The 19th and early 20th centuries saw relatively rapid change in the game of chess. It was still a game for an educated minority, but there was a higher European population than ever before, and more people were educated that at any previous time in history. Additionally, chess play moved from the club scene to broader tournaments, resulting in professionalization and famous players. Coinciding with and contributing to the rise of tournament play was the proliferation of chess media, as well as a need for standardization of rules. By the time war broke out in 1914, chess had become an international game much resembling today’s sport.

Increase in Chess Print Media

Thanks to technological advances that enabled quick and easy mechanized printing, the early 1800s saw a major increase in the amount of chess books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspaper columns bring printed and distributed. One notable work was The Morals of Chess by Benjamin Franklin. Though this book was written by Franklin in France and printed in London, it contributed to a rise in chess publication in the United States. Additionally, Peter Pratt published Studies of Chess in 1803, which was run in five more editions before 1825. A third notable work was Easy Introduction to the Game of Chess, written by an anonymous author and published in 1806, which had four more editions by 1820. Clearly the game was on the rise and chess players demanded the greater knowledge provided within these books.

Evolution of Chess Club, Beginning of Tournaments

With a higher population across Europe and with more readily available press outlets, news about and interest in the game spread, causing various clubs to start up, none of which was more influential that the London Chess Club, founded in 1807. (Emerging from this scene was J.H. Sarratt, a schoolteacher, who went by the nickname “The Professor of Chess.”)

Yet as of 1830, there was still only one club in London, and most other fledgling clubs throughout Europe were struggling to increase and sustain membership and patronage. Around this time, due to social change, the increase in publishing, and more efficient transport, there was an increase in chess popularity, a higher level of organization surrounding the game, and greater depth of theory and practice. All this helped clubs finally gain footholds within society, and more people joined.

As a result, several big contests were held, one of them being the 1834 match between Louis-Charles Mahe de La Bourdonnais of France and the Irishman Alexander McDonnell. A McDonnell victory, this contest was given unprecedented attention (for chess) and increased the wide popular appeal of the game within England.

While English chess popularity was unrivalled, chess did begin to made headway in the social appeal in Germany. During the 1830s in Berlin, a group called “Pleiades” developed the Handbuch des Schachspiels, which was published in 1843 and served as the German chess bible for years to come.

Howard Staunton and the First Chess Tournaments

Howard Staunton was a major chess figure in the mid-19th century. An intense, combative personality, Staunton proved to be not only high profile, but also highly influential. His book The Chess-Player’s Handbook (1847) became the standard for English play. His biggest and most significant achievement, however, was organizing the first international chess tournament, held in London in 1851. The tournament attracted players from the United States, Russsia, Hungary, Germany, England, and France.

As the leading chess play of the day, Staunton figured he could organize the event and subsequently win it, ensuring his position atop the game as well as lots of publicity. However, he failed to win the tournament. In fact, after losing his semi-final match, he also lost the consolation match, winding up in fourth place. He contributed his poor performance to having so many other duties in order to pull the tournament off—which might have some validity, as his dedication to organizing the tournament probably took his attention away from strategy and practice—but the bottom line was that he had lost his preeminence. Even despite his personal and/or professional shortcomings, though, something more important had happened: There had been a tournament hosting players from all over the world, and a new winner had been crowned. While there was not yet the concept of a “world champion,” the seed had been planted, and there would be a chess champion of the world soon enough.

More Rules, More Tournaments

Before the London tournament of 1862, there was a large question looming: How does one regulate time during chess matches? In order to speed up play so that tournaments ran more smoothly, it was decided that a player could have two hours for every 24 moves. This rule was first enacted during the 1862 tournament. Additionally, a special chess clock was invented by Thomas Wilson of Manchester, and was first used in London in 1885.

Tournaments were still on the rise, prompting Howard Staunton to draft the Chess Praxis, laying out the rules of the game. The document was adopted by the British Chess Association in 1860, but it didn’t carry any universal weight. There was still no body that had international authority over the rules and regulations of chess.

More Celebrities, More Prestige

During this time, a notable American player named Paul Morphy won several big tournaments in the United States and travelled through Europe playing the best players of the day. That is, the best players of the day minus Howard Staunton. While the possibility of a match with Staunton had instigated Morphy’s Europe excursion, the match never took place. This is lucky for Staunton, who probably would have lost to the young American star.

Tournaments began popping up at a quicker rate between the 1870s and early 1900s. Chess had become more lucrative thanks to these tournaments, which in turn caused the rise of professionalization among chess players. While there were only a few who were truly making their sole income from prize money, a greater number of players were focusing on making chess their primary line of work. Such players include Akiba Rubinstein, Rudolf Spielmann, Aaron Nimzowitsch, Savielly Tartakower, Efin Bogolynbor, and Richard Reti—all of whom were born in the 1890s and came to prominence during in the first twenty years of the 20th century. These men were also partly responsible for the so-called “great leap forward” chess took in the 1920s.

As tournaments were now more widespread and more popular, which had caused a need for more standardized rules as well as a rise in professional players, there also emerged a new concept in the chess world—a player considered to be a “grandmaster.” This term came into popular usage after the St. Petersburg tournament in 1895-96.

Additionally, national championships were common after 1900, undoubtedly where each country’s respective grandmasters faced one another over the chess board. Stemming from this, the world championship proper was established by Wilhelm Steinitz in the late 1880s. Steinitz, who had enjoyed a long career in Europe, had relocated to the United States in 1883. In 1886, he took part in a tournament for “the chess championship of the world” versus Johannes Zukertort. Steinitz won the tournament and not only solidified his status as a grandmaster by also became the first true world champion chess player.

The tournament structure, governed by new standardized rules and frequented by talented celebrity players, had taken hold by the nineteen-teens, and was set up to be completely standardized within the next couple of decades. There was a major halt on chess activity, however, in 1914, when a disturbance broken out, leaving little time for chess play. This disturbance was World War I.

Sources:
Eade, James. Chess for Dummies. New York: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1996
Eales, Richard. Chess: The History of a Game. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985
www.wikipedia.org("History of Chess")