I like a memorial tournament. It’s true that the champions they celebrate may be less skilled than their modern counterparts. That’s to be expected, as players of today stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors. So I tend to picture the world champions as squabbling gods of myth, made vital by their flaws, and memorial tournaments as temples in their honour. Some characters, like the urbane Capablanca or the charismatic Tal, capture the imagination more readily, but they all have a place, as do the demigods such as Chigorin, Keres or Korchnoi, who never reached the summit but are revered in turn.
Usually a memorial event bears a national significance too, such as the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba, or the Chigorin Memorial in Russia. So I was puzzled by the announcement of the Fide Online Steinitz Memorial, which finished last week. Why Steinitz, for an online international blitz event? It turns out that the dates almost overlapped with the first world champion’s birthday (14th May 1836). More to the point, why not? He led an international life — born in Prague in the Austrian Empire, he studied in Vienna and later lived in London before emigrating to New York and becoming a US citizen.
The top seed for the Steinitz Memorial was the 16th world champion, Magnus Carlsen. The contrasts between them are stark: above all, where Steinitz had a taste for theorising, Carlsen is resolutely pragmatic. Steinitz was given to extensive polemical writing; Carlsen fires off the odd acerbic tweet. Steinitz died a pauper, while Carlsen and his team are commercially astute. But like his predecessor, Carlsen distinguishes himself with his unmatched positional understanding, and abundant self-assurance.
He defeats a strong Vietnamese grandmaster in this game, where 32…g5! is the key move.
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