The strongest field of its age, and the prelude to a world title

London 1883

26 April – 23 June 1883 · London, England
Zukertort won London 1883, the strongest tournament of its era and the direct prelude to the 1886 World Championship match, with 22/26, three points clear of Steinitz. Having reached 22/23 he had already secured first with three rounds to play, then lost his final three games to exhaustion. Drawn games were replayed (one or two replays did not count; a third consecutive draw counted whatever its result), so the archive pairs 169 counting games with 74 replayed-not-counted draws. Skipworth withdrew after the half-way point and his remaining games were scored as losses.
▦ 242 GAMES

Fourteen of the finest players in the world gathered at the Criterion in Piccadilly for what was, at the time, the strongest tournament ever held. Johannes Zukertort ran away with it, scoring a barely believable 22/23 before easing off, and finished on 22/26 — three full points clear of Wilhelm Steinitz. The result set the two men on a collision course, and London 1883 is remembered above all as the direct prelude to their 1886 match for the first official World Chess Championship.

Dates
26 April – 23 June 1883
Venue
Victoria Hall, the Criterion, London
Format
Double round-robin, 14 players
Winner
Johannes Zukertort, 22/26

◈The strongest field of the age

Organised by Marmaduke Wyvill and staged under the patronage of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, London 1883 assembled the leading masters of the day into a double round-robin worth a prize fund of £1,050. Alongside Zukertort and Steinitz came Joseph Henry Blackburne, Mikhail Chigorin, George Henry Mackenzie, Berthold Englisch, James Mason, Samuel Rosenthal and others — a depth of strength no earlier tournament had matched.

The event is also remembered as a landmark in the mechanics of the game: it saw one of the first uses of a double-sided chess clock, a device credited to Thomas Bright Wilson of the Manchester Chess Club, replacing the sand-glasses that had timed play until then.

◈Zukertort's runaway and the scoring quirk

Zukertort's start was extraordinary — he reached 22 points from his first 23 games and had already secured first place with three rounds still to play. Then, apparently worn down by exhaustion, he lost all three of his remaining games to weaker opponents, finishing on 22/26. It scarcely mattered: Steinitz, second on 19, was three points adrift, with Blackburne third on 16½ and Chigorin fourth on 16.

The tournament used an unusual scoring convention for draws. A drawn game was replayed, and the first one or two replays did not count toward the standings; only a third consecutive draw was scored as it stood. In the archive this leaves 169 counting games paired with 74 replayed-but-not-counted draws. Arthur Skipworth withdrew after the halfway point, and his remaining games were recorded as losses.

◈The road to 1886

By finishing clear ahead of Steinitz — long regarded as the world's foremost player — Zukertort established a genuine rival claim to be the best in the world. Neither man could settle the question at London 1883, but the tournament crystallised the case for a decisive contest.

Three years later the two met across New York, St. Louis and New Orleans for the World Chess Championship 1886. Steinitz won it and became the first officially recognised World Champion, but it was here in London, in the spring of 1883, that the stage for that match was set.

14
Players
26
Rounds
22
Zukertort's score
3
Points clear

◈Final Standings

22/26
Zukertort won London 1883, the strongest tournament of its era and the direct prelude to the 1886 World Championship match, with 22/26, three points clear of Steinitz. Having reached 22/23 he had already secured first with three rounds to play, then lost his final three games to exhaustion. Drawn games were replayed (one or two replays did not count; a third consecutive draw counted whatever its result), so the archive pairs 169 counting games with 74 replayed-not-counted draws. Skipworth withdrew after the half-way point and his remaining games were scored as losses.
# Player Score Record
1 Zukertort, Johannes Hermann 22/26 games →
2 Steinitz, William 19/26 games →
3 Blackburne, Joseph Henry 16½/26 games →
4 Chigorin, Mikhail Ivanovich 16/26 games →
=5 MacKenzie, George Henry 15½/26 games →
=5 Englisch, Berthold 15½/26 games →
=5 Mason, James 15½/26 games →
8 Rosenthal, Samuel 14/26 games →
9 Winawer, Szymon 13/26 games →
10 Bird, Henry Edward 12/26 games →
11 Noa, Josef 9½/26 games →
12 Sellman, Alexander 6½/26 games →
=13 Mortimer, James 3/26 games →
=13 Skipworth, Arthur Bolland 3/26 games →

Cross Table

Player 1234567891011121314
1 Zukertort, Johannes Hermann 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 Steinitz, William 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1
3 Blackburne, Joseph Henry 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 ½ 0 1 1 1 1
4 Chigorin, Mikhail Ivanovich 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1
5 MacKenzie, George Henry 0 0 1 0 ½ 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1
6 Englisch, Berthold 0 1 0 1 ½ 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1
7 Mason, James 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1
8 Rosenthal, Samuel 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1
9 Winawer, Szymon 0 0 ½ 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1
10 Bird, Henry Edward 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1
11 Noa, Josef 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 1 0 1 0
12 Sellman, Alexander 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0
13 Mortimer, James 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
14 Skipworth, Arthur Bolland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1

Each cell shows the row player's per-game results against the column player (in round order). ● = same player.

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