Return to my Chess pages
Go to
my home page
© Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
Who was the greatest chess player of all time? Fischer? Kasparov? Morphy? Capablanca? Deep Blue? A case can be made that the greatest player, by far, was Louis Eichborn, who died in Germany in 1882, at the age of 70. From 1851 (the year of the great London Tournament that Anderssen won) to 1859 (the year after Anderssen lost his match to Morphy), he played 33 games (that we know of) with Adolf Anderssen, one of the greatest players of all time. They were published in the book, Adolf Anderssen, der Altmeister deutscher Schachspielkunst, by Gottschall in 1912. No other games of Eichborn are known.
So, how did Louis Eichborn do against Adolf Anderssen? Did he win? Well, he won 31 games and two were incomplete. It seems that he did OK. In fact, with a record like that, he would probably have an Elo rating of well over 3000, easily the highest rating ever.
Were any of the games brilliant? Were any of them poor? From playing through these games, I have a suspicion that the games were played rapidly. I also think that there may have been a handicap, that Herr Eichborn would win if the game ended in a draw, as Anderssen avoided trading queens like the plague, and he even chose a couple of obvious losses over repeated positions. It looks like Louis Eichborn was a strong player. But I suspect that he was not the greatest player of all time.
Here is one of the best games: Eichborn-Anderssen, Breslau 1852: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 c3 Nf6 5 d4 exd4 6 e5 d5 7 Bb5 Ne4 8 cxd4 Bb6 9 Bxc6 bxc6 10 0-0 0-0 11 Nc3 f5 12 Kh1 Ba6 13 Ne2 g5 14 a4 g4 15 Nfg1 Qh4 16 a5 (16 g3 +-) 16...Nxf2+ 17 Rxf2 Qxf2 18 axb6 axb6 19 Bh6 Bxe2 20 Rxa8 Rxa8 21 Qc1 Qh4 22 Qxc6 Qd8 23 Qe6+ Kh8 24 Qf7 1-0 (mate soon).
Here is one of the bad games: Eichborn-Anderssen, Breslau 1853: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Bc4 Bc5 5 0-0 d6 6 c3 Bg4 7 Qb3 Bxf3 8 Bxf7+ Kf8 9 Bxg8 Rxg8 10 gxf3 Ne5 11 cxd4 Bxd4 12 f4 Ng4 13 Qh3 Nf6 14 Qf3 Qe7 15 Nd2 g5 16 fxg5 Rxg5+ 17 Kh1 Kg7? 18 Nb3 Nxe4 19 Nxd4 Rf8 20 Bxg5 1-0.