World Chess Championship 1890

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Opponents of the 1890 World Chess Championship
Portraits
Wilhelm Steinitz
Isidor Gunsberg
Wilhelm Steinitz Isidor Gunsberg
nation United States 43United States United Kingdom 1801United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
status Defending champion challenger
Age 54 years 36 years

At the world chess championship in 1890 , world champion Wilhelm Steinitz successfully defended his title against Isidor Gunsberg .

prehistory

Isidor Gunsberg had won several top-class chess tournaments, for example in Hamburg (1885), Bradford (1888) and London (1888). At the New York tournament in 1889, he finished only half a point behind the tournament winner Chigorin in third place. A match against Chigorin organized by the Havana Chess Club ended in 1890 with 9: 9.

After that Steinitz was ready to accept Gunsberg as an opponent.

Organization and rules

Financing was difficult: As usual, the players should get a share of the stakes, but Gunsberg was only able to get a few supporters to bet. Steinitz then agreed to gamble for less money.

The Manhattan Chess Club took care of the organization . The match was scheduled for 20 games. The president of the Manhattan Chess Club, Professor Isaac Leopold Rice acted as referee. The games were played in two stages, the first half from 1.30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and the second half from 7 p.m. to 10.30 p.m.

course

The match started on December 9th, 1890. Contrary to expectations, it was pretty even. Gunsberg even led 3-2 after five games. But then Steinitz prevailed and on January 22nd, 1891, in the 19th game, an agreed draw brought the decisive half point to 10½: 8½. The winner received $ 3,000 in prize money, Gunsberg as the loser $ 1,000.

World Chess Championship 1890
1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10 11 12 13 14th 15th 16 17th 18th 19th Victories Points
Steinitz ½ 1 ½ 0 0 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 6th 10½
Gunsberg ½ 0 ½ 1 1 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 4th

The last (drawn) game was then played out by the two opponents for fun, and Steinitz finally won it.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b The man who was Mephisto: Isidor Gunsberg , chessbase.com, May 2, 2020, accessed on May 3, 2020