After years of research and unflagging efforts to acquire any and all known letters to and from Steinitz, the author here presents in their own words a remarkable account of Steinitz and his contemporaries in the chess world of over a century ago.
Content
To the Reader 1
Introduction 3
About the Letters 9
PART I : ASCENT
The First Years 21
Mason, Hoffer, Zukertort and Steinitz 28
A Glimpse of the New World 37
No “Shadowy Anonymus” 50
PART II : ON TOP OF THE WORLD
The Hydra-Headed Monster 71
Cuba, Chess and Congress 92
Steinitz the Author 107
“One of the Chosen People ... ” 117
Tschigorin and Gunsberg 131
Johnson’s Universal Cyclopaedia 150
The American Chess Master from New Jersey 159
Steinitz and Lasker 161
PART III : DECLINE
Hastings, St. Petersburg and Rostov 203
Letters to Pillsbury 209
Dr. Reider’s Medical Conclusions 227
Graphology 244
The Referee 246
The Last Years 252
Contracts 266
PART IV : BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Those Whose Lives Touched That of William Steinitz< 279
Acknowledgments 313
Index 317
Content
To the Reader 1
Introduction 3
About the Letters 9
PART I : ASCENT
The First Years 21
Mason, Hoffer, Zukertort and Steinitz 28
A Glimpse of the New World 37
No “Shadowy Anonymus” 50
PART II : ON TOP OF THE WORLD
The Hydra-Headed Monster 71
Cuba, Chess and Congress 92
Steinitz the Author 107
“One of the Chosen People ... ” 117
Tschigorin and Gunsberg 131
Johnson’s Universal Cyclopaedia 150
The American Chess Master from New Jersey 159
Steinitz and Lasker 161
PART III : DECLINE
Hastings, St. Petersburg and Rostov 203
Letters to Pillsbury 209
Dr. Reider’s Medical Conclusions 227
Graphology 244
The Referee 246
The Last Years 252
Contracts 266
PART IV : BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Those Whose Lives Touched That of William Steinitz< 279
Acknowledgments 313
Index 317