Steinitz-Zukertort 1886

Steinitz-Zukertort 1886 was a match between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, two of the strongest players of their era. It ran from January 11 to March 29 in New York, Saint Louis, and New Orleans. It is now generally recognized as the first formal World Chess Championship match.

The principal target was ten wins; draws did not count toward that target. Zukertort won four of the first five games, but Steinitz reversed the match and finished with 10 wins, 5 losses, and 5 draws. Under modern point scoring, which gives half a point for a draw, that is equivalent to 12.5-7.5.

The match mattered for more than its winner. It helped establish the idea that world supremacy should be settled through an agreed contest between champion and challenger, with published conditions and an extended series of games.

The International Chess Federation, FIDE, did not yet exist and was founded decades later. Official therefore does not mean that a world federation administered the event. It means that later chess tradition adopted the match as the conventional beginning of the world-champion succession.