Romantic chess is a style ofchess popular in the 18th century until its decline in the 1880s. This style of chess emphasizes quick, tactical maneuvers rather than long-term strategic planning. Romantic players consider winning in itself to be secondary to winning with style.[1] The Romantic era of play was followed by the Scientific,Hypermodern and New Dynamism eras.[1][2]
Games during the Romantic era typically consisted of1.e4 openings such as theKing's Gambit,Danish Gambit,Ruy Lopez andItalian Game.Queenside pawn openings were not popular and rarely played.Paul Morphy frequently complained about "dull chess" and criticized theSicilian Defense and queen's pawn openings for leading to this sort of game. Morphy included a stipulation in his matches that at least half the games had to begin with a1.e4 e5 opening.
Despite the Romantic era's reputation for dashing tactical play and combinations,positional play andclosed games were not at all unknown during this time. They were featured prominently at theLondon tournament of 1851, widely considered the first true chess tournament.
TheRomantic era in the arts was roughly analogous to the chess world. The arts were focused on emotional expression more than technical mastery. This would cease towards the end of the 19th century as evolution in the arts (Impressionist music andSymbolist poetry) coincided with Steinitz' emergence as the new stylistic force in the chess world. Some notable chess masters have argued that chess is an art form in addition to a science.[3]
The Romantic era is generally considered to have reached its peak withAlexander McDonnell andLouis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, the two dominant chess players of the 1830s.[citation needed] The 1840s were dominated byHoward Staunton, and other leading players of the era includedAdolf Anderssen,Daniel Harrwitz,Henry Bird,Louis Paulsen, Paul Morphy andJoseph Henry Blackburne. TheImmortal Game, played by Anderssen andLionel Kieseritzky on 21 June 1851 in London—where Anderssen made boldsacrifices to secure victory, giving up bothrooks and a bishop, then hisqueen, and thencheckmating his opponent with his three remainingminor pieces is considered a supreme example of Romantic chess.[4]
The Romantic era is generally considered to have ended with the1873 Vienna tournament whereWilhelm Steinitz popularized positional play and the closed game.[5] This domination ushered in a new age of chess known as the "Modern", or Classical school, which would last until the 1930s whenhypermodernism—thanks toAron Nimzowitsch[6][7]—started becoming popular.
During the 1930s,Nazi Germany co-opted chess as a political tool and to that end circulated propaganda alleging the age of Romantic chess, dominated by dashingAryan players such as Morphy and Anderssen, had been derailed by "cowardly, stingy" positional chess exemplified by Jewish players like Steinitz,Emanuel Lasker and others.[8]
| Outline | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equipment | |||||||||
| History |
| ||||||||
| Rules | |||||||||
| Terms | |||||||||
| Tactics | |||||||||
| Strategy | |||||||||
| Openings |
| ||||||||
| Endgames | |||||||||
| Tournaments |
| ||||||||
| Art and media | |||||||||
| Related | |||||||||
