Wilhelm Steinitz was “a fat phlegmatic little man, with a fine forehead and mussed hair and clothes,” according to one newspaper account. He was also the favorite at the inaugural world chess championship, held in 1886, and an émigré to the United States — Steinitz had adopted the U.S. as his own after emigrating from […]
ST. LOUIS — In 1972, Bobby Fischer became the world chess champion in the most-watched chess event in history, a best-of-24-game Cold War match against a Russian grandmaster that routinely jockeyed with the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War for placement on the evening news. On Monday, Fischer’s most likely American successor, Wesley So, won […]
ST. LOUIS — In 1972, Bobby Fischer became the world chess champion in the most-watched chess event in history, a best-of-24-game Cold War match against a Russian grandmaster that routinely jockeyed with the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War for placement on the evening news. On Monday, Fischer’s most likely American successor, Wesley So, won […]
Watching an elite chess match in person is at once enjoyable and discomfiting. You follow the players’ actions — their moves, their mannerisms — for long stretches of time. You hang on each one and imbue it with meaning. You become so familiar with their moves that you can rattle them off later from memory: […]
Watching an elite chess match in person is at once enjoyable and discomfiting. You follow the players’ actions — their moves, their mannerisms — for long stretches of time. You hang on each one and imbue it with meaning. You become so familiar with their moves that you can rattle them off later from memory: […]
