Johannes Zukertort
- November 26, 2025
Defeated in the 1886 World Championship Match
Chessmetrics Ranking: World Number One for a total of 56 months between 1878 – 1886, continuously from 1878 – 1882
Tournament Career: winner of three super-tournaments
Cologne 1877
Paris 1878
London 1883
Matches: Zukertort vs Anderssen 5:2
Zukertort vs Blackburne 6:2(=5)
What He Deserved:
The great nineteenth-century player Johannes Zukertort is today known only as the loser of the first official World Championship match in 1886. However, he was much more than just that.
According to historical rankings, he was the world number one for a long 56 months and defeated great players like Blackburne and Anderssen in matches. He won the major tournament in Paris in 1878, finishing ahead of Winawer, Blackburne, Anderssen, and Mackenzie. His greatest success, however, was his triumph in London 1883, three full points ahead of Steinitz, who was generally considered the best chess player in the world at that time. The tournament also featured Blackburne, Mackenzie, Chigorin, Englisch, Mason, Winawer, and others.
There was no other way – Zukertort had better tournament results than Steinitz, so Steinitz had to prove in a head-to-head match that he was the better player. This led to the first official World Chess Championship match. It was held in New York, Saint Louis, and New Orleans. The southern city of New Orleans thus entered chess history as the city where the first official king of the game was crowned. The match initially went well for Zukertort, as he led 4:1 after five games. However, Steinitz managed to turn the match around, demonstrating that while they were equal in combinational play, he surpassed his opponent in positional understanding and strategy. Zukertort lost the match, and this was essentially the end of his chess career, as his health began to fail, and he died two years later at the age of 45. Nevertheless, he left a significant mark on the world of chess.
Best Game:
Johannes Zukertort vs Joseph Henry Blackburne
London 1883
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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.