Today, we are looking at a sometimes overlooked player in chess history. An individual is rumored to have learned 14 languages, he founded a chess magazine, has an opening named after him, and someone who played in the first World Championship - Johannes Zukertort.

In London, members of the St George’s Chess Club heard of Zukertort’s victory and offered money for him to come play against the unofficial world champion Steinitz. Steinitz had been living in London for 10 years by this point dominating everyone. By accepting this invitation, Zukertort had sparked a rivalry with Steinitz that would last for years. 

1878 saw success for the rising star. He played in the Paris World Expo - an 11 round double round robin tournament. This was considered the first Intercontinental tournament as there were players from the United States making it 7 countries represented out of 12 players. 

In early 1879, while in Dublin, Zukertort played a 12 person blindfolded simul (where he plays 12 players at once without looking at the board) finishing with 8 wins, 1 loss, and 3 draws. One of the opponents that he defeated was Lord Randolph Churchill, the father of Winston Churchill. 

The following year - he defeated the English champion - Joseph Blackburne 9.5 to 4.5. After the match against Blackburne - both Zukertort and Steinitz wrote about the games in their respective magazines taking jabs at one another’s analysis. Zukertort represented the Romantic style of chess while Steinitz represented a more ‘scientific’ approach that we would call the positional style. The various articles and analysis written would antagonize each other beyond strategy and morph into personal insult territory. This animosity would later be named “The Ink War”.

London, there was a 14-player double round robin (26 total games). A rumored story from the tournament banquet - the Club’s President proposed a toast to the best chess player in the world, to which both Steinitz and Zukertort stood up at the same time. In the first 23 rounds of the tournament, Zukertort scored 22 points, winning the tournament with 3 rounds to go. He finished with 22 out of 26. Steinitz came in 2nd with 19 out of 26. A day after the tournament, Steinitz challenged Zukertort to a one on one match in the United States. The winner would be crowned ‘the champion of the world’. 

Zukertort started off strong - winning 4 of the first 5 games. They then moved to St Louis where Steinitz picked up 3 ½ out of 4. They then concluded in New Orleans. Zukertort is quoted as saying he was ‘living on his wits’ as he was physically fatigued and approaching a mental breakdown. Meanwhile Steinitz had a ‘bottomless pit of mental stamina’. In New Orleans, Steinitz picked up 6 wins in 11 games to become the World Champion by a score of 10-5. After that loss, Zukertort’s health suffered immensely. While in New Orleans, he caught malaria. He also had heart disease, kidney problems, and arteriosclerosis. On top of that, he was broke from losing the match. 

For our game this week, we are traveling to the early part of his career - before the World Championship, before the Ink War, and before the training with Anderseen - we are going to 1869. 

John William Schulten versus Johannes Zukertort. 

Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin. 

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 d5 4. exd5 Qh4+ 5. Kf1 Bd6 6. D4 Ne7 7. Bb3 g5 8. c4 b6 9. Nf3 Qh5 10. Qe1 Bf5 11. Ne5 Nd7 12. Ba4 O-O-O 13. Nc6 Nxc6 14. dxc6 Nc5 15. Bd1 Bd3+ 16. Kg1 Rhe8 17. Qd2 Qh4 18. g3 fxg3 19. Kg2 Be4+ 20. Bf3 Bxf3+ 21. Kxf3 Qe4# 0-1

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1337018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Zukertort 

http://cassidynoble.com/