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Wilhelm Steinitz, the first official world chess champion was born in Prague in 1836. Born to a Jewish parents in Bohemia, Steinitz's initial passion was mathematics & he finished his polytechnic course in Vienna. Steinitz belonged to the Morphy era and was elder to him by one year. However, he seriously took to chess only after 1862 by which time Morphy had past his prime!
Steinitz was the first systematic thinker and opened the doors of scientific approach breaking the game into its elements and maintaining a thin thread of connectivity between the phases. At a time when it was considered the only honorable thing is to play for a win right from the start through violent attack on the opposite king, Steinitz firmly believed that one should look for such an attack only if he held an advantage. He was also the first one to emphasis on accumulation of small advantages. He said when a position is balanced, the relative strengths & weaknesses of both sides neutralized each other. The correct play by both sides would lead to a drawn result and when a player succeeds over the other, the ability to exploit one's strength simultaneously safeguarding his weakness surfaces.
Steinitz emphasized that one has to search for the combination & believed in its existence & seek to discover it. If one has searched in vain for 100 times- continue, possibly the advantage that you think you hold is only an illusion, your valuation may be at fault- prove them & improve them! But, search diligently, only such a work is rewarded.
The 'Austrian Morphy' as Steinitz was referred to, was a tremendous match player. His superb fighting qualities & superior ideas always propelled him to victory. After finishing second to Zukertort in the London tournament of 1883, Steinitz & Zukertort laid their claim for an official world championship, which finally took shape in 1886. Zukertort was a disciple of Andersson and one of the most profound players of that time (he had almost past his prime in 1886 and as the famous saying goes, " the first time he lost to Steinitz he was not yet the Zukertort, & the second time he lost - he was no longer the Zukertort!) and Steinitz himself claimed that the combination Zukertort played against Blackburn in London 1883 was one of the most noble combinations conceived over the chess board. In the match of 1886, Zukertort could not find any dent in Steinitz structures and hence could not devise any combination and went down with the match score reading +10; -5; =5 in favour of Steinitz. According to Lasker it was the triumph of the greater thinker over the better player; deep strategist over brilliant talent!
Steinitz held his title till 1894 before losing it to the great psychologist Dr.Emmanuel Lasker. This fell as a great blow and depression set on Steinitz and he died as a pauper in New York on June 22, 1900.
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