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 Rti, Judit Polgar and
the contemporary Artificial Intelligence phenomenon, AlphaZero.
Be inspired by this exploration of the 'modern'
game's roots and trajectory!
