A Chess Book That I Bought

Michael Blake

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‘The Chess Openings’ by Isidor Gunsberg

Former Hampshire, Southampton, and Chandlers Ford Chess Club member Kev Byard – “My article here is devoted to that book, titled ‘The Chess Openings’ by Isidor Gunsberg. Gunsberg was an interesting character (albeit admittedly less colourful than Claude Bloodgood) whose second major claim to fame was his being the main operator of the Mephisto, a Victorian-era chess-playing automaton that gave a reasonable challenge to even the best players of the age but I’m guessing would have been roundly thrashed by Stockfish, if not by John Zastapilo himself.

However, Gunsberg’s crowning achievement was his challenge to the great Wilhelm Steinitz for the 1891 World Chess Championship, which Gunsberg only narrowly lost by a score of 6-4, which brings us back to my question at the top of this piece. Sometime after his loss to Steinitz, Gunsberg became a British citizen, thus being the first person to be both a British citizen and a World Championship finalist, albeit not at the same time (sorry, Nige !) In fact, after five games of the 1891 final, Gunsberg was actually leading which makes him the only person in history to be a British citizen and to have actually LED in a final of the World Chess Championship (even more sorry, Nige !)