School of chess

This style of play was employed by Gioachino Greco, Alessandro Salvio, and other Italian players of the 16th century.

His followers included Bernhard Horwitz, Elijah Williams, Marmaduke Wyvill, and to some degree Adolf Anderssen and Daniel Harrwitz.

Some of the major players of the Romantic era were Adolf Anderssen, Paul Morphy and Henry Blackburne.

The style was effectively ended on the highest level by Wilhelm Steinitz, who, with his more positional approach, defeated many of his contemporaries and ushered in the modern age of chess.

Steinitz, who had engaged in the mid-century Romantic style of play in his youth, began to change his focus to building a strong pawn structure and seeing small advantages to capitalize on rather than sweeping assaults against the enemy king.

He wrote numerous articles in chess publications defending his ideas, and by the 1890s they were embraced by a new generation of young players such as Siegbert Tarrasch and Emanuel Lasker.

By the opening years of the 20th century, chess masters outside of Europe began to appear (previously, Paul Morphy had been the only notable non-European player).

These included the Americans Harry Nelson Pillsbury and Frank Marshall, and later the Cuban Jose Raul Capablanca.

Emanuel Lasker held onto the world championship a record 27 years, although he did not play chess for long periods of time owing to his career as a mathematics professor.

The hypermodern school was founded by Aron Nimzowitsch, Richard Réti, Savielly Tartakower, Gyula Breyer, and Ernst Grünfeld in the 1920s.

Alekhine defeated Capablanca to become the fourth world chess champion, which he retained until his death in 1946 (aside from two years where he lost the title to Max Euwe).

The excessive use of the Queen's Gambit Declined Orthodox Defense in the 1927 championship match brought about an increased acceptance of hypermodern openings, which began to become a staple of competitive chess during the 1930s.

Mikhail Botvinnik was the first truly dominant Soviet grandmaster, having been groomed for the role due to his youth and loyalty to communism.