Paul morphy - Books. Paul morphy - Timeline. Paul Morphy - Videos. Paul morphy - Images. World Chess Championship. The World Chess Championship (sometimes abbreviated as WCC) is played to determine the World Champion in chess. All people are eligible to contest this title. The official world championship is generally regarded to have begun in 1886, when the two leading players in Europe and the United States, Johann Zukertort and Wilhelm Steinitz respectively, played a match. From 1886 to 1946, the champion set the terms, requiring any challenger to raise a sizable stake and defeat the champion in a match in order to become the new world champion. From 1948 to 1993, the championship was administered by FIDE, the World Chess Federation.
In 1993, the reigning champion (Garry Kasparov) broke away from FIDE, which led to the creation of the rival PCA championship. The titles were unified at the World Chess Championship 2006. Current world champion Magnus Carlsen won the World Chess Championship 2013 against the reigning champion, Viswanathan Anand. History[edit] Classical champions Pre FIDE FIDE champions.
Johannes Zukertort. Johannes Hermann Zukertort (7 September 1842 – 20 June 1888) was a leading British chess master. He was one of the leading world players for most of the 1870s and 1880s, and lost to Wilhelm Steinitz in the World Chess Championship 1886, generally regarded as the first World Chess Championship match. He was also defeated by Steinitz in 1872 in an unofficial championship; both were the world's best players. Zukertort filled his relatively short life with a wide range of other achievements as a soldier, musician, linguist, journalist and political activist. He became a naturalised citizen of the United Kingdom in 1878.[1] Early life and non-chess achievements[edit] Zukertort was born 7 September 1842 in Lublin, Congress Poland. Zukertort is widely believed to have embellished his biography. Chess career[edit] The 1886 World Chess Championship match lasted from 11 January to 29 March 1886. In his prime Zukertort also excelled at blindfold chess.
Later life[edit] Trivia[edit] References[edit] Wilhelm Steinitz. Wilhelm (later William) Steinitz (May 17, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was an Austrian and later American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. From the 1870s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively the champion earlier. Steinitz lost his title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894 and also lost a rematch in 1896–97. Statistical rating systems give Steinitz a rather low ranking among world champions, mainly because he took several long breaks from competitive play. However, an analysis based on one of these rating systems shows that he was one of the most dominant players in the history of the game. Although Steinitz became "world number one" by winning in the all-out attacking style that was common in the 1860s, he unveiled in 1873 a new positional style of play and demonstrated that it was superior to the previous style.
Life and chess career[edit] Early stages[edit] Steinitz in 1866 Dominance and controversies[edit] Adolf Anderssen. Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen (July 6, 1818 – March 13, 1879)[1] was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s. He was "dethroned" temporarily in 1858 by Paul Morphy. After his defeat by Steinitz in 1866, Anderssen became the most successful tournament player in Europe, winning over half the events he entered—including the Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament, considered comparable in the strength of its contestants to recent "super GM tournaments". He achieved most of these successes when he was over the age of 50.
He was also one of the most likeable of chess masters and became an "elder statesman" of the game, to whom others turned for advice or arbitration. I am wrong in supposing that I could bottle up my chess and put it in a glass case. Adolf Anderssen, 1858 Background and early life[edit] Chess career[edit] First steps[edit] A problem from Anderssen's 1842 collection London 1851[edit] Morphy match, 1858[edit] London 1862[edit] Howard Staunton. Howard Staunton (1810 – 22 June 1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as having been the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape—the Staunton pattern promulgated by Nathaniel Cook—that is still the style required for competitions. He was the principal organiser of the first international chess tournament in 1851, which made England the world's leading chess centre and caused Adolf Anderssen to be recognised as the world's strongest player.
From 1840 onwards he became a leading chess commentator, and won matches against top players of the 1840s. In 1847 he entered a parallel career as a Shakespearean scholar. Ill health and his two writing careers led him to give up competitive chess after 1851. In 1858 attempts were made to organise a match between Staunton and Morphy, but they failed. Life[edit] Staunton, c. 1860. Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant. Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant (12 September 1800 – 29 October 1872) was a leading French chess master and an editor of the chess periodical Le Palamède. He is best known for losing a match against Howard Staunton in 1843 that is often considered to have been an unofficial match for the World Chess Championship. He played two matches against Staunton in 1843. The first, in London, he won 3½–2½ (three wins, one draw, two losses), but he lost a return match in Paris just before Christmas 13–8 (six wins, four draws, eleven losses).[9] This second match is sometimes considered an unofficial world championship match.[1][4] In 1858, Saint-Amant played in the Birmingham tournament, a knockout event.
In 1861 Saint-Amant retired to Algeria.[1][2][4] He died there in 1872 after being thrown from his carriage.[1][4] Notable games[edit] A depiction of the chess match between Howard Staunton and Pierre Charles Fourrier Saint-Amant, on 16 December 1843 22...Bf4! 23. 26. See also[edit] Alexander McDonnell. Alexander McDonnell (1798–1835) was an Irish chess master, who contested a series of six matches with the world’s leading player Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais in the summer of 1834.
Early life[edit] The son of a surgeon, Alexander McDonnell was born in Belfast in 1798. He was trained as a merchant and worked for some time in the West Indies. In 1820 he settled in London, where he became the secretary of the Committee of West Indian Merchants. Chess career[edit] Around 1825-1826, McDonnell played Captain Evans, while the latter was on shore leave in London. La Bourdonnais matches[edit] At that time the world's strongest player was the French aristocrat Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais.
Death[edit] McDonnell was suffering from Bright's disease, a historical classification of nephritis, which affects the kidneys. Notable chess games[edit] Notes[edit] References[edit] External links[edit] Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais. Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais (1795–1840) was a French chess master, possibly the strongest player in the early 19th century. Early life[edit] La Bourdonnais was born on the island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean in 1795. He learned chess in 1814 and began to take the game seriously in 1818, when he regularly played at the Café de la Régence.[1] He took lessons from Jacques François Mouret, his first teacher,[2] and within two years he became one of the best players of the Café.
La Bourdonnais was forced to earn his living as a professional chess player after squandering his fortune on ill-advised land deals. Unofficial World Chess Champion[edit] La Bourdonnais was considered to be the unofficial World Chess Champion (there was no official title at the time) from 1821—when he became able to beat his chess teacher Alexandre Deschapelles—until his death in 1840. Death[edit] He was the grandson of Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais. Notable games[edit] See also[edit] Notes[edit] Alexandre Deschapelles. Family background[edit] His parents were Louis Gatien Le Breton Comte des Chapelles, born in New Orleans (Louisiana) in 1741, and Marie Françoise Geneviève d'Hémeric des Cartouzières from Béziers in the south of France. Louis Gatien served as an officer in a dragoon regiment and later became through the influence of his close friend, the future admiral Latouche-Tréville, an officer in the royal household (Maison du Roi) with a number of rooms near the king's chambers in the château of Versailles.
Military career[edit] It was decided that Alexandre should start a military career, and so he was sent to the renowned military academy at Brienne. As the influence of his patron Latouche-Tréville ceased in 1791 and terror began to reign in France, Louis Gatien decided to emigrate to Germany with his wife and two sisters of Alexandre. Soon after his father's emigration, Alexandre had to leave Brienne and to join the French Republican army. Career as a player of chess and other games[edit] Jacob Sarratt. Writings[edit] References[edit] Notes Bibliography Golombek, Harry (1977), Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess, Crown Publishing, ISBN 0-517-53146-1 Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280049-3 Sunnucks, Anne (1970), The Encyclopaedia of Chess, St.
Martins Press, ISBN 978-0-7091-4697-1. Traité des Amateurs. Page from the Traité, fourth edition (1837) Traité des Amateurs is the short name of the celebrated book[1] Traité Théorique et Pratique du jeu des Echecs, par une Société des Amateurs, published in France[2] in 1786 and subsequently translated into German and English.
A reviewer in 1830 wrote that: The Traite des Amateurs, is one of the best practical works on Chess, extant. It contains a great number of beautifully played games, together with much solid information, and it is matter of regret that the scarcity of the book, prevents its being more generally used by the Chess student.[3] Le Traité des Amateurs[edit] In making up the work before us, it is understood that the great masters above named produced most of their games and examples, by playing them over, experimentally and repeatedly, with each other; consulting upon the moves in committee, and noting down the details and variations contingent upon each result.
Games from the Traité[edit] Game 3 in Chapter 4, Section 11. e4 e5 2. Johann Baptist Allgaier. First page of Allgaier's Neue theoretisch-praktische anweisung zum schachspiel, Teil 2 (1796) Johann Baptist Allgaier (June 19, 1763, Schussenried – January 3, 1823, Vienna) was a German-Austrian chess master and theoretician. He was also the author of the first chess handbook in German – Neue theoretisch-praktische Anweisung zum Schachspiel (Vienna 1795–96).[1] About his biography[edit] Relatively few details of his life are known.
Only a few years after his death almost all information concerning his life, including dates of birth and death, were lost. Daniel Fiske traveled to Vienna between 1862 and 1863 and searched the archives of the city for some details about him, but in vain. Biography[edit] Johann Baptist Allgaier was born in 1763 in the Duchy of Württemberg, his mother tongue was the Swabian dialect. At the end of December 1822 was admitted to the military hospital in Vienna and died a few days later of dropsy. Influence on chess[edit] Style of play and games[edit] Jump up ^ W. François-André Danican Philidor. François-André Danican Philidor (September 7, 1726 – August 31, 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player.
He contributed to the early development of the opéra comique. He was also regarded as the best chess player of his age; his book Analyse du jeu des Échecs was considered a standard chess manual for at least a century, and a well-known chess opening and a checkmate method are both named after him. Musical family[edit] François-André Danican Philidor came from a well-known musical family, which included: Jean Danican Philidor (c. 1620–79), André Danican Philidor's grandfather, was a musician at the Grande Écurie (literally, the Great Stable; figuratively, the Military Band) in Paris. François-André Danican Philidor was born to his father’s second wife, Elizabeth Le Roy, whom he wed in 1719 when she was 19 years old and he 72.
Music career[edit] Philidor's bust on the façade of the Opera Garnier in Paris Works[edit] Legall de Kermeur. François Antoine[1] de Legall de Kermeur (1702–92) was a French chess player. His name is variously written Kermur, Sire de Legalle, by Twiss, and Kermur and Kermuy, Sire de Legal, by others. In the List of Subscribers to Philidor's second edition it stands as in Twiss, but the spelling was, probably, in both cases Philidor's own.[2] Along with other famous players, he played in Paris's Café de la Régence, and is considered to have been possibly the strongest player in the world around the 1730s.[3] He taught chess to François-André Philidor. The following portray of Legall is given in the London Magazine, May 1825 in an article titled "Chess and Chess Players by an ancient Amateur": I am probably, without any exception, the oldest chess-player in Europe. In the book The life of Philidor,[5] the following considerations, which can give us an idea about de Legall's strength at the chessboard are reported: References[edit] Jump up ^ up ^ G.
Alexander Cunningham. Pietro Carrera. Pietro Carrera Pietro Carrera, (July 12, 1573 – September 18, 1647) chess player, historian, priest and Italian author, born in Sicily, in Militello in Val di Catania (Province of Catania), located in the Valley of Noto; here he grew up in the old colony of San Vito. He was born on July 12, 1573, he was the son of Donna Antonia Severino (mother) and Mariano Carrera, a traditional craftsman who entered the priesthood after his wife's death. During his studies in the Seminario Diocesiano of Siracusa, he had the opportunity to visit many different Sicilian cities. As a result of his travels he met Paolo Boi, so-called "The Siracusan", in the town of Palermo during 1597. After taking his vows, he first become the chaplain at the church of S. In 1617 he wrote and published Il Gioco degli Scacchi (The Game of Chess), subdivided into eight books where "learning the rules, the odds, the endgames, the blindfold chess and a discussion about the true origins of chess in itself".
See also[edit] Gioachino Greco. Alessandro Salvio. Giulio Cesare Polerio. Paolo Boi. Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona. Ruy López de Segura. Pedro Damiano. Francesc Vicent.