Wilhelm Steinitz

Steinitz came up in the era of all-out attack and became the strongest player in the world by playing that way. Then in 1873 he unveiled a new positional style - patient, strategic, built on small advantages - and spent the next two decades proving it worked. The backlash was fierce enough to earn the name "Ink War," with Steinitz writing prolifically to defend his ideas against critics who thought he'd gone soft. By the early 1890s the argument was over; the new generation accepted his framework as gospel. He was named the first official World Chess Champion in 1886 and held the title until Emanuel Lasker took it in 1894, ending a 32-year unbeaten streak in match play. He died in poverty in 1900, never having learned to manage money, but the game he left behind was fundamentally his.