Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was born in Breslau on July 6th, 1818. He was one of the strongest players of his day and was even crowned unofficial World Champion after his victory in the 1851 London Tournament. In 1858, he lost this honor in a match with Paul Morphy. One year later, however, Morphy was to retire from international chess, and Anderssen was able to regain his reputation as the world's leading player. In 1866 he narrowly lost a match with Wilhelm Steinitz (scoring six wins to his rival's eight, with no draws). In 1870 he scored his final great success by winning the Baden-Baden Tournament ahead of Steinitz and Joseph Henry Blackburne.
He is regarded as the quintessential Romantic, and his sacrificial brilliancies such as The Immortal Game (Anderssen vs Kieseritzky, 1851) and The Evergreen Game (Anderssen vs Dufresne, 1852) have stood the test of time.
Anderssen chess games:
www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=10342Wikipedia about Anderssen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Anderssen