appletons' Poster|Steinitz, William|year=1900|Wilhelm Steinitz}}
*{{chessgames player|id=10421}}
*[http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/steinitzgod.html "Steinitz versus God" by Edward Winter]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060527101733/http://www.souvenirworldja.com/chessworld/playbetter/Technical_Articles/worldchamps/steinitz/william_steinitz_1836.htm Wilhelm Steinitz — biography] (archived)
*[http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/steinitz/steinitz.htm Chesscorner bio]
*[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1070&letter=S&search=william%20steinitz ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' bio]
*[http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/wcc-indz.htm World Chess Championship Pre-FIDE Events]&nbsp;– details of World Championship matches from Steinitz's era

{{S-start}}
{{succession box |
 before= ''(unofficial)'' |
 title= [[World Chess Championship|World Chess Champion]] |
 years= 1886&ndash;1894 |
 after= [[Emanuel Lasker]]
}}
{{S-end}}

{{World Chess Championships|state=expanded}}
{{Chess|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinitz, Wilhelm}}
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