To determine Paul Morphy’s successor, a match was held between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort in New York, St. Louis and New Orleans. Steinitz won by a score of 12 - 7, becoming the 1st World Champion. What makes this match particularly interesting is that they decided that the winner was to be considered officially “World Chess Champion”, a title until then inexistent. The match was very exciting, with Johannes Zukertort taking a strong lead in the first games, played in New York. However, Wilhelm Steinitz recovered in the next series, played in St. Louis, and in the last one, played in New Orleans, where he definitively dominated.