Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900, world champion 1886-1894) won a 20-game match (in New York, St. Louis, and New Orleans) against Johannes Zukertort to become the first player to hold an official title as world champion. In his younger days, Steinitz was as bright an attacking player as Morphy — even earning the nickname “The Austrian Morphy” — but he’s best-known in chess history for demonstrating that chess games could be won by unfolding from closed defensive positions. We also remember Steinitz for walking around his neighborhood exchanging chess moves with God. Stories go that Steinitz was giving God odds of a knight, but that can’t be be true; pawn and move maybe.
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