Both the existence of a World Chess Champion and the modern framework for chess strategy owe much to the career of William Steinitz. He became the first official world title holder in 1886. But his match with Anderssen two decades earlier, while not billed as a World Championship at the time, was widely seen as deciding who was the world’s best player. Beyond his competitive achievements, Steinitz through his prolific writings ushered in an objective and structural approach that upended previous “romantic” ideas about how chess ought to be played. Anderssen, not coincidentally, was the standard-bearer for the “romantic” school.

Design and text by Coordie64.

Music: Liszt - Piano Concerto No. 2 In A, provided by FredlMusic / Pond5