Duels of the Mind: Game 4, by James O'Fee

The survey continues of the games included in Ray Keene's DVDs Duels of the Mind:The Twelve Best Games of Chess. The 4 DVDs are available as a package from

The London Chess Centre £24.95
and
The British Chess Magazine Shop £24.99 plus postage £1.50 UK, £3.00 overseas




Continued from Game 7:

Keene's chosen 4th game features Wilhelm Steinitz 1936-1900, the first official World Champion, and Mikhail Chigorin (1850-1908), the first great Russian Master.

Steinitz was born in Prague as a citizen of Austria, but moved to London for 20 years and then on the the USA, of which he became a citizen. In 1886 Steinitz defeated Zukertort in the first match for the official World Championship, so that Steinitz became the first universally-recognised World Champion.

At first, Steinitz played chess in the attacking, romantic style then popular, in which gambits were offered and accepted as a matter of course. Kasparov tells us that, in his match against Anderssen (1866) Steinitz was more like Anderssen than Anderssen himself! His play afterwards developed to resemble more the positional style favoured by the English champion, Howard Staunton (1810-74), and his followers.

Steinitz's influence as a theoretician probably exceeded even his predominance as a player. Steinitz was a chess professional, whereas Staunton had been an amateur. Steinitz promoted the 'new' positional, Steinitzian, style in his many articles for various journals and magazines. By the 'Belle Époque', the years leading up to the First World War, nearly all the leading players in the world played the game along the principles laid down by Steinitz, forming the so-called 'Steinitzian School'.

Mikhail Chigorin was an immensely strong Master and challenged Steinitz for the World Championship twice, in 1889 and 1892, suffering narrow defeats on both occasions. Yet he defeated the World Champion in each of two telegraph games played in 1890-91, where Steinitz was forced to play variations which he had recommended in print. In 1893 Chigorin tied a match notable for its original ideas and fine play with Steinitz's 'star pupil', Siegbert Tarrasch.

Chigorin's style was marked by his fine tactical skill and imaginative approach to the problems of the opening, in which he made several important contributions. Chigorin's influence in his native Russia was immense, where the game gained increasing popularity. Later propagandists would hail Chigorin as 'the founder of the Soviet School of Chess'.

Steinitz defended his world Title twice against Chigorin, in 1889 and 1892, on both occasions successfully. Keene's chosen game is taken from their match in 1892. You can play through the game on ChessGames -

Steinitz v Chigorin, Havana 1892 4th match game

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