Johannes Zukertort
“Winner of London 1883 and first World Championship challenger”
Winning London 1883 and losing the first World Championship match to Steinitz in 1886
Johannes Hermann Zukertort was born on 7 September 1842 in Lublin, then part of Congress Poland within the Russian Empire. He came from a family of Polish Jews who had converted to Protestant Christianity, and he grew up in a cultured, multilingual environment. A man of wide and somewhat embellished talents, he claimed accomplishments in medicine, languages, music and soldiering; what is certain is that he became one of the most gifted chess players of his century.
He learned serious chess in Breslau, where he became a pupil and protégé of the great Adolf Anderssen, the leading attacking player of the age. Under Anderssen's influence Zukertort developed into a brilliant tactician, and although the old master generally had the better of their early encounters, the pupil steadily closed the gap and by the 1870s had established himself among the strongest players in Europe.
Zukertort settled in London, which became the centre of his career, and built a reputation as a tournament competitor and as one of the finest blindfold players in the world. Through the 1870s and early 1880s he scored a string of strong results, but his crowning achievement came at the great London tournament of 1883. There he produced one of the most dominant performances in chess history, scoring 22 points from 26 games and finishing three full points clear of Wilhelm Steinitz, who came second. The result established Steinitz and Zukertort as clearly the two best players in the world.
It was during that tournament that he played his Immortal Game against Joseph Blackburne — a patient positional build-up that erupted into a spectacular queen-sacrifice combination, and one of the most admired games ever played. The London result made a match between Zukertort and Steinitz inevitable, and in 1886 the two contested what is now universally regarded as the first official World Chess Championship match, played across New York, St. Louis and New Orleans.
The match began superbly for Zukertort, who built a 4–1 lead, but his form and health then collapsed. He lost four of the last five games and went down by 12½ to 7½, with Steinitz becoming the first recognised World Champion. Zukertort never recovered the level he had shown at London 1883; his health was poor, with heart, kidney and circulatory ailments, and he was a greatly weakened player for the remainder of his short life.
He died on 20 June 1888 in London, suffering a cerebral haemorrhage after playing a game at Simpson's Divan, a tournament he was actually leading at the time. He was only forty-five. Zukertort is remembered as one of the great players never to hold the world title, the man whose 1883 triumph and 1886 match helped give the World Championship its formal beginning — and as the creator of one of chess's immortal games.
Playing style
Zukertort was a complete player who combined the brilliant attacking imagination he inherited from Anderssen with a genuine command of positional and strategic play. He could grind out long manoeuvring games and then strike with sudden, deeply calculated combinations, as in his Immortal Game against Blackburne. A superb tactician and one of the era's best blindfold players, he was at his peak among the very strongest in the world, capable of dominating elite fields when his health allowed.
Signature openings
Rivalries & key opponents
- Wilhelm Steinitz — finished above him at London 1883, but lost to him in the first World Championship match (1886)
- Adolf Anderssen — his teacher and early rival
- Joseph Blackburne — opponent in his Immortal Game (London 1883)
Career highlights
- Won the great London 1883 tournament with 22/26, three points clear of Steinitz
- Played the 'Zukertort Immortal' against Blackburne (London 1883)
- Contested the first World Championship match against Steinitz (1886)
- Pupil and protégé of Adolf Anderssen
- One of the foremost blindfold players of the 19th century
- Co-editor of the influential Chess Monthly magazine
Famous games on BetterChess
More players
Biographical summary compiled by BetterChess. BetterChess is a practice tool — we make no guarantee you'll reach 1800 or any rating.