More than this, Prime Ministers and
Lord Chancellors, Liberal and Conservative, come and go but
there is but one first Lord in chess, says Steinitz.
Steinitz was so much gratified with the reminder of mine at
Simpson's, that three of the greatest minds ever known have had
the same initials that he will pardon the little addition joke from
Paternoster Row. The three mighty W.S.'s are Wilhelm Steinitz,
William Shakespeare and Walter Scott. He was not so well
pleased with the addition of the unnecessary missing words
William Sykes.
Steinitz was introduced at a club once as the Champion. "Of
what?" was the reply.
Steinitz has been known to grieve much when he has lost
at chess; at Dundee, for example, in 1866 after his defeat by
De Vere his friends became alarmed at his woe and disappearance.
Again, after his fall to Rosenthal in a game he should have won
at the Criterion in 1883, news were brought that he was on a seat
in St. James' Park quite uncontrollable.
Steinitz is liberally disposed to others in mind and purse. The
following brevities on chess are known to have been much admired
by him, I therefore append them for his artistic eye.
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