 Game Four: Zukertort-Blackburne, London 1883 "Chess is a game where the most intense activity leavesno trace."In his 1497 book Repeticion de Amores y Arte de Axedres, Luis Ramirezde Lucena observed, "Try to play soon after your opponent has eatenor drunk freely." Chess historians do not agree whether Johannes HermannZukertort ever studied Repeticion de Amores y Arte de Axedres, butempirical evidence would indeed suggest that, if he did, he did not takeRamirez de Lucena's well-intended advice seriously. Prussian Master Zukertortwas known to have used opium to "calm his nerves," and was tohave been seen drinking whisky during informal matches. His predilectionfor chemically-enhanced stimuli notwithstanding, Zukertort took 32 movesto defeat Joseph Blackburne, "the Black Death," with a brilliantsacrifice of his queen in a game that Steinitz himself described as "oneof the most noble combinations conceived over the chess board." Ironically,Zukertort lost to Steinitz +5=5 -10 three years later in the first officialWorld Championship Match. (The match, with stakes of $2,000, was sponsoredby the Viceroy of India in an act of largess later emulated by his Highnessthe Maharajah of Travancore and Maharajah Vizayanagaram.) The defeat leftZukertort utterly devastated: "I am prepared to be taken away at anymoment." Following these prophetic words, he died the very next day,felled by a stroke at Simpson's Divan. |
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