page_title: School of chess
section_title: Romantic chess
hierarchical_section_title: School of chess / Romantic chess
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of Adolf Anderssen Français&#160;: Image de Adolf Anderssen
context_page_description: A school of chess denotes a chess player or group of players that share common ideas about the strategy of the game. There have been several schools in the history of modern chess. Today there is less dependence on schools – players draw on many sources and play according to their personal style.
context_section_description: Romantic chess was the style of chess prevalent in the 19th century.  It was characterized by brash sacrifices and open, tactical games. Winning was secondary to winning with style – so much, in fact, that it was considered unsportsmanly to decline a gambit (the sacrifice of a pawn or piece to obtain an attack). It is no coincidence that the most popular openings played by the Romantics were King's Gambit Accepted and the Evans Gambit Accepted. Some of the major players of the Romantic era were Adolf Anderssen, Paul Morphy and Henry Blackburne. A famous game of this time is the Immortal Game between Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky, which embodies the Romantic style. The style was effectively ended on the highest level by Wilhelm Steinitz, who, with his more positional approach, crushed all of his contemporaries and ushered in the modern age of chess.
caption: Anderssen
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