Introducing the Chess player profile of the player behind the original Immortal Chess Game, Adolf Anderssen.
Full name: Karl Ernst Adolf Anderson
Born: 6th July 1818
Place of birth: Breslau, Germany
Profiles
Biography
Anderssen was born in Breslau in German. He lived most of his live-in Prussian; he stayed with his widowed mother and his sister, who wasn’t married. He was the one taking care of both his mother and his unmarried sister. Anderson himself never got married, and neither did he have children.
He attended a high school where he focused on a public gymnasium in Breslau. When he joined university, he studied mathematics and philosophy. In 1847, when he was 29 years, he graduated from the university and started working as a gymnasium instructor. After some time, he became a professor of mathematics. He lived a humble, respectful, and quiet life. Playing chess was his hobby.
His writings about the main 60 chess problems in a magazine article were what captured the attention of the Berlin chess group, and he was invited to join the team. His zealousness and determination made him a very successful and famous world champion player. If you’re interested in finding high-quality magazines, read the list of the best Chess magazines.
The Beginning
When Anderson was the age of 9, his father took the responsibility of teaching him chess. Knowledge from Williams Lewis’s book, titled “Fifty Games between McDonnel Labourdonnais, written in 1935, helped him acquire techniques and skills in chess when he was still young. When he became an adult, his passion for chess strengthened that he made an article addressing 60collection of problems for chess in a magazine (Aufgabe fur Schachspiere, this captured the well-known group of Berlin Pleiades, this group had several players who emerge as the best in their time. Also, he was recruited to join the team and started playing with the members. During the time of Tassilo Lasa, he won the world champion. At this time, he began to gain much respect and popularity.
He was asked to represent Germany in international chess tournaments in 1851 in London. He outshined over 100matches and defeated prominent chess players like Carl Mayet, Lionel Kieseritzky, and Max Lange. Apart from playing a tournament like the International Tournament and the abandoned 1862 Chess Tournament, he managed to start his own chess school. The school’s name was ‘The Sacrificial Attacking,’ it focused on chess problems collections.
Achievements
The first international tournament that Anderssen was invited to participate in was in 1851 in London; he was reluctant to attend the game because travel expenses deterred him. The principal organizer of the game, Howard Staunton, paid for travel costs and gave Anderssen pocket money to cater to his needs. He played over 100 games at the time against the strongest known opponent players of the time, like Max Lange, Ernst Falkbeer, and Carl Mayet. When the game was paired for short matches, Anderssen managed to win and defeat his opponents. He set a record of being termed as the World’s Chess Champion of that time.
In 1858, there was a knock-out tournament; he played against an American player called Paul Morphy; who was adamant. Morphy knew when to attack and how to attack ideally as opposed to Anderssen, and he managed to defeat all his opponents. This made Anderssen to be ranked in 2nd position. In 1859, Paul went back to the States, and after a short while, he announced his retirement from playing chess; this opened an opportunity for Anderssen. He became the most active and best player once again. The chance gave him an opening move that he referred to as Anderson’s Opening, which became very popular due to many wins.
From 1851-to 1862, he participated in casual chess competitions, and he won both two games amongst his competitors. The second match was played in 1852 in Berlin as white; it was against Jean Dufresne. These wins earned him wealth, and he became a very successful and respected person.
He lost only once. Since Murphy had retired, Anderssen was the one carrying the flag bearer as the most talented and famous chess player during that time. After some short time, he participated in a match against the runners-up tournament Paulsen, and they both ended the draw During the year 1864, he participated in another match against Berthold Suhle, but they both scored draws. But he never gave up, we wanted to perform as high as possible.
During 1964, it didn’t go quite well for Anderson; he lost a match against Wilhelm, who was 30 years old. Wilhelm won in the last two games since they first won six straight wins, however, they lost eight with no draw at all. And the opportunity made Anderson lose his title as the world’s most active player. Even though he had lost, Anderssen remained dominant in personal matches and tournaments as well. He stayed determined and refused to let a fall discourage him.
In 1866-1879, the tournaments were becoming more popular. Since he had already lost to Morphy and Steinitz, he didn’t give up; instead, he began to redirect himself to give complete focus to chess, making it possible his primary career. By then, he was in his fifties, and he managed to win many tournaments because he was the most influential and outstanding player. He became the champion of various Federations in Germany.
The Immortal Game
The original Immortal Game was played in 1851 between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky. It’s one of the most famous Chess games in the history of Chess.
Conclusion
Anderson died in 1879, on 13th March, in his hometown. He died due to a heart attack which was received with a lot of shock by all of his fans. A bombing raid happened at the time of the 2nd world war, and it destroyed his grave. After the 2nd world war, the city where he was buried (Breslau) was taken by Poland, and it was later named Wroclaw. The Polish Chess Federation made a decision to rebury his body in a new grave at the cemetery called Osobowice. He died at 140 years; may his soul rest in eternal peace. And he will be remembered as a seasoned chess player.
Did you enjoy reading about Adolf Anderssen? If you did, you might be interesting in reading other player profiles such as Hikaru Nakamura, Emanuel Lasker, and Bobby Fischer.
Sources
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20091026151549/http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/andersse.htm
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Anderssen#cite_ref-Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames_3-2
4. https://web.archive.org/web/20080511165040/http://batgirl.atspace.com/Anderssen.html
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Anderssen#cite_ref-WeeninkChessProblem_5-0
6. https://books.google.com/books?id=PzNBButOy3oC&q=%22Classic+Chess+Problems+by+Pioneer+Composers%22+howard
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Anderssen#cite_ref-Spinrad2006Bledow_7-1
8. http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scacchi/storiascacchi/matches/fino1849.htm
9. http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/v$m$$mix.htm
10. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1018910