He moved to Vienna to study mathematics in 1858, and it was there that he started playing chess seriously. He was born under the name Wolf Steinitz into a Jewish family in Prague in 1836, making him a year older than Morphy. The final chapters cover his subsequent visits to England and the last three tournaments he played there.”Ĭollectors of McFarland’s chess biographies will know exactly what to expect.Ī handsome, beautifully produced hardback book based on extensive and exhaustive research, in this case concerning William Steinitz (Harding prefers to use the anglicized spelling of his name), the first official world champion. A foreigner with a quarrelsome nature, he suffered mockery and discrimination from British amateur players and journalists, which eventual drove him to immigrate to America. During the next 20 years, he became its strongest and most innovative player, as well as an influential writer on the game. Born to a poor Jewish family in Prague, Steinitz studied in Vienna, where his career really began, before moving to London in 1862, bent on conquering the chess world. A portrait of mid-Victorian British chess is provided, including a history of the famous Simpson’s Divan. “Drawing on new research, this first biography of William Steinitz (1836-1900), the first World Chess Champion, covers his early life and career, with a fully-sourced collection of his known games until he left London in 1882. A well-known writer on many aspects of chess, Tim is a former editor of Chess Mail magazine and for almost 20 years he contributed monthly articles in “The Kibitzer” series. He is a FIDE Candidate Master and a Senior International Master of correspondence chess. “ Tim Harding played for Ireland at the 1984 FIDE chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki. Steinitz in London : A Chess Biography with 623 Games : Tim Harding Timothy D. Steinitz in London: A Chess Biography with 623 Games

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