Wilhelm Steinitz
After residing for five years in New York, Steinitz adopted U.S. citizenship on 23 rd November, 1888. He also changed his name from Wilhelm to William. He concentrated on chess strategies and adopted a scientif approach to the study of the game. He formulated his chess strategies and theories in scientific terms and laws. After having lost the world title, Steinitz suffered from several mental health problems and he spent his last days in American institutions. He died in a pitiable condition in the year 1900. Steinitz is buried in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn, New York.
Steinitz' contribution to Chess
Initially, Steinitz' chess games were not much different that those of his contemporaries. His chess was sharp, sacrificial and aggressive. He matured with time and changed his chess strategies from 1873. He gave immense concern to what we now call the positional elements in chess: pawn structure, space, outposts for knights, etc. Slowly he perfected his new method of play that helped form him into the first Chess World Champion. It was Steinitz who gave chess its present scientific structure. By isolating a number of positional features on the board, Steinitz came to realize that all brilliant attacks resulted from a weakness in the opponent's defense. He studied and developed the ideas of these positional features, and perfected a new art of defense that sharply elevated the current level of play. He emphasised that a game contained a logical structure in which small advantages could accumulate to form large advantages and that attacks should be based upon a positional advantage. He attempted to prove these theories in his games. Thus, h e outlined the idea of an attack in chess formed off of what we now know as "Accumulation Theory" - the slow addition of many small advantages.
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