MARK RUBERY CHESS
Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900), the first official World Champion was also the first major player to embrace positional chess in an era of sacrifices and gambits. Steinitz made the transition most markedly during the Vienna tournament in 1873 where all his games were imbued with positional play. Naturally he could play combinational chess when called upon as the following famous encounter shows.
Steinitz Wilhelm - Von Bardeleben Kurt [C54]
Hastings (England), 1895
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 d5?! (Today the Moller Attack is defanged via 7...Nxe4! 8 0-0 Bxc3 9 d5 Bf6 10 Re1 Ne7 11 Rxe4 d6) 8.exd5 Nxd5 9.0–0 Be6 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Bxd5 Bxd5 12.Nxd5 Qxd5 13.Bxe7 Nxe7 14.Re1 f6
15.Qe2 (Even stronger was 15 Qa4+ as 15... c6 is met by 16 Qa3! Qd7 17 Rxe7+ Qxe7 18 Re1. Black would have to play the loosening 15...b5) ... Qd7 16.Rac1 c6 17.d5! (Clearing the d4 square for his knight) ...cxd5 18.Nd4 Kf7 19.Ne6 Rhc8 20.Qg4 g6 21.Ng5+ Ke8
SEE DIAGRAM
22.Rxe7+! Kf8 (If 22...Qxe7 23 Rxc8+ and 22 ...Ke7 23 Qb4+ Ke8 24 Re1+ Kd8 25 Ne6+ winning) 23.Rf7+ Kg8 24.Rg7+! (24...Kxg7 25 Qxd7+) ...Kh8 25.Rxh7+
(At this stage Von Bardeleben left the tournament hall and did not return, thus indicating his resignation in a novel if unsporting way. What he had seen coming and what Steinitz later demonstrated to the spectators was the following forceful continuation... Kg8 26.Rg7+ Kh8 27.Qh4+ Kxg7 28.Qh7+ Kf8 29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qg7+ Ke8 31.Qg8+ Ke7 32.Qf7+ Kd8 33.Qf8+ Qe8)34. Nf7+ Kd7 35.Qd6#) 1-0
‘One master on whose presence at the Café Bauer I could unfailingly count any evening was Kurt von Bardeleben. He was an easygoing person in his fifties. When he had any money at all you could tell it by the bottle of Bordeaux on the table; he sipped it one glass after another in the leisurely manner of a connoisseur. He always wore a black-cut suit of dubious vintage. Apparently he could never spare enough money to buy a new suit although I learned one day that at fairly regular intervals he received comparatively large sums through the simple expedient of marrying and shortly after divorcing some lady who craved the distinction of his noble name and was willing to pay for it.’ (Edward Lasker)