The Constitution of Chess
A remarkable fact in the history of chess theory is that very much has been written about 'Steinitz's theory' but nobody tells you where to find it. Lasker and Euwe wrote volumes on that theory without so much as a single quotation from Steinitz. Later writers copied Lasker and Euwe, often without ever having read a syllable from Steinitz. In 1978, Australian correspondence grandmaster and chess author Cecil Purdy did delve into the matter and as a result spoke of 'the great Steinitz hoax': he could find very little about that theory in Steinitz’s writings and therefore thought that what Lasker attributed to Steinitz was actually largely Lasker's own invention. Whether that is true remains to be seen, but it is certain that Lasker, and in his footsteps Euwe, made something special out of the lore of Steinitz's ideas. I was reminded of this when watching The History Of Chess: The World Championship, released by Chess.com some months ago. This is a compelling documentary in which the viewer175