Wilhelm Steinitz is the first world chess champion and the first chess king! First chess champion Wilhelm Steinitz

Years of life (1836-1900)

Championship years (1886-1894)

Studying the biographies and creative paths of champions, you involuntarily become imbued with respect and admiration for these gifted and strong individuals. But some of them cause a deep resonance in the soul and encourage us to change for the better, to do something very important and global for history... one of these personalities was the first world champion in the history of chess - Wilhelm Steinitz!

Wilhelm Steinitz was something of a revolutionary in the art of chess. It was during the time of his chess dominance that chess acquired scientific status, framing its romantic and combinational portrait within the framework of the strict theory of positional play, the founder of which was the Great Steinitz!

Creative path and achievements

Coming from the family of tailor Joseph-Solomon Steinitz, Wolf (his real name at birth) proved to the world that you don't have to have a genetic predisposition to chess to achieve success in this field.

Wilhelm Steinitz became familiar with the rules of chess at the age of 12. Chess greatly fascinated the talented young man and became his main hobby, but still, he began his professional path as a chess player a little later... after he was expelled from the Vienna Polytechnic Institute!

Like most of his contemporaries, at the beginning of his chess career, Steinitz preferred a combinational style of play, but having an inquisitive mind and living chess, the champion came to the conclusion that there is something more than the romance of combinational intricacies in the chess game. So he began to show interest in the patterns he observed in chess. This direction of his work resulted in a serious work, which is invaluable for world chess history and is the starting point for the status of chess as a science.

If we had to compare Wilhelm Steinitz's discoveries in chess with the discoveries of scientists in science, then he could be compared with Mendeleev, who created a table of elements that is invaluable for modern science!

Thanks to Steinitz, such basic concepts as position assessment and game plan appeared in chess. Wilhelm Steinitz attached particular importance to the pawn structure and assessment of the position depending on its features. He studied this topic closely and often published his research in chess literature. Thus, one of the directions of his chess career was journalistic activity. Wilhelm was a passionate chess journalist, discussing in the press with the leading chess players of his time, among whom Jan Tarrasch occupied a special place. Such discussions led to various experiments at the chessboard, which sometimes discouraged the entire chess world, but did not prevent the genius from remaining among the leaders of tournaments...

The closest followers of the new school of positional play were Paulsen and Emmanuel Lasker. Being a psychologist and philosopher, the latter saw a bright philosophical beginning in Wilhelm Steinitz!

But still, his main goal was the chess throne! At the age of fifty, Wilhelm Steinitz achieved his goal! Defeating his rival Zukertort (1886).

Steinitz's reaction to proposals for further matches for the championship title is admirable. This is how he rejected opponents who did not show consistent results in international tournaments and, on the contrary, accepted the challenges of those opponents with whom he had a bad record! Thus, Wilhelm Steinitz strived for the absolute championship!

Of course, in this article, you cannot describe all the features of this amazing personality, but I would just like to add that Wilhelm Steinitz, who began as a tactician and subsequently created the theory of positional play, became the owner of a new style and acquired the status of a pioneer, whose experience is highly valued by modern professionals, both for theory and for a basic understanding of chess to this day!

Biography

Wolf Steinitz (he later took the name Wilhelm) was born in 1836 in Prague, in the ghetto, he was the thirteenth child of a poor Jewish tailor Joseph-Salomon Steinitz (1789-1868) and Anna Steinitz, née Torsheva (1804-1845) (in total in the family there were 7 boys and 6 girls). He became acquainted with chess at the age of 12, became interested in the game, and quickly showed noticeable chess talent. At school he was also noted for his aptitude for mathematics. B moved to Vienna intending to become a journalist. He also began studying mathematics at the Vienna Polytechnic Institute, but had to give up his studies due to lack of funds and health reasons. At the same time, he became a regular at the Partridge cafe, where Viennese amateur chess players gathered and played. Steinitz earned money in a cafe playing chess for a bet, gradually turning into a professional.

He began performing in competitions in tournaments of the Vienna Chess Society: - 3rd place, - 2nd place, - 1st place. Represented Austria at the 2nd international tournament in London - 1862, where he won the 6th prize. At the end of the tournament, Steinitz won the match against S. Dubois. The same year he settled in England. B defeated English chess players J. Blackburn, F. Deacon and Mongredien in matches, and in 1864 he defeated W. Green. He excelled at tournaments in Dublin (1865) and London (). At that time, combinational play was characteristic of Steinitz, but in individual games a fundamentally new approach had already emerged - a strategic approach to chess warfare.

Steinitz's successes made it possible to organize his match () with A. Andersen, considered the strongest chess player of that time, which ended in Steinitz's victory. The match with G. Bird () and especially with Blackburn () confirmed Steinitz's reputation as the strongest match chess player. However, for a long time he did not manage to take the first prize in major tournaments: the 3rd international tournament (Paris,) - third place, Dundee () - second place, Baden-Baden () - second place. Steinitz achieved new success only in -: he won two London tournaments, then defeated I. Zukertort, his future rival in the fight for the world championship, in a match. At the big international tournament in Vienna (), Steinitz shared 1-2 place with Blackburn, and then defeated him in a micro match for the first prize. Success in Vienna was not only a major sporting victory for Steinitz, but also, in fact, a triumph of new ideas.

Moreover, during short visits and meetings, when chess issues were not touched upon, Steinitz could be a very pleasant conversationalist, cheerful and witty, an expert in jokes and poetry (he never learned poetry, since he memorized it by heart from one or two readings). He loved music, preferring Wagner.

In 1865, when he was 29 years old, Steinitz married 18-year-old Caroline Golder from Great Britain (born November 22, 1847). In 1866 their daughter Flora was born. In 1888, at the age of 21, Flora died; Steinitz had a hard time with the death of his only daughter, and 4 years later, on May 27, 1892, at the age of 45, Caroline, who had lived with him for 27 years, also died of hepatitis. Steinitz spent the last eight years of his life alone.

Steinitz came to the conclusion that many combination attacks of the past were successful only because of imperfect defense. His strategy is based on an assessment of the nature of the position. He established that the real value of the pieces and their maneuverability depended on the pawn skeleton of the position, strong and weak squares, and on this basis he assessed the position and made plans for further play. The starting point of Steinitz's teaching is the theory of equilibrium: with correct play, one equilibrium position is replaced by another, but as a result of inevitable errors, the balance is disrupted, which allows one of the partners to seize the initiative. The owner of the initiative must actively develop it, otherwise it will pass to the enemy. If the balance of the position is upset in favor of the opponent, the attack is contraindicated. The basic principle of Steinitz's defense is economy of force; when defending, one should make only such concessions as are absolutely necessary, and, if possible, avoid weakening the pawn position. If a position has no weaknesses, it is easier to defend than to attack. Thus, the plan of action is dictated by the very nature of the position.

Steinitz's contribution to the opening theory is evidenced by variations and entire systems named after him: the Steinitz defense in the Spanish game, Steinitz variations in the French defense and the Queen's Gambit, in the Vienna game, numerous continuations developed by him in the Italian, Scottish, Russian games, and the King's Gambit and Evans, two knight defense. Steinitz is the author of the gambit named after him.

Steinitz's teaching, which marked a fundamentally new approach to the chess fight, had its origins: for the theory of strong and weak fields - the Philidor pawn game, for the idea of a piece outpost in front of an isolated pawn (the use of a strong field) - the views of L. Labourdonnais. To lay the foundations of a closed position strategy, it was necessary to learn P. Morphy's method of playing in open positions. Of Steinitz's rivals, the greatest influence on the formation of his views was L. Paulsen, whom Steinitz called “one of the pioneers of the modern school.”

Of course, Steinitz’s teaching is not ideal; from the standpoint of modern chess theory, one can note a lot of contradictory and simply erroneous things in it. For example, his statement that the king should be actively used in the game across the entire board, and not “hidden” in a safe place, looks very controversial: “We consider it an established fact that the king should be looked at as a strong piece and for protection, and for attack." In general, in the conditions of the use of energetic tactical means of struggle for the initiative, many positions have now begun to be assessed differently from how Steinitz assessed them. However, the basic tenets of Steinitz's teaching have stood the test of time; supplemented with new ideas, it continues to be the foundation of chess strategy.

It should be noted that Steinitz’s enthusiastic and stubborn character often led him to failures in his research: sometimes he undertook to defend options that seemed attractive to him, frankly bad or rejected by a previously existing theory. At the same time, Steinitz did not limit himself to theoretical research; he brought these variations into practical games of the most important tournaments and matches and repeated them in various variations, despite obvious failures. Sometimes this led to the birth of a truly high-quality system, sometimes the experiments stopped only after many defeats, when Steinitz was finally convinced of the unsuitability of the option.

Steinitz's character and his views on chess were better suited to matches than to tournaments, which was especially evident in his chess successes: he won 28 matches against the strongest chess players in the world, which is still a record, while at the same time he was the absolute winner of a major tournament only once - in 1873 in Vienna (and even there he shared 1-2 places with Blackburn, and then defeated Blackburn in a micro-match), or received second or third or even more modest places.

At the beginning of any competition, Steinitz first “accelerated”, often losing several points, and only then got into shape, while failures at the initial stage seemed to not touch him at all. Exceptional endurance (simply fantastic, considering his poor health) allowed him to carry out even very long series at a consistently high level (he once won 16 games in a row), and in the final stage he usually made a breakthrough, gaining points and often simply snatching victory from the enemy's hands. According to Znosko-Borovsky, many of Steinitz’s match opponents were overcome by nerves at the finish, precisely because they, tired and already broken, saw Steinitz in front of them, playing as if all the previous games of the match had not happened at all.

In addition to professional matches and tournaments, Steinitz played many simultaneous games, achieving great success here too: he often won all the games, although he usually played slowly, taking session games very seriously. Steinitz also became famous for his blindfold play, which was very strong for his time, including against several opponents, but he himself viewed blindfold play rather as entertainment.

Wilhelm Steinitz. "Deutsche Schachzeitung", 1862

1.h6-h7+ Kg8-g7 2.h7-h8Q+! Kg7:h8
3.Ke7-f7 Rh1-f1+ 4.Bh4-f6+ Rh1:f6+
5.Kf7:f6 Kh8-g8 6.g6-g7 Kg8-h7 7.Kf6-f7 with victory.

World Championship matches

Notes

Literature

Levidov M. Yu. Steinitz. Lasker. - M.: Zhurgazob "unity", 1936. - 304 pp. - (Life of remarkable people).
Neustadt Ya. I. First world champion. Moscow: Physical culture and sport, 1971. 288 p. (Outstanding chess players of the world).
Kasparov G.K. My great predecessors. T. 1. From Steinitz to Alekhine. Moscow, 2003.

The site is an information, entertainment and educational site for all ages and categories of Internet users. Here, both children and adults will spend time usefully, will be able to improve their level of education, read interesting biographies of great and famous people in different eras, watch photographs and videos from the private sphere and public life of popular and eminent personalities. Biographies of talented actors, politicians, scientists, discoverers. We will present you with creativity, artists and poets, music of brilliant composers and songs of famous performers. Writers, directors, astronauts, nuclear physicists, biologists, athletes - many worthy people who have left their mark on time, history and the development of mankind are collected together on our pages.
On the site you will learn little-known information from the lives of celebrities; latest news from cultural and scientific activities, family and personal life of stars; reliable facts about the biography of outstanding inhabitants of the planet. All information is conveniently systematized. The material is presented in a simple and understandable manner, easy to read and interestingly designed. We have tried to ensure that our visitors receive the necessary information here with pleasure and great interest.

When you want to find out details from the biography of famous people, you often start looking for information from many reference books and articles scattered throughout the Internet. Now, for your convenience, all the facts and the most complete information from the lives of interesting and public people are collected in one place.
the site will tell in detail about the biographies of famous people who left their mark on human history, both in ancient times and in our modern world. Here you can learn more about the life, creativity, habits, environment and family of your favorite idol. About the success story of bright and extraordinary people. About great scientists and politicians. Schoolchildren and students will find on our resource the necessary and relevant material from the biographies of great people for various reports, essays and coursework.
Learning the biographies of interesting people who have earned the recognition of mankind is often a very exciting activity, since the stories of their destinies are as captivating as other works of fiction. For some, such reading can serve as a strong impetus for their own achievements, give them confidence in themselves, and help them cope with a difficult situation. There are even statements that when studying the success stories of other people, in addition to motivation to action, leadership qualities are also manifested in a person, fortitude and perseverance in achieving goals are strengthened.
It is also interesting to read the biographies of rich people posted on our website, whose perseverance on the path to success is worthy of imitation and respect. Big names from past centuries and today will always arouse the curiosity of historians and ordinary people. And we have set ourselves the goal of satisfying this interest to the fullest. If you want to show off your erudition, are preparing a thematic material, or are simply interested in learning everything about a historical figure, go to the site.
Those who like to read biographies of people can adopt their life experiences, learn from someone else’s mistakes, compare themselves with poets, artists, scientists, draw important conclusions for themselves, and improve themselves using the experience of an extraordinary person.
By studying the biographies of successful people, the reader will learn how great discoveries and achievements were made that gave humanity a chance to reach a new stage in its development. What obstacles and difficulties many famous artists or scientists, famous doctors and researchers, businessmen and rulers had to overcome.
How exciting it is to plunge into the life story of a traveler or discoverer, imagine yourself as a commander or a poor artist, learn the love story of a great ruler and meet the family of an old idol.
The biographies of interesting people on our website are conveniently structured so that visitors can easily find information about any desired person in the database. Our team strived to ensure that you liked the simple, intuitive navigation, the easy, interesting style of writing articles, and the original design of the pages.

Wilhelm Steinitz is a chess fanatic, a true professional, a giant of chess thought, the father of the orthodox positional school and the first official world champion.
There were recognized chess kings before Steinitz. I think Philidor, Labourdonnais, Morphy and Andersen were quite worthy of the high title of “world champion”. It just never occurred to anyone to formalize this concept, put it on paper, or give it official status. This bright thought matured gradually. Like in Rus', where there were many princes, the strongest of whom became the leaders of the state, and it took more than one century for the supreme prince - the tsar - to appear. This is how Wilhelm (née Wolf) Steinitz became the first king of chess.
What does it take to become number one in the chess world?
Fortunately, unlike the struggle for the royal throne, chess heredity does not matter here. Almost all outstanding players grew up in “non-chess” families! And their children never achieved success commensurate with the success of their parents (an interesting phenomenon worthy of separate study). It takes exceptional chess talent and strong character to rise to the top. All world champions had a strong will and great ambition. They were driven by an indomitable desire to rise up - despite all the difficulties and opposition of competitors. How many times has history shown examples of how potentially very strong chess players are sometimes stronger than champions! - they were unable to reach the highest level, because they could not force themselves to fight to the limit, to show everything they were capable of. They did not have an all-consuming thirst for victory...
Wilhelm Steinitz was extremely ambitious! He devoted his whole life to chess, set only the highest goals for himself and achieved success. He began as a practical and brilliant tactician, having absorbed all the best qualities of Andersen and Morphy. For example, he beat the German offensive wizard in a match in 1886 in a sharp combination style. But in the second half of his career, Steinitz established himself as an outstanding defender, analyst and master of positional play, reaching unprecedented heights in it. How did this happen?
Steinitz looked at chess from a different angle, seeing it as more than a game! While still a very young man, he decided to UNDERSTAND chess, to understand the laws that operate on the board. The scientist's approach - a theorist and an experimenter - allowed him to make a number of discoveries and raise the understanding of chess to a new level. It looked impressive. He left, thought, came back and won! He left again... The pace of life in the 19th century was low, events developed very slowly and calmly. Just think about it: the strongest player in the world, in the prime of his life, leaves tournaments for 10 years (1873-1882), after which he returns and beats everyone again, playing in a completely different style than before!
It was during these years that Steinitz worked a lot on chess, wrote, commented, and analyzed. And then, at the age of “nearing 50,” he showed his best game. By the way, many have called Wilhelm the world champion since 1866, after his victory over his “predecessor” - Andersen. And in the final, established history, the key date was 1886, when - twenty years later - Steinitz defeated the next “challenger” Zukertort.
I will not describe in detail what the discoveries of the first champion consisted of. In fact, this is the entire layer of positional play in chess! What was previously understood only intuitively, he was able to clearly formulate. Nowadays such obvious concepts as assessing a position, prerequisites for an attack, balance, were truly understood precisely in the time of Steinitz and through the efforts of Steinitz. After him, it became possible to study and develop chess, because it became a science with its own laws. Axiomatics, theorems and corollaries - everything is as it should be. (This is similar to the situation in number theory: now any schoolchild knows what zero is, and for mathematicians of antiquity its introduction was a real revolution, which made it possible to build a harmonious edifice of theory.)
Of course, the first world champion was not alone; he was helped, mainly through discussions in the press, by other prominent masters of the time, among whom Tarrasch occupies a special place. They argued desperately! Ambition and passion led to the fact that sometimes it was necessary to defend obviously losing positions. Steinitz's tenacity and even obstinacy in some opening formations, his desire to defend his theses at all costs cost him many lost games. But this is precisely how the truth was learned – in struggle.
As a rule, champions value themselves even higher than the world that admires their play. When Steinitz was asked to name the favorite for the upcoming tournament (Vienna 1882), he named himself and argued this way: “I have the best chance because the opponents are weaker. I don’t have to play a match with Steinitz, but the rest of the players will!” This was an immortal phrase, it is applicable everywhere, at any competition in any sport...
But at the same time, the first champion highly valued others. He did not skimp on praise for Mikhail Chigorin, Emanuel Lasker and his other historical rivals.
For me personally, the most admirable thing about Steinitz is his integrity. He never avoided strong opponents and considered it a duty of honor to defend his titles and his theories at the board. When Steinitz was asked who he would like to play a world championship match with, he named Chigorin precisely because he had a good score with the champion! And in two difficult fights, risking the title, Steinitz managed to change the score in his favor. Ah, if only all chess players had the same attitude towards their profession and their opponents as Wilhelm Steinitz!
Until the end, until his death, which he met in a mental hospital, he did not part with chess and lived by it. Despite the sad end, Steinitz still won the game of his life, leaving perhaps the greatest mark of all chess players living on Earth.
The first world champion also did a lot in opening theory, although I would not call him an opening expert. Almost all of his innovations arose as illustrations of the latest positional discoveries. If, for example, he argued that pawns are best located on the original squares, then in the opening he often played in an elaborate style, maintaining an ideal structure, without development, with pieces on the eighth row. This is what Chigorin successfully used. These days, any competent player knows that the laws of positional play that work in the middlegame often do not apply in the opening. Steinitz underestimated this circumstance and constantly carried out “scientific experiments” on the verge of a foul! Suffice it to recall the variation 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Qh4, Steinitz’s gambit with the White king in the thick of battle: 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 exf4 4.d4 Qh4+ 5.Ke2 and others dubious options...
However, there are also long-lived works. For example, the Steinitz Defense in Spanish: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6, variation 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4! in the French defense. Of course, the champion worked hard in the King's Gambit, Evans Gambit and other open openings. In general, it turns out to be a large volume of theory; it is unlikely that anyone in the 19th century did more.
Yet Steinitz's main achievement lay elsewhere. He made chess a science!

Wilhelm Steinitz is the first official world chess champion. Unfortunately, not much information has been preserved about this unique person. It is known that V. Steinitz is an Austrian and American chess player. At the turn of the 1860-1870s, having already received recognition as the strongest player of his time after winning a match against Adolf Andersen, he developed the doctrine of positional play, which replaced the dominant “romantic” combination school and significantly enriched chess.

Steinitz was a writer, at the peak of his career he stopped playing tournaments for nine years to concentrate on his work as a journalist, and in 1885 he founded the International Chess Magazine. Steinitz published reviews of games and programmatic theoretical articles; his polemics with other publicists, which he conducted aggressively and peremptorily, themselves became an important event in the chess world.

The tournament and match results of Wilhelm Steinitz, by today's standards, are not very fantastic, but they deserve attention, I will list some of them:

Championship of the Vienna Chess Society (1861, 1st place), International Tournament (1865, 1st place), Handicap Tournament (1871/1872, 1st place), International Tournament (1872, 1st place), City Championship (1894 1st place), World Championship Match with I. Zukertort (1886, 1st place), World Championship Match with M. Chigorin (1889, 1st place), World Championship Match with I. Gunsberg (1890/1891 1st place), World Championship match with M. Chigorin (1892 1st place).

Separately, it is worth noting the game of the first world champion; a subtle positional understanding of the position was intertwined with spectacular combinational play, resulting in the birth of chess masterpieces. Let's look at one of them. Gampe – Steinitz game, Vienna 1859.

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 2...Nf6 3.f4 d5 4.ed?!(if 4.fe N:e4 then black can fight to equalize the position). 4...K:d5 5.fe N:c3 6.bc Qh4+ 7.Kre2 Bg4+ (White is ready to return the pawn in order to seize the initiative, for example: 7...Qe4+ 8.Kрf2 Q:e5 9.Nf3 Qh5 10.d4) 8.Nf3 Nc6 9.d4 O-O-O 10.Bd2 This position is of historical interest (Diagram 1), as it was studied a century and a half ago.

In addition to the move in the game, White has a maneuver(10.Qe1 now the rook sacrifice suggests itself 10...R:d4 11.cd N:d4+ 12.Kрd3 Bf5+ 13.Kрc4 b5+ 14.Kрc3 Ne2+ 15.Kрb2 Qa4 with a win). 10...B:f3+ (tempting victim 10...K:e5 until it goes away, for example 11.de Bc5 12.Qe1 Bf2 13.Qc1 Rhe8 14.Bf4 Bc5 15.g3 Qh5 16.Bg2 g5 17.h3 B:f3+ 18.B:f3 Qg6)

It is unlikely that Wilhelm Steinitz fully calculated all the options; his intuition simply protected him from the wrong path. But still, Black had a more flexible move 10...f6!

11.gf N:e5 12.de Bc5 13.Qe1 Qc4+ 14.Kрd1 Q:c3 15.Rb1 Q:f3+ 16.Qe2 (White's pawns fall one after another, but their troubles do not end there. Now on 16.Be2 solved 16...R:d2+ 17.Kр:d2 Qe3+ 18.Kрd1 Rd8+ 19.Bd3 R:d3+ 20.cd Q:d3+ 21.Kрc1 Ba3+ 22.Rb2 Qb5 23.Qd2 Qc6+) 16...L:d2+ Of course, you can take the rook in the corner of the board, but Steinitz prefers a spectacular ending (Diagram 2).17.Kр:d2 Rd8+ 18.Kрc1 Ba3+ 19.Rb2 Qc3 20.Bh3+ Kрb8 21.Qb5 Qd2+ 22.Kрb1 Qd1+ 23.R:d1 R:d1x

That's all for now, subscribe to our free newsletter and lessons, join our social groups VKontakte and Odnoklassniki so as not to miss interesting material.