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Adolf
Anderssen was a famous German chess master,
one of the most renowned of the classic masters of 19th century
chess. He had a long and distinguished chess career, at times
considered the leading player in the world, and world famous for his
sparkling play even today. Anderssen was the 10th unofficial
world champion from 1851-1858
and later became the 12th unofficial world champion, holding the crown
for a second time from 1862-1866.
Anderssen
was born in Breslau, Germany
(now Wrocław,
Poland)
in 1818. He lived in the city of his birth for most of his
life, never married, living with and supporting his widowed mother and
his unmarried sister. Anderssen graduated from the public gymnasium
in Breslau, then attended university where he studied mathematics and
philosophy. He graduated, and took a position at the
Friedrichs-Gymnasium as an instructor in 1847 (27 years of age) and
later Professor of Mathematics. Anderssen lived a quiet,
stable, responsible, respectable, middle-class life. His career was
teaching math, while his hobby and passion was playing chess.
When
Anderssen was nine years old, his father taught him how to
play. Anderssen said that as a boy, he learned the strategy
of the game from a copy of William Lewis's
book Fifty
Games between Labourdonnais and McDonnell
(1835). Anderssen was not a chess prodigy;
his progress was deliberate, and by 1840 at age twenty-two, he had not
yet surpassed German masters such as
Ludwig
Bledow,
von der Lasa,
and Wilhelm Hanstein.
In
1848 Anderssen drew a match with the professional player
Daniel
Harrwitz.
On the basis of this match and his general chess reputation, he
received an invitation to represent German chess at the world's first
international chess tournament, London
1851.
Anderssen was reluctant to accept the invitation, as travel costs were
a substantial issue to his limited pocketbook. However,
Howard
Staunton
offered to pay Anderssen's travel expenses out of his own pocket if
necessary, should Anderssen fail to win a tournament prize.
This was a generous offer, and Anderssen made the trip. At
that tournament, Anderssen defeated
Lionel
Kieseritzky,
József
Szén,
Staunton, and Marmaduke Wyvill,
winning the tournament to everyone's surprise.
Anderssen
was celebrated as well for two of his casual chess games in which he
was victorious through combinations involving heavy sacrifice of the
pieces. In the first, called the "Immortal
Game",
as white against Kieseritzky
in 1851,
he sacrificed a bishop, both rooks, and finally his queen. In
the second played in Berlin,
in the year 1852,
as white against Jean Dufresne,
the total sacrifice was more modest, but still exceeded a queen and a
minor piece. That game has since been called the "Evergreen Game".
For
the next few years he was considered by many people to be the world's
premier player, but as he needed to earn for living, he had to go back
for teaching again after the competition. Then in 1858 he was
beaten by the American star
Paul
Morphy
in a famous match held in Paris, France, losing by a score of two wins
versus Morphy's seven, with two draws. Anderssen played the
curious initial move of 1. a3 in the match against Morphy, and this
opening move is now referred to as "Anderssen's
Opening."
The opening has never been popular in serious competition.
Three
years after being defeated by Morphy, Anderssen came back and won
London 1862, the first international round-robin event (in which each
participant plays a game against all the others) with a score of twelve
wins out of thirteen games, losing only to
John
Owen.
This victory gave him the unofficial title of world chess champion for
the second time, as Morphy had since retired from serious chess.
In
1866 he played and lost a close match (6-8-0) with young
Wilhelm
Steinitz
(30 year-old). The match introduced a number of new ideas to the field
of chess
strategy. A few
modern writers say that after the match Steinitz was the world
champion, but the players themselves did not make any such claim, nor
did anybody else at the time. Later Anderssen lost a second match
against Steinitz.
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""Anderssen was honest and honorable to
the core. Without fear or favor he straightforwardly gave his opinion,
and his sincere disinterestedness became so patent....that his word
alone was usually sufficient to quell disputes...for he had often given
his decision in favor of a rival..."
–
Wilhelm Steinitz
(about Anderssen)
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Anderssen's
greatest chess achievement came late in his life, when he won
Baden-Baden 1870, the strongest tournament ever held up to its
time. He finished first ahead of his old nemesis Steinitz, as
well as the great players Gustav
Neumann and Joseph
Henry Blackburne.
Still
playing strongly, Anderssen's last major victory was placing second at
Leipzig 1877, at the age of fifty nine. Two years later, he
died. The Deutsche Schachzeitung noted his death in 1879 with
a nineteen page obituary.
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