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London International Chess Tournament 1883 
Edited by Minchin, With the assistance of Zukertort, Steinitz, Mason and Bird
- Sold Winning Bid: 24,00 € EUR
- 1 Bid(s) View Bid History
- High Bidder: Engqvist
Publishing House moravian Chess, Olomouc, no date, reprint, hardback, lvi+371 pp, 760 grams, introduction, the tournament, all the games are annotated, condition:very fine.
The London 1883 chess tournament boasted a powerful field that included Wilhelm Steinitz, Johannes Zukertort, Joseph Henry Blackburne, Mikhail Chigorin, George Henry Mackenzie, Berthold Englisch, James Mason, Samuel Rosenthal, Syzmon Winawer and Henry Bird. Steinitz and Zukertort were the favorites, as they had been the most dominant players of the last decade, winning the strongest tournaments and high-stakes, private matches.
It was won convincingly by Johannes Zukertort (22 points out of 26) ahead of Wilhelm Steinitz (with 19 points). Remarkably, Zukertort was already assured of victory with three rounds to go, having scored an astonishing 22/23. He then lost his last three games against relatively weak players, probably due to exhaustion. The tournament established Zukertort as rivalling Steinitz to claim to be the best player in the world, and led to the World Chess Championship 1886 match between the two (the first official World Chess Championship match). The event was a double round-robin tournament.
The tournament was also notable for the first use of the double-sided chess clock, invented and manufactured by Thomas Bright Wilson of Manchester Chess Club.
A common story relates to an incident that occurred at the tournament banquet, when the St. George Chess Club President proposed a toast to the best chess player in the world and both Steinitz and Zukertort stood up at the same time to thank him. Research by Edward Winter suggests that this story has been embellished.
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