Johannes Zukertort and the First World Chess Championship Match

Only a match between Zukertort and Steinitz could settle the matter of the world’s best player, but the first world championship match took three years to arrange. In 1883, Steinitz, no longer able to bear his alienation in London, moved to New York, U.S.A. Zukertort, meanwhile, cashed in on his popularity after his London victory, and toured the U.S.A. where he gave simultaneous displays and played matches as guests of various chess clubs.

In the U.S.A. Steinitz founded The International Chess Magazine, and he hounded Zukertort in this new publication with his challenge. Now back in London after his U.S. tour, Zukertort finally assented. His acceptance was published in the March 1885 issue of The Chess Monthly, and it reflects the strained relations between him and Steinitz:

"Since the conclusion of the London Tournament, Mr. Steinitz has considered it his duty to pose as a martyr before the chess world, persecuted and injured by myself and my friends. He generously reminds me, on every possible and impossible occasion, that I lost a match to him thirteen years ago, and asserts that I now carefully avoid another encounter. It is beyond the limits of decorum and parliamentary language to enter into a discussion with an opponent who prides himself on the scurrility of his speech and his writings. Past experience has taught me that any direct negotiations with Mr. Steinitz would exhaust human patience, and finally prove barren. I am, however, ready to play Mr. Steinitz on either side of the Atlantic, and call on him to appoint a second with whom my second will settle all the necessary preliminaries."  

Steinitz was willing to play the race to ten-match only in the U.S., as London had become too "hostile." New York, St. Louis, and New Orleans were chosen as venues. The stakes were settled at $2000 a side, a huge sum then considering that matches between top flight masters of the time went for only about one-fourth of the amount.

The first game began on January 11, 1886. In New York, Zukertort raced to a 4-1 lead, but Steinitz evened the score at 4-4 in St. Louis in only four games. In New Orleans, Steinitz won 6 games to Zukertort’s 1 to take the match 10-5. Steinitz became chess first official World Champion on March 29, 1886.

Johannes Zukertort and Wilheim Steinitz during the first official World Championship match

The traditional view of the match has been that Zukertort, a great Romantic, lost to the more modern and classically oriented Steinitz. Zukertort, in particular, was mainly a tactical player who never quite matched Steinitz’s positional understanding. In the new book ChessBase recently featured, The Ink War, however, the author Willy Hendriks presents Zukertort in a new light. His presentation is very interesting to say the least. It is also worth considering if we are to broaden our understanding of Zukertort and the first world championship match.

For Hendriks, the match was not as plain as it has been made out to be. Zukertort may have begun as a Romantic player, but he well understood and assimilated the principles of Steinitz. From being a tactician, in fact, he was evolving into a positional player. Potter’s assessment of Zukertort’s in his City of London Chess Magazine after losing their 1875 match best sums Zukertort’s modern play:

"He (Zukertort) is not one to go in for premature attacks, nor does he go on developing after the time for action has arrived. The unsound brilliancy with which he has been credited was generally conspicuous by its absence, and even the brightness of conception which might naturally be expected from him manifested itself mostly, and in fact almost entirely, not in creating an advantage, but in crowning it when already earned by hard play and sound development."

Hendriks adds further that none of the games of the first world championship match were played in the style and spirit of Romanticism vs. Classicism. If Zukertort lost, it was simply because Steinitz was much the stronger player. Steinitz had the stronger psyche to boot, which allowed him to overcome a 4-1 deficit. Zukertort, on the other hand, collapsed when his lead evaporated.

A reader’s comment in the British Chess Magazine shortly after the match is very relevant:

"It cannot be doubted for a single moment that Steinitz, both physically and mentally, has more staying powers about him than are possessed by his opponent. In this connection I may just state that a well-known player said to me before the match had commenced "You’ll see if Zukertort loses the first two or three games right off he will collapse altogether, but if Steinitz loses nine games off the reel he will play the tenth with just the same pertinacity with which he played the first. Steinitz never plays better than when fighting the uphill battle. Zukertort only shows his best when fortune smiles."

Zukertort was of fragile health. He had been suffering from a heart disease, and in New Orleans he was said to be stricken with malaria. Nobody can be sure how much his health affected the match, but in any case the loss left him broken physically and mentally. Thomas Seccombe wrote: "His nerves seemed over strained, an impediment in his speech was noticeable, and he had not the energy to rouse himself from a kind of mental torpor."

There was nothing for Zukertort, however, but to keep playing. It would be all downhill for him. A few months after the world championship, he could only score 6 out of 12 in the B.C.A. Congress in London. In 1887, he lost a match to his old rival, Blackburne, 5-1. In Frankfurt 1887, he finished in the lower half of the table with only 8.5 points out of 20.

A doctor friend had once advised Zukertort to quit competitive play, for he would otherwise endanger his life. He replied: "I know that, but play or no play, I must be, and am, prepared to be taken away at any time without a moment’s warning."

Zukertort was playing an informal game at the Simpson’s Divan one evening when he suffered a stroke and passed away the following day, June 20, 1888. He was only 45.

Zukertort's grave, Brompton Cemetery | Photo: Wikipedia

At his peak, Zukertort was a very flashy tactical player, but he was not solely a Romantic. He proved well-rounded enough to assimilate modern theory as chess moved to the classical era. He had his weaknesses. Unable, perhaps, to shake off the quick-play mentality of coffee-house chess, he was impatient and prone to blunders in critical moments of important games. Poor health and a lack of mental strength played heavily against him against gritty opponents like Steinitz. Eventually, he passed away as a relatively young, but very exhausted chess player. Nonetheless, he was one of the most brilliant players of the 19^th century. His intense rivalry with Steinitz brought out the best chess in each other and made them worthy contenders in the first ever world championship match.  

Sources:

Harding, Tim. Eminent Victorian Chess Players: Ten Biographies. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2012.

Hendriks, Willy. The Ink War. The Netherlands: New In Chess, 2022.

Schulz, Andre. The Big Book of World Chess Championships. The Netherlands: New In Chess, 2016. 

Games

Zukertort vs. Blackburne, London 1883 – Zukertort’s magnum opus, rightly considered as one of the greatest games in history.

Zukertort vs. Rosenthal, 15^th Match Game, 1880 – One of Zukertort’s finest endgames. In a locked position, he finds a way to break through.

Zukertort vs. Potter, 12^th Match Game, 1875 – An attacking masterpiece founded on fine, positional play.

Zukertort vs. Steinitz, 5^th Game 1886 World Championship Match – Zukertort’s best win of the match. In a game that appears to be too modern and positional for a supposedly Romantic player, Zukertort exploits his space advantage systematically.    

Zukertort vs. Taubenhaus – One of Zukertort’s best games in his final years. His aggressive play nets him a decisive endgame advantage.