When Steinitz went the hack

While Wilhelm Steinitz is well known as the "Father of Positional Chess", he started his career as a bit of a care free hacker. Adolf Anderssen christened him the "Austrian Morphy" and his style was described as "brilliant but not safe". This all changed towards the end of the 1860's when he began to formulate his theories on positional play, changing his style to "safe but not brilliant".
While this style began to bring him success at the top level, he still had an eye for a sharp combination. Against the top players he may have been solid, but weaker players still gave him chances to show his brilliance. One such game occurred during his tour of Great Britain in 1873. As it was a simul the quality of the opposition was probably not that great, but nonetheless the finishing position is one of the nicer ones I have seen.


Steinitz,William - NN [C30]
GBR tour sim Great Britain, 1873

1. e4 e5 2. f4 Nc6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. fxe5 Nxe4 5. d3 Nc5 6. d4 Na6 7. Bc4 Qe7 8. Nc3 h6 9. O-O g5 10. Nd5 Qd8 11. Nf6+ Ke7 12. Nxg5 hxg5 13. Qh5 Rxh5 14. Ng8+ Ke8 15. Bxf7# 1-0