On Apr 21, 5:47=A0am, RookHouse <mor...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> As re****ted by the New York Times on August 14,
1900:http://www.rookhouse.=
com/blog/?p=3D177
Quite interesting. Thank you for posting that, Morphy.
I noticed one passage that seemed misleading. The second paragraph
of the obituary says:
"[A]fter his second meeting with Lasker, at Moscow, Russia, in 1897,
where he again met defeat, his decline was rapid. After this second
defeat he almost entirely discarded all thoughts of the games and
devoted himself to other matters. He became an enthusiastic believer
in the Kneipp cure."
This gives the impression that Steinitz gave up up chess after
losing to Lasker in January 1897. That's not at all true. He played in
four tournaments 1897-1899, all of them involving top-level masters,
and overall he did very well, failing to win a prize only in his very
last event, London 1899. His combined score in these four events was
+35 -24 =3D23.
The obit also gives the impression that Steinitz "became an
enthusiastic believer in the Kneipp cure" (a regimen of cold baths)
only after his 2nd loss to Lasker. Actually he had been a Kneipp
devotee for many years before that.
The obit mentions a fund that helped pay for Steinitz's medical care
and the sup****t of his widow. One of the main instigators of and
contributors to that fund was Max Judd, a prominent St. Louis
businessman and chess master. Judd was serving as US Consul-General in
Vienna when Steinitz lost his rematch with Lasker. After the match,
Steinitz stayed a while with Judd, who was instrumental in getting the
old warrior back on his feet. Judd is the subject of a 3-part article
by Jeremy Spinrad at www.chesscafe.com. The second part can be read
here: http://www.chesscafe.com/spinrad/spinrad.htm.
The third part, which covers Judd's diplomatic service in Vienna and
the help he gave Steinitz there, will appear this Saturday 4/26/2008.
|
