Adolf Anderssen
| Adolf Anderssen | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Full name | Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen |
| Country |
Kingdom of Prussia German Empire |
| Born |
July 6, 1818 Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) |
| Died | March 13, 1879 (aged 60) |
Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen (July 6, 1818 – March 13, 1879) was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player for much of the 1850s and 1860s. He was quite soundly defeated by Paul Morphy who toured Europe in 1858, but Morphy retired from chess soon after and Anderssen was again considered the leading player.
After his defeat by Steinitz in 1866, Anderssen became the most successful tournament player in Europe, winning over half the events he entered—including the Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament, one of the strongest tournaments of the era. He achieved most of these successes when he was over the age of 50.
Anderssen is famous even today for his brilliant sacrificial attacking play, particularly in the "Immortal Game" (1851) and the "Evergreen Game" (1852). He was a very important figure in the development of chess problems, driving forward the transition from the "Old School" of problem composition to the elegance and complexity of modern compositions.
He was also one of the most likeable of chess masters and became an "elder statesman" of the game, to whom others turned for advice or arbitration.
It is impossible to keep one's excellence in a glass case, like a jewel, and take it out whenever it is required.
Anderssen was born in Breslau (now called Wrocław), in the Prussian Province of Silesia, in 1818. He 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 the public gymnasium (high school) in Breslau and then attended university, where he studied mathematics and philosophy. After graduating in 1847 at the age of 29, he took a position at the Friedrichs-Gymnasium as an instructor and later as Professor of Mathematics. Anderssen lived a quiet, stable, responsible, respectable middle-class life. His career was teaching mathematics, while his hobby and passion was playing chess.
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