Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-01-26

For some time he has been ambitious &c |
play William Steinitz for the chess cham. |
pionship, and last September he challenged !
Steinitz to meet him in match for the |
championship and $1,000 a side. Steint7
was willir-. and Lasker began to look for
the money MS hackers had promised him.
After weeks of hard work he has been |
compelled to request the champions assent /
to proposition reducing the minimum
stake to 1880 The efforts of these chess
giants to induce a club to offer a purse fol
their proposed contest have been almost a,
unsuccessful as the usual attempts of ath.
letic clubs to hold prize fights but for an
entirely different reason. The law inter
feres with the pugilsts but lack of money is
the stumbling block in the way of the chess
players. There seems to be good reason to
believe, howev n, that chess enthusiasts in
New York or Montreal will raise a purse,
and as Steintz has agreed to contest for
minimum stake of 81, $50 the chess master
will undoubtedly meet before long.
William St$initz who now lives in Mont
clair, n. j., is without doubt one of the
greatest chess players the world has even
known. He has been meeting the best
players for 35 years and has held the cham
pionship of the world longer than any
other man. Twenty-Five years is a long
time to defend such title, but Steinitz has
done it, and from first to last he has shown
himself to be a true sportsman.
He prizes his hard won laurels dearly,
but is never reluctant to defend them. \
challenge when it is properly backed with
money never goes begging, and Lasker's
proposition for a match met with bust
nessike reception from Steinitz although
the champion had practically concluded t.
retire after his great victory over Michael
Ivanovitch Tschigorin, the car of the Rus
sian players, in 1892. Stenitz was born in
Prague about IS years ago and learned to
play chess in Prague and Vienna In 1870,
1860 and 1861 he won local tournaments in
Vienna and in 1862 won sixth place in the
London international chess tournament.
The next year he attracted considerable at
tention by defeating Black burne. Practice
inspired him with such confidence that in
1866 he challenged Adolph ANDERSEN, the
champion of the world, and was victorious.
In 1872 SteinitZ and Zukertort met for the
first time, Steinitz winning the match. Stein
itZ crossed the Atlantic in 1882, and as there
seemed to be more money on this side for
chess master than anywhere else he made
the United States his home and became
naturaliZed Although not a remarkable
blindfold player, like Morphy, Stenitz at
tracted considerable attention by playing
as many as % simultaneous games against
strong players One of his first matches in
America was against Captain Mackenzie,
whom he defeated with ease in 1888. In
June of the same year he was second to Zu-
kertort in an international match in Lon
don, but he succeeded in defeating Tschi-
gorin and Black burne. In 1856 Steinitz and
Zullertort met again for the champion
ship The score was: Steinitz, 10; Zuker-
tort, 5; drawn, 3. Having thus disposed of
Zukertort, Tschigorin was his next oppo-
nent of note. They played for the cham
pionship in 1889 and 1892, Steinitz success
fully defending his title on each occasion.
Steinitz began playing chess when but II
years of age. His first chessboard was
drawn with lead pencil, and his first set
of chess men was cut out of paper. These
primitive pieces proving unsatisfactory,
Steinitz and his brother laboriously carved
a set from blocks of wood. Among the fla
nous people who have played with Stein
itZ are Won Moltie, Bismarck, Napoleon
III and the Prince IF Wales.
Emanuel Lasker, the ambitious young
German who believes he can defeat Steinitz,
is mere infant in experience compared
with the champion, but for all that he is an
opponent worthy of any living chess mas
ters attention. AS Lasker is only % years
of age, Steinitz was champion of the world
when he was born. Berlinchen, Germany,
was Laskers birthplace, and like Stenltz
he began playing chess when only II years
old. When only 81, Lasker won fame by
defeating Baron Won Bardeleben, and the
same year he took second prize in the Am
sterdam chess congress. In London he de
| feated the veteran Bird in seven out of nine
games, and repeated victories over such
/ strong players as Blackburne, Lee, Bird,
! Minati, Mason and Gunsberg proved con-
clusively THAT he was a phenomenon. When
/ he worsted the veteran Blackburne to 0
in a set match, he was looked upon as one
of the few great living players
In 1892 he came to America and at once
! increased his great reputation by wonder
full simultaneous play and by defeating
such experts as Delmar, Lipschutz, Sho-
walter and Others. In October 1893, he
performed the wonderful feat of winning
10 out of 10 games in the international
tournament in New York against such ex-
perLs as Showalter, Pillsbury. Gossip, Al
bin, Taubenhaus, Oily, Delmar, Lee, JAS
nogrodsky, Hanham, Pollock, Schmidt and
| Ryan. EARLE ii. EATON.