1897

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January 13, 1897

• Liverpool Mercury, etc. Liverpool, Merseyside, England Wednesday, January 13, 1897 - Page 5 — The Chess Championship. — Moscow, Tuesday. — The 17th game in the chess match between Mr. Lasker and Mr. Steinitz was played here yesterday, and not being concluded at the 45th move was postponed to the 14th inst. — Reuter.

February 24, 1897

• The Salt Lake Herald Salt Lake City, Utah Wednesday, February 24, 1897 - Page 4 — Death of William Steinitz — “The death of William Steinitz, the great chess champion, in Moscow, is a sad event. He died in an asylum, a mental wreck. His death under these circumstances explains much of his apparently poor play in the past few years. Devotees of chess were wont to say that he had become “cranky,” and that his persistence in playing some moves of his own invention, after they had been demonstrated to be incorrect, was nothing but pigheadedness. His death explains all.” ★ Read More

February 26, 1897

• The Sentinel Carlisle, Pennsylvania Friday, February 26, 1897 - Page 1 — Dr. Steinitz May Recover. — Moscow, Feb. 26. — The following particulars have been obtained regarding the illness of Dr. Steinitz, the famous chess player. Since he lost his match with Lasker here Dr. Steinitz has shown signs of insanity, and on Jan. 27, through the efforts of the United States consul here, Mr. Adolph Billhardt, he was placed in the university clinic of Professor Korsakoff, where he receives special and gratuitous care. Dr. Steinitz is improving, and his recovery is possible. His life is in no immediate danger. He is suffering from progressive paralysis of the brain. Read More

• The Times-Democrat New Orleans, Louisiana Friday, February 26, 1897 - Page 8 — Lasker Trying to Raise a Fund for Steinitz. — By Associated Press. London. Feb. 26 — Lasker, the chess player, has written a letter to the Standard asking that paper to start a fund in behalf of Dr. Steinitz and offering to contribute ten guineas to the fund.

Lasker Trying to Raise a Fund for Steinitz 26 Feb 1897, Fri The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, Louisiana) Newspapers.com

March 03, 1897

• The Troy Messenger Troy, Alabama Wednesday, March 03, 1897 - Page 4 — Dr. Steinitz May Recover. — He is Receiving the Best of Care In Moscow and Has Lucid Intervals. — Moscow, March 1. — Additional particulars have been obtained regarding the illness of Dr. Steinitz, the famous chess player. Since he lost his match with Lasker here he showed signs of insanity. he continually changed his quarters and was restless and noisy. His trouble reached a violent stage on Jan. 27, when, through the efforts of the United States consul here, Adolph Billhardt, he was placed in the university clinic of Professor Korsakoff, where he is receiving special and gratuitous care. Professor Korsakoff said that Dr. Steinitz is improving and his recovery is possible. He has lucid intervals during which he reads the papers. He is suffering from progressive paralysis of the brain. Read More

March 24, 1897

• The Ottawa Journal Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Wednesday, March 24, 1897 - Page 8 — His Month In An Asylum - Steinitz Tells of His Experience in Moscow. He Sang Out of an Open Window, They Thought he was Crazy and Incarcerated Him—Didn't Know he was the Great Chess Player and Wouldn't Believe Him. Vienna, March 24.— Steinitz, the ex-champion chess player of the world, who, after the tournament in Moscow, was locked up in a Russian lunatic asylum for 30 days, and who recently returned to Vienna, has told his experiences to his friends. Steinitz is a follower of the Kneipp cure, and he carries out Kneipp's prescriptions to the letter. This treatment, he says, has always cured him, for he always had attacks like that in Moscow after every match, whether it was fought successfully or unsuccessfully. This time, he admits, his excitement was greater than it had ever been before, and he got the notion that he could make an important invention if he would but try. A Psychic Telephone. He thought he could succeed in telephoning without any apparatus at all by mere force of will, and so he stood in the middle of a room and talked and sang loudly with the wish that such and such persons should hear him; and by degrees he imagined that he got answers, that those he addressed sang the chorus to his songs. Thus the young girl in charge sometimes found him listening to sounds that she did not hear. Once, he remembers, he even opened the window in January in Moscow and talked and sang, feeling sure that he would be heard in New York if he so willed it. It Looked Like Insanity. The scene at the window had convinced the young secretary that he was mad, and she went to United States Consul Beilhardt and related to him all she had noticed. It was decided to take him to the hospital for the insane founded by a wealthy Moscow citizen, one Morossow, where the doctors would know what to do with him. Finally Steinitz went to the asylum, and there he was detained though he protested vigorously. Domiciled With Madmen. He was taken into a long ward where a number of restless madmen walked and shouted and behaved grotesquely, and the impression upon his overwrought mind was so terrible that he began to feel that he could no longer master his thoughts. He believes that he was delirious during a little more than a day and night. Nobody had called to see him, neither girl not the Consul, and he felt himself forsaken and cut off from the world as effectually as if he had been thrown into a dungeon or fortress. The windows of the ward were opaque and could not be opened. He had been lodged in a room with two madmen. The air was stifling, and at night an opening in the door admitted a brilliant stream of electric light onto his bed, which prevented sleep, and was, perhaps one of the causes why he became delirious. Pounded by a Warder. This made him so furious that he got up and put his hand through the opening, hoping to find a small shutter which he had noticed on the outside, but the warder saw him and pounded at his hand until he withdrew it, and then, reaching through the aperture, gave Steinitz several heavy blows in the face and on the head. This, however, was the only act of violation he suffered during his four weeks' stay. For five days the medical authorities took him for a poor nobody who, in his madness, was trying to make them believe he was Steinitz, the chess champion. But at last Consult Bielhart must have confirmed this, for he was admitted to a separate room, with polite treatment, at his own expense. Not a day passed but he protested vehemently against his detention …” Read More

April 27, 1897

• Altoona Tribune Altoona, Pennsylvania Tuesday, April 27, 1897 - Page 7 — Chess. — “Steinitz is resuming his chess practice. He has recently given several exhibitions of simultaneous play in Vienna, in each case winning a large majority of the games played. This would indicate that he has fully recovered his mental strength. “Lasker is said to have declared before leaving London for the Riviera that he could not play chess for the next six months. He also is reported to have said that he would not play another championship for less than $5,000 a side. During his stay in England Lasker played 152 games in simultaneous exhibitions in six days at Hereford, Brighton and Birmingham. He won 143, lost 2 and 7 were drawn. Read More

June 19, 1897

• The Age Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Saturday, June 19, 1897 - Page 15 — The Reported Death of Steinitz — The reported death of Steinitz, since contradicted, led the “Rochester Post Express” to revive the following anecdotes of the great master's little peculiarities:— … The happiness of “the Bohemian Caesar,” as Steinitz fondly called himself, was not unalloyed. Paul Morphy was his bête noire. He attempted to undermine the pedestal upon which Morphy's glory is everlastingly established. But he did not succeed. If Blackburne makes a brilliant combination, he calls it a “bit of Morphy.” But no one ever heard anybody call a brilliant finish a bit of Steinitz…” Read More

Suspicion Still Surrounds Steinitz 19 Jun 1897, Sat The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) Newspapers.com

August 04, 1897

• The Solomon Sentinel Solomon, Kansas Wednesday, August 04, 1897 - Page 3 — An Unfair Advantage — Dr. Lasker, the great chess player, when in London is in the habit of occasionally visiting a certain restaurant in the city well known to many chess devotees. On one of these occasions, just prior to his departure for St. Petersburg to play Dr. Steinitz for the championship, a fussy old gentleman offered to play him for a box of cigars if he would concede him the odds of a queen. The offer was good-naturedly accepted; and on Lasker's winning he became the recipient of a box of doubtful-looking cigars, which, however, the donor averred were of good quality. On visiting the same restaurant, after easily defeating Steinitz, Lasker happened to meet his late opponent, who asked him what he had thought of the cigars. “First rate!” replied the champion; “in fact, I might almost say they won me the match.” “Indeed! I am delighted to hear it!” returned the old gentleman, much pleased. “Yes,” continued Lasker, with a merry twinkle in his eye, “I gave them all to Steinitz!” — London Answers. Read More