Their style of play pretty much came to an end with the 1873 Vienna tournament where Wilhelm Steinitz popularized positional play and the closed game and thus began the Modern, or Classical, school which would last until the 1930s when Hypermodernism became popular.
The Romantic era is generally considered to have begun with Alexander McDonnell and Louis-Charles de La Bourdonnais, then Howard Staunton and other leading players of that era including Adolf Anderssen, Daniel Harrwitz, Henry Bird, Louis Paulsen and, of course, Paul Morphy.
That's not to say positional play was unknown. Morphy often complained about dull chess and criticized the Sicilian and d4 openings for leading to dull games. In fact, Morphy included a stipulation in his matches that at least half the games had to begin with 1.e4 e5.
During the 1930s, the Nazis claimed Romantic chess, which was dominated by Aryan players had been derailed by the "cowardly, stingy" positional chess exemplified by Jewish players. See Anti-Semitism in Chess HERE
One of the great players of the Romantic era was Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen (July 6, 1818 – March 13, 1879) who shares my birthday (the same month/day, not year!).
Anderssen, the world's leading player from 1851 to 1858, won the great international tournaments of 1851 and 1862, but lost matches to Paul Morphy in 1858 and to Wilhelm Steinitz in 1866. Anderssen won over half the events he entered and achieved most of his successes when he was over the age of 50.
He is most famous today for his Immortal Game against Lionel Kieseritzky in London, 1851 and his Evergreen Game game against against Jean Dufresne in 1852 which was likely an informal game.
Anderssen was born in Breslau (now called Wrocław, Poland), in the Prussian Province of Silesia and lived there for most of his life, sharing a house with and supporting his widowed mother and his unmarried sister. Anderssen never married.
He graduated from high school in Breslau and then studied mathematics and philosophy. After graduating from the university in 1847, he took a position at the Friedrichs-Gymnasium as an instructor and later as Professor of Mathematics.
When Anderssen was nine years old, his father taught him how to play chess and as a boy he learned the strategy from William Lewis' book Fifty Games between Labourdonnais and McDonnell.
Anderssen first came to the attention of the chess world when he published Aufgabe für Schachspieler (Task for chess players), a collection of 60 chess problems, in 1842. He continued to publish problems for many years which eventually brought him to the attention of the "Berlin Pleiades" group, which included some of the strongest players of the time.
Anderssen's development as a player was relatively slow because he could spare neither the time nor the money to play many matches against strong players, but by 1846 he was holding his own against players from the Pleiades. In 1846, he became the editor of the magazine Schachzeitung der Berliner Schachgesellschaft (later called Deutsche Schachzeitung) when its founder Ludwig Bledow, one of the "Berlin Pleiades", died. Anderssen held this post until 1865.
In 1848 Anderssen drew a match with Daniel Harrwitz and on that basis he was invited to a knock out tournament to be held in London in 1851, but he was reluctant to accept the invitation, as he was deterred by the travel costs. However, Anderssen was good enough that Howard Staunton, the principal organizer, offered to pay Anderssen's travel expenses, should he fail to win. He won, defeating Kieseritzky, Szen, Staunton and Wyvill and so was established as the world's leading player.
In 1866 Anderssen lost a close match against the 30-year-old Wilhelm Steinitz losing eight and winning six with no draws. After winning this match Steinitz was recognized as the world's leading player.
Anderssen wasn't done though. From 1851 to early 1878, he compiled a successful tournament record in: five first places, two second places, two third places and a sixth place in the final year of his life when his health was failing.
Arpad Elo retroactively calculated Anderssen's rating to be over 2600 and Chessmetrics ranks Anderssen as one of the top two players for most of the period from 1859 to 1873 with a peak rating of 2744 in 1870 and lists him as number one in the world 7 different months between December 1861 and the August 1870.
Steinitz rated Anderssen as one of the two greatest attacking players of his time and wrote, "We all may learn from Morphy and Anderssen how to conduct a K-side attack, and perhaps I myself may not have learnt enough."
Anderssen himself didn't believe in attacking mindlessly. He wrote, Move that one of your pieces, which is in the worst plight, unless you can satisfy yourself that you can derive immediate advantage by an attack." However, according to Reuben Fine, Anderssen's development was haphazard and he totally failed to understand why Morphy won.
Anderssen died of a heart attack on March 13, 1879, in his hometown. Bombing raids during World War II damaged his grave in Breslau. After the war, the city became part of Poland and is now known under its Polish name Wrocław. In 1957, the Polish Chess Federation decided to re-bury Anderssen in a new grave at the Osobowicki Cemetery.
The following game was played in Berlin, 1869. Of this game, Al Horowitz wrote in Golden Treasury of Chess, "You have probably heard that Anderssen was a mighty man with the Evans Gambit, but it is impossible to realize what glorious feats he performed with it, until you have played over such games as this one. Incidentally Zukertort, the great Anderssen's brilliant pupil, knew how to take fitting revenge, as you will see in later games in this volume. These two immortals produced games worthy of their reputation. A glorious battle." Raymond Keene wrote, "Anderssen had phenomenal tactical vision and his play serves as a great example of chess as art."
Adolf Anderssen - Johannes Zukertort
Result: 1-0
Site: Barmen
Date: 1869
Evans Gambit
[...] 1.e4 e5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.♗c4 ♗c5 4.b4 The idea behind the P-sacrifice is to divert the black B and follow up with c3 and d4 opening the center and the a2-g8 diagonal with an attack on f7. 4...♗xb4 No self-respecting Romantic would ever have dreamed of declining the gambit with 4...Bb6 although statistically black fares better. 5.c3 ♗a5 6.d4 exd4 7.O-O Inviting Zukertort to take another P, but it would be at the cost of bringing another white piece into play. 7...♗b6
7...dxc3 8.♕b3 ♕e7 9.♘xc3 ♗xc3 10.♕xc3 ♕f6 11.e5 ♕g6 12.♘g5 ♘h6 13.f4 O-O 14.♗d3 and black's position is very difficult.
7...d3 was played by Dufresne against Anderssen in 1852 at Berlin in what became known as the Evergreen Game. The idea is to return the P to hinder white's development, but the move is almost never seen today. 8.♕b3 ♕f6 9.e5 ♕g6 10.♖e1 Theoretically the game is equal here, but black's game is quite difficult and Dufresne didn't last long. 10...♘ge7 11.♗a3 b5 12.♕xb5 ♖b8 13.♕a4 ♗b6 14.♘bd2 ♗b7 15.♘e4 ♕f5 16.♗xd3 ♕h5 17.♘f6 gxf6 18.exf6 ♖g8 19.♖ad1 ♕xf3 20.♖xe7 ♘xe7 21.♕xd7 ♔xd7 22.♗f5 ♔e8 23.♗d7 ♔f8 24.♗xe7# 1-0 Anderssen,A-Dufresne,J/Berlin 1852. The Evergreen Game.
7...♘ge7 This is the move you'll likely see today. Black has a solid position and has gotten good results with it especially if white over presses his attack with 8.Ng5 8.♘g5 d5 9.exd5 ♘e5 10.♗b3 O-O White should now play 11.cxd4, but often tries to continue the attack with 11.♘xh7 ♔xh7 12.♕h5 ♔g8 13.♕xe5 ♘f5 and black is better.
8.cxd4 d6 Black has a cramped position 9.d5 ♘a5 The N is out of play here. Against Morphy at London 1859, Lowenthal played the better 9...Ne5 which is still the preferred move today.
9...♘e5 10.♘xe5 dxe5 11.♗b2 ♕e7 12.♗b5 ♗d7 13.♗xd7 and here instead of accepting an inferior posiion with 13...Qxd7 Lowenthal preferred suicide with 13...Kxd7
10.♗b2 ♘e7 Offering the g-Pawn as bait. 11.♗d3 (11.♗xg7 ♖g8 12.♗f6 ♘xc4 wins a piece.) 11...O-O 12.♘c3
12.♕d2 c5 13.♘a3 ♘g6 14.♘c2 ♗c7 15.♘e3 f6 16.♘e1 ♖b8 17.f4 b5 Warakomski,T (2499)-Bonte,A (2307)/Baia Sprie ROM 2010. Black stands quite well here. In fact he eventually worked up an overwhelming attack before blundering badly and losing!
12...♘g6 13.♘e2 c5 A poor move blocking his B. Better was ...Bg4 and ...c6 attacking white's center. 14.♕d2 f6 Prevents intrusion on e5 15.♔h1 ♗c7 16.♖ac1 ♖b8 17.♘g3 b5 18.♘f5 b4 Black has a cramped position, but nevertheless, his position is solid and his prospects on the Q-side are at least as good as white's on the K-side.
18...♘c4 Was an even more promising alternative for black. 19.♗xc4 ♗a5⩱20.♗c3 ♗xc3 21.♕xc3 bxc4 22.♘e3 and black is slightly better.
19.♖g1 ♗b6 It would have behooved black to eliminate the well place N with 19...Bxf5 and then play ...Ne5. 20.g4 ♘e5 21.♗xe5 dxe5 22.♖g3 The immediate 22...g5 was somewhat better. 22...♖f7
22...♔h8 23.g5 c4 24.♗xc4 ♗xf5 25.exf5 ♖c8 26.gxf6 ♕xf6 with equal chances.
23.g5 ♗xf5 It would have been better to have played 23...c4 first, but Zukertort had the losing move planned. (23...c4 24.♗xc4 ♘xc4 25.♖xc4 ♗xf5 26.exf5 ♖d7±) 24.exf5 ♕xd5 He has made an oversight, but his position was already very bad after his last move.
24...c4 isn't sufficient as after 25.g6 ♖c7 26.gxh7 ♔xh7 27.♗c2 black's K is in peril.
25.gxf6
25.♗c4 isn't bad, but the position is no move than equal after 25...♕xd2 26.♗xf7 ♔xf7 27.♘xd2
25...♖d8 (25...♖xf6 is not possible because of 26.♗c4 winning the Q) 26.♖cg1 ♔h8 27.fxg7 ♔g8 28.♕h6 ♕d6 White to move and mate in five.
28...♖f6 is also hopeless. 29.♕xf6 b3 30.♕h6 ♕d6 31.♕xh7 ♔xh7 32.g8=♕ ♖xg8 33.f6 ♖g6 34.♗xg6 ♔h8 35.♖h3 ♔g8 36.♗e8 ♔f8 37.♖h8#
29.♕xh7 Zukertort resigned. (29.♕xh7 ♔xh7 30.f6 ♔g8 31.♗h7 ♔xh7 32.♖h3 ♔g8 33.♖h8#) Powered by Aquarium
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