Adolph Anderssen (1818 - 1879)
The
German Adolph Anderssen was the unofficial world champion 1851 through 1857
and 1862 through 1866. Anderssen was born 1818 in Berslau and died there 1879.
He was taught chess by his father when he was nine years old. Adolph became
mathematics professor at Berslau junior high school and for the time being
he was known with solving and creating chess problems. Not until the age of
30 he participated in tournaments. He won the first modern chess tournament
in England (1851) and he was valid as unofficial world champion until 1857.
Also 1862 through 1866 he was the world-best player. His famous parties are
still admired today. He played the so- called " immortal party " against Lionel
Kieserizky in London 1851. 1858 he lost against the American Paul Murphy.
Four years later he won the tournament of London again. In 1866 he lost against
the later world champion Steinitz.
In this place we would like to show you a peculiarity of the chess tournament in London 1851: at this time chess was played without a clock; i.e. with no time limit. A number of players tried to wait until their enemies left. There was one game (both players wanted to do what we described), which is probably unique in chess history: already in the middle of the game the keeper of the minutes remarked, "The gentlemen are sleeping".