Steinitz

Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900) was the first official World Chess Champion. He won the 1886 match against Johannes Zukertort, generally treated as the start of the formal championship line, and held the title until Emanuel Lasker defeated him in 1894.

Steinitz had played very aggressively earlier in his career, but he later developed a different theory. He argued that an attack should not begin simply because it looks attractive; advantages should first be accumulated to make the attack viable. This helped shape positional play: evaluating features that can matter for many moves, such as king safety, piece activity, pawn structure, and weak squares. Pawn structure is the way a side's pawns are arranged; a weak square is one that is difficult for that side to control, often because none of its pawns can defend it.

The point was not to play passively. It was to build small advantages and attack when the position justifies it, or to defend patiently when the opponent has the initiative, meaning the ability to create threats that force replies. This view became a foundation of the Classical school and prepared the ground for later champions such as Capablanca, who refined many ideas about coordinating pieces and converting advantages.

Steinitz connects two eras: the spectacular attacking chess associated with masters such as Morphy and modern strategic analysis. His historical importance therefore comes from both his results and his attempt to explain why a position favors one side.