Daniel Harrwitz
- November 10, 2025
Chessmetrics Ranking: World Number One continuously from 1853 – 1856
Tournament Career: without major successes
Matches: Harrwitz def. de Riviere, score unknown
Harrwitz vs Andersson 5:5
Harrwitz vs Lowenthal 11:10 (=10)
Harrwitz vs Horwitz 6:5 (=1)
What earned him this:
Daniel Harrwitz is one of those players who still focused on matches and did not participate much in tournaments at a time when there were fewer of them. Harrwitz was nevertheless a master of matches, drawing with Adolf Anderssen and defeating among many others Horwitz, Lowenthal, and de Riviere.
Harrwitz also played a match against Paul Morphy in 1858. He lost the match but managed to defeat the American master twice and was one of the few players to do so with the black pieces.
For three consecutive years in the 1850s, Harrwitz was considered the best player in the world according to historical rankings.
Why he isn’t higher:
He was one of the best players of his time, but he lacks tournament success. For example, his contemporary Anderssen is still one of the best tournament players in history by percentage. In this comparison, Harrwitz’s career pales.
Best Game:
Daniel Harrwitz vs Adolf Anderssen
Wroclaw 1848
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Miroslav Janeček graduated in English Philology at Palacký University Olomouc. Currently he works in Prague as a content editor for a large marketing company. His roots are in Opava - the historic and cultural centre of the Czech part of Silesia. That city is also the home of Slezan Opava, the chess club where Miroslav started to play chess, later went on to work as a youth coach and which he to this day proudly represents. As an aspiring chess publicist, he is the main author of articles on ChessDB.cz. In his free time, in addition to chess and writing, he also devotes himself to racket sports, history, and literature.