International Chess Magazine edited by Steinitz - 7 volumes

Volume I
International Chess Magazine, Vol. I: 1885. Publishes leading articles on Morphy, Paul Morphy and the Play of His Time (four parts), Morphy and his Contemporaries, Morphy Curiosity, and many other interestings articles and information from different countries. There are 81 full annotated games by Steinitz with many diagrams. Great attention is given to the match Stenitz v. Zukertort. 388 pages.

Volume II
International Chess Magazine, Vol. II: 1886. One of Steinitz's finest playing years (he beat Zukertort in the first universally recognised World Championship match) is also a vintage year for his magazine, as he not only gives detailed notes to all the games from the match, but also conducts a energetic editorial campaign against the hapless chess editor of the New Orleans Times-Democrat, a certain James Seguin. The saga of how Mr. Seguin came to incur the great man's displeasure results in a lengthy (and lively) correspondence which would have present-day American litigation lawyers licking their lips. Amongst the regular correspondents are the notorious author and would-be master G.H. Gossip, who was at that time inflicting himself on the Australian chess community, and the player known simply as C.D. who reports from England. 388 pages

Volume III
International Chess Magazine, Vol. III: 1887. ICM was virtually unique monthly magazines in that the fine chess content (a superb annotated games section - mostly by Steinitz himself - plus regular problem and tactics features) was often upstaged by Steinitz's editorial, the highly cobtroversial Personal and General column. 1887 was a particularly turbulent year, as the Bohemian Caeser continued to be the eloquent scourge of what he saw as chess journalism of the pettifogging pawnbroker type. Amongst the sometimes hard-to-follow, but highly entertaining battles that Steinitz undertakes is a brief but tempesuous argument with the celebrated problemist Sam Loyd. After being asked to resign from New York Chess Club of which Loyd was president, Steinitz called Loyd the insolent N.Y. 20 sandwich rodent. The feud stemmed from Steinitz's charge (in November 1886) that Loyd had misappropriated this sum from the American Chess Editors Association, ostensibly for the cabling (and dissemination to othet chess correspondents) of games from the 1886 London congress. In fact he was wired the reports by one of the players, Samuel Lipschutz, for free and the 20 was never satisfactorily accounted for. The World Champion responded by voting to expel the New Club from the society of Mr. W. Steinitz and rounded off his rude invective towards Loyd with a punning quote from the German-Latin version of Goethe's Kladderdatsch> Lex mihi Mars (war is law to me). As Landsberger explains in his biography of Steinitz, this sounds very similar to the German leck mich in arsch (freely translated: kiss my ass) Steinitz's style obviously did little to win over the waverers, but on factual matters he was highly regarded. As always, great entertainment and a real antidote to any rose-tinted view of chess history. 388 pages

Volume IV
International Chess Magazine, Vol. IV: 1887, 388pages

Volume V
International Chess Magazine, Vol. V: 1889, 388pages - "For his second world title defence Steinitz beats Mikhail Chigorin 101-61 in Havana and afterwards cracks self-deprecatingly, ""The young master of the old school sacrificed pawns and pieces, the old master of the young school did more, for he sacrificed a whole number of games for what he considers to be a sound principle."" Amazingly, editorial work goes on for Steinitz throughout the match and his Personal and General editorials are master-classes in the art of the intelligent insult, replete with wacky nicknames for his enemies such as ""Dreckseele"" and ""Gumpelino"". Along with annotations to this match are many from the Sixth American Congress in New York (a typical marathon of the day), won jointly by Chigorin ad Max Weiss on 29/38 (they also drew four games of a play-off match). As with previous years, the Bohemian Caesar's splendid, erudite journal is a real treat, and chronicles the rise of British resident Isidor Gunsberg (soon to play matches with Chigorin and Steinitz himself), as well as the emergence of a certain new star, Emanuel Lasker, and his flashy double bishop sacrifice (v. Bauer at Amsterdam). (Reviewed by BCM)"

Volume VI
International Chess Magazine, Vol. VI: 1890 - "Another busy year for Steinitz, with coverage of his World Championship matches against Chigorin in Havana (in 1889 but reported here) and Isidor Gunsberg in New York. He defends opening theories (not entirely successfully) in an acrimonious cable match with Chigorin. Elsewhere, ""Dreckseele"" of Chess Monthly comes in for more Steinitzian abuse, and Mr. Sonnenborn writes in with an explanation of the Sonnenborn-Berger tie-break system. 388 pages"

Volume VII
International Chess Magazine, Vol. VII: 1891, 388pp. The seventh and final annual of Wilhelm Steinitz's renowned journal, which details the late 19th century chess scene in all its glory through the last financially-strapped months of its existence. Not even the establishment of a Steinitz testimonial fund saved the ICM, yet its reporting, annotations and Steinitz's own sharply-observed editorial were undiminished throughout.(Reviewed by BCM)

• Marca Moravian Chess
• Code 4077off
• Pagine 7 books, hardcover