Letter #31 -  2005

Sub:    Adolf Anderssen
Date:   9/06/2005 10:11:43 PM MDT
From:  Ajedrez_2345
To:      service@chess-poster.com

Sirs of Chess-Poster:

I have a big doubt: see, in your website on the Great Players and World Champions pages you included Paul Charles Morphy but I have this question: how come Adolf Anderssen was not included?

As far as I'm concerned, Adolf Anderssen won the unofficial title in a tournament organized by Howard Staunton in 1851 and held it until 1857 when Paul Morphy defeated him in a match. A year later Morphy retires yielding back the title to Anderssen from 1858 to 1866.

In the World Champions section, besides that you don't mention Adolf Anderssen, you state that Wilhelm Steinitz defeated Johanes Zukertort but that happened after the Anderssen's match and all I like to know is: why Adolf Anderssen is not mentioned?

Last, I would like to say that I enjoy your website, is one of the best, and it is very complete indeed.

Thank you for your space.

Dear viewer,

In our introduction on the World Champions page we have the following:

“The first officially recognized world Chess championship was held in 1886, when Wilhelm Steinitz beat Johannes Zukertort in a match held in the USA. The outstanding players before this date are well known, but there were no official champions.”

As you can see, the above text should answer your question.

Of course, before Wilhelm Steinitz there were many good players such as Paul Morphy, Adolf Anderssen, Howard Staunton, Philidor, etc., but no world championship was ever held before.

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