chess

One hundred years ago today, on 21 August 1895, Wilhelm Steinitz defeated the Russian champion, Mikhail Chigorin, in the great international tournament at Hastings. Chigorin slipped from first place in the tournament and Emanuel Lasker took the lead.

It was an important day in the history of the world championship title. When the young Lasker defeated Steinitz in 1894, there was a view, loudly trumpeted by the great German champion, Dr Siegbert Tarrasch, that the correct title for Lasker was "world matchplay champion". Another title of "world tournament champion" was needed, he argued, to recognise the man whose results were consistently best in the world of tournament play. And who more worthy than the winner of Breslau 1889, Manchester 1890, Dresden 1892 and Leipzig 1894 - Tarrasch himself.

But the good doctor could only finish fourth at Hastings behind Pillsbury, Chigorin and Lasker. Those four, together with Steinitz, who finished fifth, were all invited to a showdown "Match-Tournament" at St Petersburg at the end of 1895. Tarrasch pleaded pressure of work and dropped out, then Lasker won the event so convincingly that the issue of his rights to the title of world championship never came up again.

The game that we began with was one of many fine contests between one of the last of the old romantics and the new scientific school of Steinitz. Chigorin, true to type, played the Evan's Gambit; Steinitz, just as loyal to his own beliefs, took all the pawns thrown at him and defended imaginatively.

Instead of 15.Qa6+, White should have played 15.Nxe5 when Bxc5 loses to 16.Qa6+ Kb8 17.Nxc6+, while 15...Nd7 is met by 16.Nxc6+. In the game, White won the exchange for two pawns, but the endgame was always good for Black. 27...Ra8! was a fine move. As Lasker himself wrote: "A rook being very well qualified to support advancing pawns and to check the advance of the hostile king, it is judicious play to avoid its exchange for the present." Here are the moves, White Chigorin, Black Steinitz:

1 e4 e5 24 Nxd8+ Rxd8

2 Nf3 Nc6 25 a3 c5

3 Bc4 Bc5 26 f3 Kc6

4 b4 Bxb4 27 Rfd1 Ra8

5 c3 Ba5 28 Kf2 Ra5

6 0-0 d6 29 Ke3 h5

7 d4 exd4 30 Kd2 b4

8 cxd4 Nf6 31 axb4 Rxb4

9 e5 dxe5 32 Rdb1 Rxb1

10 Ba3 Be6 33 Rxb1 b5

11 Bb5 Qd5 34 Ra1 b4

12 Qa4 0-0-0 35 Kc2 Kd5

13 Bxc6 bxc6 36 Rd1+ Kc4

14 Bc5 Bb6 37 Rd8 Bd5

15 Qa6+ Kb8 38 h4 Kd4

16 Ne5 Nd7 39 Rb8 Be6

17 Nc3 Nxc5 40 Rb7 g6

18 Qe2 Qd6 41 Rb5 b3+

19 dxc5 Qxc5 42 Kb2 c4

20 Na4 Qb5 43 Rb4 Kd3

21 Qxb5 cxb5 44 Rb6 c3+

22 Nxb6 axb6 45 Kb1 Ke3

23 Nc6+ Kb7 White resigns