Johannes Hermann Zukertort (; 7 September 1842 – 20 June 1888) was a Polish-born British-German chess master. He was one of the leading world players for most of the 1870s and 1880s, but lost to Wilhelm Steinitz in the World Chess Championship 1886, which is generally regarded as the first World Chess Championship match. He was also defeated by Steinitz in 1872 in an unofficial championship.
Zukertort filled his relatively short life with a wide range of other achievements as a soldier, musician, linguist, journalist and political activist.
Early life and non-chess achievements
Zukertort was born on 7 September 1842 in Lublin, Congress Poland, Russian Empire as Jan Hermann Cukiertort. He said that his mother was the Baroness Krzyżanowska (Krzyzanovska). His parents were Polish Jews who converted to Protestant Christianity and missionized for the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. Because the Christian Protestant mission among the Jewish population in Russian-occupied Poland was considered illegal and heretical, the Zukertort family emigrated to Prussia. He was educated at the gymnasium of Breslau (now Wrocław), and in 1866 at the University of Breslau, from which he graduated in medicine in 1866. As a member of the medical corps of the Prussian army he saw service in 1866 during the Austro-Prussian War, and again during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871.
Zukertort is widely suspected of having embellished his biography. In an account of his life for the Eastern Daily Press in 1872 many claims were made on his behalf: aristocratic descent, fluency in nine languages (fourteen, according to other sources), and proficiency in swordsmanship, dominoes, and whist; it was also stated that he had played 6,000 games of chess with Adolf Anderssen, fought in numerous battles, and was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, the Iron Cross of the German Army, and seven other medals. He also found time to get an M.D. at Breslau in 1865, and work on the staff of the Allgemeine Zeitung – Otto von Bismarck's private organ – in addition to writing two chess books and working as the editor of a chess magazine for several years. The Oxford Companion to Chess comments, "There is some truth in the last sentence: He was co-author of the books [and] co-editor of the chess magazine."
Chess career
Style of play
In an age where the majority of players played exclusively 1.e4, Zukertort was an occasional early experimenter with openings such as 1.Nf3 and 1.c4.
In his prime Zukertort also excelled at blindfold chess. In 1876, he played sixteen games simultaneously while blindfolded, winning eleven, drawing four, and losing only one.
Learning chess
Zukertort learned to play chess in Breslau when he was about age 19. Entering a tournament in that city, and receiving the odds of the queen, he lost every game, whereupon he took up the study of Bilguer's Handbuch, with the result that in 1862 he won games from the leading German chess player Adolf Anderssen at the odds of a knight. Zukertort studied with Anderssen, and within only a few years he became one of the strongest players in Germany.
Among many other notable matches that Zukertort played with Anderssen, he defeated him in 1866, lost in 1868 by a score of eight wins, three losses, one draw, and finally defeated him convincingly (5–2; no draws) in a match in 1871. In 1867 he moved to Berlin and in 1872 to London. In that year, he played Wilhelm Steinitz in London, losing 9–3 (7 losses, 1 win, 4 draws). During this period top-class tournaments were rare Nonetheless Zukertort was one of the most successful tournament players of his time: third place behind Steinitz and Blackburne at London, 1872; first place at Cologne, and second at Leipzig in 1877; tied for first with Simon Winawer at the Paris 1878 chess tournament and beat Winawer in the playoff; second at Berlin in 1881, behind Blackburne; tied for fourth at Vienna in 1882; first at London in 1883, 3 points ahead of Steinitz. The 1878 win in Paris led to some suggestion that Zukertort was the world's leading player, although Steinitz did not compete.