1890-1 World Chess Championship Wilhelm Steinitz (USA) vs. Isidor Gunsberg (UK) New York, USA December 9, 1890 - January 22, 1891 Conditions: Best of 20 Games OR 10 Wins to win. In the event of a 10 points to 10 points tie, play continues until one player has won 10 games. In the event of a 9 wins to 9 wins tie, Steinitz keeps the title.Result: William Steinitz retains the World Championship.
USA, 1890/1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Score Steinitz ½ 1 ½ 0 0 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 10½ Gunsberg ½ 0 ½ 1 1 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 8½
There were three ways to win the match:
1) Scoring 10½ points out of 20.
2) By winning 10 games out of the first 20.
3) If the score was tied 10-10 after 20 games, play continued
until one player had 10 wins.
So, in effect the match format was Best of 20, but if the match were to be tied 10-10, the format would switch to First to Win 10 Games, with a 9 wins to 9 draw clause. Since the match was not tied at 10-10, it can be regarded as a pure Best of 20 match.
# White - Black Locale Date ECO Result 1 Steinitz - Gunsberg New York 12-09-1890 D35 ½-½ 2 Gunsberg - Steinitz New York 12-11-1890 C62 0-1 3 Steinitz - Gunsberg New York 12-13-1890 D31 ½-½ 4 Gunsberg - Steinitz New York 12-15-1890 C50 1-0 5 Steinitz - Gunsberg New York 12-18-1890 D20 0-1 6 Gunsberg - Steinitz New York 12-20-1890 D05 0-1 7 Steinitz - Gunsberg New York 12-22-1890 E51 1-0 8 Gunsberg - Steinitz New York 12-27-1890 C54 ½-½ 9 Steinitz - Gunsberg New York 12-29-1890 D30 ½-½ 10 Gunsberg - Steinitz New York 01-02-1891 C54 0-1 11 Steinitz - Gunsberg New York 01-03-1891 D40 ½-½ 12 Gunsberg - Steinitz New York 01-05-1891 C52 1-0 13 Steinitz - Gunsberg New York 01-07-1891 D37 1-0 14 Gunsberg - Steinitz New York 01-10-1891 C52 ½-½ 15 Steinitz - Gunsberg New York 01-12-1891 E14 ½-½ 16 Gunsberg - Steinitz New York 01-15-1891 C52 1-0 17 Steinitz - Gunsberg New York 01-17-1891 D06 ½-½ 18 Gunsberg - Steinitz New York 01-21-1891 C52 0-1 19 Steinitz - Gunsberg New York 01-22-1891 D40 ½-½