Modern Chess: From Steinitz to the 21st Century

The revolutionary Wilhelm Steinitz

(1836-1900) considered himself to be in the vanguard of an emerging, late-19th

century ‘Modern’ school, which embraced a new, essentially scientific vitality

in its methods of research, analysis, evaluation, planning, experiment and even

belligerent fight.

Steinitz, who dominated the chess world in

the shadow of a more directly attacking, openly tactical and combinative,

so-called ‘romantic’ age, established a much firmer positional basis to chess.

A pivotal change!

This book follows that story, both before

and beyond Steinitz’s early ‘modern’ era, focusing closely on the subtly varied

ways in which the world’s greatest players in the last two centuries have thought

about and played the game, moving it forward.

The author reflects on all sixteen ‘classical’

world champions and others, notably: C-L. M. de la Bourdonnais, Adolf Anderssen,

Paul Morphy, Siegbert Tarrasch, Aron Nimzowitsch, Richard Reti, Judit Polgar and

the contemporary Artificial Intelligence phenomenon, AlphaZero.

Be inspired by this exploration of the ‘modern’

game’s roots and trajectory!