Johannes Hermann Zukertort (Lublin, 7 September, 1842 – London, 20 June 1888) was a Polish-born Prussian chess player, linguist, soldier, and journalist. He became a British citizen in 1878. His encounter with Wilhelm Steinitz is considered to be the first pairing based World Championship match in 1886.

His father was a Jewish Protestant Missionary but Conversion among the Jews was illegal in Poland, which was occupied by Russia. The Zukertort family therefore moved to Prussia. He enrolled at the University of Breslau to study medicine. Later he claimed that he graduated from University but whether he really did that is controversial. He met Adolf Anderssen in Breslau and fell for chess.

Zukertort had a talent for languages and according to some sources, he could speak 14 languages. He was a member of the Prussian Army as a doctor and once was left behind on the battleground because he was believed to be dead. He was honoured for his valour on nine occasions.

He encountered with Adolf Anderssen in Breslau several times. Zukertort defeated Anderssen in 1866, then he was defeated by Anderssen in 1868 (3+1=8, that is, three victories, one tie, and eight defeats). Finally, Zukertort gained a convincing victory over him in 1871 (5-2).

He moved to London in 1872 where he encountered with Wilhelm Steinitz but was defeated badly (1+4=7–).

After that they met once more and Zukertort lost again. At that time there were only a few prestigious tournaments but Zukertort achieved extremely good results in the pairing based matches first in 1871 against Anderssen then in 1881 against Joseph Henry Blackburne (6+5=2-).

He was one of the most significant players of his time. He gained third place in London in 1872 behind Steinitz and Blackburne, then he was first in Cologne and second in Leipzig in 1977.

He tied for first place against Simon Winawer in the Paris International Chess Congress in 1878 then he beat Winawer in the playoff. He was second behind Blackburne in Berlin in 1881, tied for fourth place in Vienna in 1882, first in London in 1883 beating Steinitz with a three point difference.

He won the London International Tournament of 1883, which was the strongest tournament of that time. He achieved 22 points of the 26 maximum while Steinitz could gain 19. As a result of this tournament Steinitz and Zukertort were considered to be the best players in the world and provided a basis for a world champion match between them.

The pairing based match in the first World Chess Championship took place between 11th January and 29th March in 1886. After leading by 4-1 Zukertort lost confidence and four of the five games and finally was defeated 12,5-7,5.

According to an anecdote, Zukertort and Steinitz were both present on a dinner when somebody proposed a toast to the greatest chess player in the world and both of them stood up. The story was probably touched up but demonstrates the rivalry between them.

After his defeat Zukertort’s health deteriorated and his strength in chess weakened significantly. He received seventh place in a London Tournament in 1886 and third place in Nottingham. In the subsequent year he gained 15th place in Frankfurt and lost a pairing based match against Blackburne (1+8=5–). He participated in a London Tournament even in his final year in 1888 and achieved seventh place.

According to many people, his poor physical condition took its toll on his performance and it resulted in his heavy defeat against Steinitz in the 1872 pairing based match. Another reason could be that he was not such a good positional player as Steinitz and that might have been the cause of his defeat.

In the beginning of the 1880s the 1.Nf3 was known as the “Zukertort Opening” (40 years before it started to be referred to as the “Reti Opening”).

According to Chessmetrics historical rating system, he was ranked first in 56 different months between August 1878 and February 1886 and his highest Elo rating is 2798.

Sources: https://hu.wikipedia.org; http://www.chessmetrics.com