Steinitz is generally considered to have been World Champion for  years Not true this is a controversial matter From the Wilhelm Steinitz articleThere is a longrunning debate among chess writers about whether Steinitz reign as World Chess Champion began in  when he beat Anderssen or in  when he beat Zukertort In April  the British Chess Magazine described Steinitz as holding the chess championship of the world for  years However there is no evidence that he claimed the title for himself in  although in the s he claimed to have been the champion since his win over Anderssen It has been suggested that Steinitz could not make such a claim while Paul Morphy was alive  Morphy had defeated Anderssen by a far wider margin  in  but retired from chess competition soon after he returned to the USA in  and died in  The  SteinitzZukertort match was the first that was explicitly described as being for the World Championship