Chess Monthly (July 1888)
In the autumn of 1875, Johannes Zukertort and William Norwood Potter met in London for a highly anticipated chess match at the West End Chess Club in Leicester Square. Zukertort had recently arrived from Germany and was steadily gaining a reputation for himself amongst Britain’s leading players. He was also co-editor of the City of London Chess Magazine, along with his well-known opponent, Potter.
The match terms were somewhat unusual. The first player to win five games would claim victory, but to prevent endless repetition, the first five draws did not count toward the score. Any further draws would each count as a half point. Games were played at the rate of fifteen moves an hour, three times a week, for the stakes of £20 a side, and there were no official umpires.
The contest began on November 2 with Zukertort winning the first game. Afterward, there were a series of hard-fought encounters that produced several drawn games—at one point the score stood at Zukertort 2, Potter 1, with 8 draws. Ultimately, Zukertort’s consistency prevailed, and he won the match by a final score of 5 ½–3 ½ (with 3 of their 8 draws counting towards the score).
For Zukertort, the victory was more than a match win—it marked his first great success in England and laid the foundation for his future rise in the chess world, which culminated in his 1886 match against Wilhelm Steinitz for the inaugural official World Chess Championship.
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