Wilhelm Steinitz

“ This is serious, and the poor fellow might be troubled with fantastic dreams that the Congress has at some time or other been tainted with dishonorable intentions; therefore, I shall immediately subject him to proper treatment.
Stand up, my $20 bunco-maniac, and apport like a poodle on the hind-legs of your $20 dignity.
In spite of your bunco-brag, everybody who knows you, knows of course that you want to make a living out of Chess. Bon! if you behave yourself with common decency. ”

“ It is then that the critic begins to rave most incoherently and to shout out in a sort or waking dream that the game does not deserve any public support at all; that Chess patrons ought to practice the virtue of keeping their money in their pockets, for Chess masters are one and all professional beggars, cheats, hyppodromers, match-fixers, etc., and especially the champion of the day is a sort of moral monster who ought to be boycotted, ostracized, starved and ruined, and who has been or ought to have been kicked out and expelled from every respectable Chess society. ”

“ As for the causes of depression and stagnation in Chess matters, which sometimes degenerated for years in succession into partial decay of our noble pastime, I have distinctly traced it to a mental malady, which first affects some so-called Chess critics, and thence infects public opinion through the medium of newspapers which in our days, when almost every body is more or less of type-worshipper on matters that are not within his own personal knowledge, exercise an enormous influence on the minds of readers, who are not well acquainted with the subject. ”

“ No doubt all warfare among nations is a sort of organized murder, yet it would be criminal cowardice on the part of a general to neglect winning a battle in order to avoid bloodshed, and until the enemy lays down arms he is bound to do his best for the honor and interest of his country, though without unnecessary cruelty. Likewise editorial warfare is a breach of propriety in itself, but once it is forced on the editor-general, in defense of a good cause, he must make his campaign effective. ”

“ To students of such mental editorial derangements, it may be instructive to notice the chronological order in which my alleged defeats in the gambit of life follow the serious mistakes which I no doubt committed over the Chess board. For it supports my theory that the Westminster Chess Club tragedy and my club fight with Staunton, may be traced to my error in winning a champion match against Anderssen, when I inform you that my next serious Steinitz gambit of life occurred within about a year after I had blundered to win every one of seven games in my match with Blackburne in 1876. ”

“ For the poor fellow imagined that he could not alone boycott and ruin me in the literary warfare, but that he could undermine and explode the Sixth American Chess Congress, an international enterprise which appealed chiefly for public support on the strength of public confidence in my ability and honesty for writing a proper book of its transactions. ”

“ And as often, the editor in chief will share the curiosity of the public and show signs of skepticism as regards the Chess status of his game editor, the latter becomes irritated, uncomfortable and depressed in spirits, and premonitory apoplectic symptoms develop themselves in his cranium. For in the effort of indirectly explaining his inability of competing over the board, he generally overstrains his imagination, which is always a dangerous process, insidiously the wild fancies of an unbalanced mind take possession of his logic. ”

“ And the worst part of it is, that whilst the Chess masters remain poor in a pecuniary sense, the world at large is impoverished in intelligence. For many enthusiastic Chess players are, like myself, convinced that the general cultivation of Chess logic would help to cure our age from many political, economical and philosophical excrescences, and would also greatly diminish such baneful excesses and unhealthy habits as over- smoking, drinking, gambling, etc., which are incompatible with the acquisition of excellence in our mental gymnastics. ”

“ When your faculties will revive, you will no doubt remember to have read (for of course you have read everything appertaining to Chess history) that he was at loggerheads with Staunton for years, and in fact he started the "Westminster Chess Papers" with the pronounced object of counteracting the old man's influence. You must have known that he, the part proprietor of a gambling journal, in the most scurrilous manner attacked the dead and the living professionals whom he grudged playing for shillings, while the playing of hazard games for fortunes was openly advocated in his journal. ”

“ It is no wonder that when my moves as editor-general in the literary gambit are not well understood that some of the remedies which I have applied in my dual capacity as head physician of the Chess journalistic lunatic asylum should not be fully appreciated at once. ”

“ For it has been positively proved (so the critic fancies and proclaims to the public) , that the talent for Chess playing grows quickest after a man's death in his grave, just like his hair and nails, and that some players who practically passed away 30 years ago could give the greatest living masters the odds of a Rook. ”

“ For the schoolmasters of the old and modern school, "you know," agree that it is often necessary to communicate the alphabet of honesty and propriety to the center of the brain by the application of the birch-rod to the center of the flesh. But as it has been alleged that there is no precedent for it in Chess, I may state that a British scholar and a gentleman, who now resides on this side of the ocean, has once before castigated the "Sitzfleisch" of a German Chess editor in the pages of the London Chess Monthly. ”

“ As a matter of course, a violent struggle sometimes takes place between the physician and his patient, and I merely allude to this in order to explain that my dissertation on the diagnosis of the intellectual derangements among so-called Chess critics and the mode of curing them, will be necessarily mixed up and involved with a historical description of some journalistic fights or literary gambits which I have had to contest with some of my patients and opponents. ”

“ It is what is called in England a licensed house for the sale of liquors in connection with a dining room, a cigar shop and a smoking or reading room devoted also to Chess. All parts are open to the public, with the slight restriction in reference to the chess room, which is reserved for customers who dine in the establishment or who pay a small entrance or subscription varying according to its term. The rule is not rigorously enforced, and all the professionals in London as well as some so-called amateurs are on the free list. ”

“ That whereas any ordinary criminal in this country has a right to challenge 99 out of 100 jurymen in a panel, it may be no more than feasible for a claimant of the Championship of the world to ask for the removal of one obnoxious member from the Committee of Arrangement in a match to which each player is not alone a party for himself, but also a custodian of the rights and interests of his supporters. ”

“ At that stage the editorial distemper becomes contagious on the public mind, as I have frequently had occasion to observe, for a good number of amateurs who are already initiated in Chess, however wealthy they may be, are blessed "with more meanness than means" (if I may quote myself) , and they think that the cheapest way of obtaining Chess amusements is to get it quite gratuitously. Others judge on the "six of one and half-a-dozen of the other" principle, and think there is a sort of quarrel in which there must be faults on both sides, and they do not wish to be involved in the fight. ”

“ Whereas, the other half grew and prospered and its success as well as his other experiences have, I believe, at any rate cured the patient's cravings for club fights and his mania for breaking constitutions.
In my next, I shall produce a patient from New Orleans in the flesh as a living illustration. This unfortunate individual suffers from the delusion that I am as bad as mad, and I feel sure I can cure him of his hallucinations. ”

“ In the early stages of his malady, he will imagine that by some peculiar freak of nature the knowledge of Chess and the faculties for acquiring mastery in the game have to be cultivated in a manner wholly opposite to that which helps men to acquire proficiency in any other science or art. ”

“ This sort of delusion, though harmless in themselves and satisfactory to the critic and some of his readers for a time must, nevertheless be carefully watched as they mostly mark a near outbreak of a more serious Chess editorial brain fever which generally takes hold of the patient, when at last he discovers that however much he may deceive himself and his chief editor, the practical Chess masters of the day stand in his light among the majority of Chess players, especially when some great Match, Tournament or Congress is on the tapis. ”

“ Proceeding, therefore, with the description of the first symptoms and the development of the literary dementia, I have to point out that generally the sufferers are some Chess ignoramuses or mediocrities at the utmost, who have taken it into their poor heads that they could and ought to be authorities on the game all at once without the least preparation. ”

“ Staunton was one of my first opponents in the Literary Steinitz Gambit and an editorial patient whom I had to cure (like yourself) from his journalistic delusions which were caused in the first place: 'Owing to my having in private conversation expressed myself in the strongest terms about his (Staunton's) conduct against Morphy,' though I had never seen the great American Chess hero at that date in 1866; in the second place: Owing to my having committed the crime of defeating in a match the late Professor Anderssen, then undoubtedly the strongest player next to Morphy. ”

“ Yet you know very well that experience is indispensable in he gambit of life as well as in Chess, and as I was 22 years younger and was not aware at the time how crafty and treacherous some persuasive, shystering advocates can be. ”

“ Having traced the general Chess depression to its true source a brief preliminary reference to the cause of the disease among the Chess critics themselves, may not be out of place. It originates from a disorder called excessive egotism, and in some great measure this in turn may be due to the unhealthy state of the moral atmosphere outside of Chess, which fosters such abnormal philosophical growths as Mercenarism and Individualism on the one extreme, and Socialism or Anarchism on the other. ”

“ As a matter of course, he can only win his battle if he skilfully employs the weapons of the strictest honesty and truthfulness, but as the Rubicon of decorum is already crossed as soon as the war begins, the line of demarcation must be left to his discretion in estimating the necessities of the situation according to precedent and established authority. ”

“ You cannot, however, expect to be allowed to befoul with you putrid tongue honorable names, such as those of the members of the Committee of the Sixth American Chess Congress, and at the same time to suck out pecuniary benefits for yourself from their disinterested and generous efforts for the great cause of the game. ”

“ The origin of his distressing malady is an inordinate self-worship which has taken possession of his senses, and an uncontrollable, malicious craving for spiteful revenge when he fancies that his own estimate of his worth and dignity has in any way been questioned. ”

“ There is, therefore, a great defection for a long time in the sympathies of amateurs who are already strongly interested in Chess, and the accession of new students of our delightful pastime is generally stopped by such public noise. ”

“ Once they have conceived this idea, they obtain the editorship of some more or less influential journal by some back-stairs means which would not be accessible to first-rate masters. However, after they are installed into power, and albeit, they either receive a salary or obtain some local influence in consideration for their services, they begin to find out that the greatness which they have all at once acquired has also its great drawbacks. For some inquisitive people will begin to inquire, "Who is he?" or "what is he among Chess players?" ”

“ Unfortunately for himself, his brain was no more in a fit condition for the perception of the fact that I had only acted on principle, and instead of accepting my remedy, he insisted on doctoring himself with that sort of malicious brooding which is called the silence and contempt or the boycotting policy. ”

“ As a matter of course, a great amount of moral courage is required in the conduct of this opening, which places the first player on the defense for the greater part of the time, but if on principle he never deceives himself by trying to deceive his opponents, he will train his mind to the perception of excellent moves, and will come out victorious, though he may not always have hit on the very best play. ”

“ Much opposition has been made, for instance, against a strong contempt without silence medicine, which in most urgent emergencies of danger to one or more patients I have tried with great success on the authority of Goethe, one of the greatest physicians of the human intellect who conveyed the remedy first to a German emperor through the medium of Götz von Berlichingen, in order to cure the former of his haughtiness, and it also had the effect of helping to cure the whole German nation of their idolatry of kings and princes. ”

“ Like other mental afflictions the malady sometimes takes a turn dangerous to the patient as well to the public at large, and it is certainly the duty of the doctor who has such an unfortunate individual under treatment to prevent his doing any harm to himself and others. ”