MR. STEINITZ AND THE PROFESSOR

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 57, 17 September 1928, Page 14

MR. STEINITZ AND THE PROFESSOR

William Steinitz, who was ehcf-s champion ot the world for 28 years (ISSO-1S04), was notoriously aggressive in his arguments. The following is one of several neat stories that have been told iii this connection. On one occasion he was discutsing political economy with a distinguished professor in England, anil by-and-by the Malthusian theory became the topic. After the usual arguments, Mr. Steinitz wound up the controversy thu.sly: "It is all nonsense what they say. You tell me a poor man has no right to have a largo family. You say his doing so is not honest—is a positive injury to his country, and to humanity. I will tell you you are wrong, and I'll prove it. My father was a poor man, a very poor man. My father was an honest man, a. very honest man. Well, he had thirteen children, and 1, William Steinitz, the chess champion of the world,. I am the thirteenth!" No wonder the narrator of this incident concludes with the following:— "This was 'playing the king' with a vengeance, and it was checkmate for the professor, and no mistake." Evidently the professor "subsided!"