John William Schulten (1821–1875) was a 19th-century chess master

Chess master

A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he/she can usually beat chess experts, who themselves typically prevail against most amateurs. Among chess players, the term is often abbreviated to master, the meaning being clear from context....

 from Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. In the 1840s and 1850s, he traveled widely in Europe and the United States to play some of the best chess players in the world — Adolf Anderssen

Adolf Anderssen

Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...

, Alexandre Deschapelles

Alexandre Deschapelles

Alexandre Deschapelles was a French chess player who, between the death of Philidor and the arrival of Louis de la Bourdonnais, was probably the strongest player in the world...

, Daniel Harrwitz

Daniel Harrwitz

Daniel Harrwitz was a Jewish German chess master.Harrwitz was born in Breslau in the Prussian Province of Silesia. He established his reputation in Paris, particularly as a player of blindfold games...

, Bernhard Horwitz

Bernhard Horwitz

Bernhard Horwitz was a German English chess master and chess writer.Horwitz was born in Neustrelitz, and went to school in Berlin, where he studied art. From 1837 to 1843, he was part of a group of German chess players known as "The Pleiades".He moved to London in 1845...

, Lionel Kieseritzky

Lionel Kieseritzky

Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky was a 19th-century chess master, famous primarily for a game he lost against Adolf Anderssen, which because of its brilliance was named "The Immortal Game".-Early life:...

, Paul Morphy

Paul Morphy

Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy...

, Gustav Neumann

Gustav Neumann

Gustav Richard Ludwig Neumann was a German chess master.Neumann was born in Gleiwitz in the Prussian Province of Silesia. In matches he lost to Louis Paulsen at Leipzig 1864, and defeated Celso Golmayo Zúpide , and Simon Winawer at Paris 1867...

, Jules Arnous de Rivière

Jules Arnous de Rivière

Jules Arnous de Rivière was the strongest French chess player from the late 1850s through the late 1870s. He is best known today for playing many games with Paul Morphy when the American champion visited Paris in 1858 and 1863.Born in Nantes to a French father and an English mother as...

, Eugéne Rousseau

Eugéne Rousseau (chess player)

Eugène Rousseau was a French chess master. He was the strongest chess player in New Orleans in the first half of the 1840s. The Rousseau Gambit is named after him....

, Pierre St. Amant

Pierre St. Amant

Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant was a leading French chess master and an editor of the chess periodical Le Palamède...

, Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley (chess player)

Charles Henry Stanley was the first chess champion of the United States. When the first-ever U.S. championship match took place in 1845, Stanley defeated Eugéne Rousseau of New Orleans and thus claimed the title....

, Von der Lasa, and Johannes Zukertort

Johannes Zukertort

Johannes Hermann Zukertort was a leading chess master of German-Polish-Jewish origin. He was one of the leading world players for most of the 1870s and 1880s, and lost to Wilhelm Steinitz in the World Chess Championship 1886, which is generally seen as the first World Chess Championship match, he...

 — losing to most of them. Although he lost matches against Kieseritzky and Morphy, he did beat both of them once. His only win against Morphy was in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in 1857:

1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 e4 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bc4 c6 6. d3 Bb4 7. dxe4 Nxe4 8. Bd2 Bxc3 9. Bxc3 O-O 10. Qh5 Re8 11. O-O-O Nxc3 12. bxc3 Qa5 13. Kb2 g6 14. Qh6 Bg4 15. Nf3 Bxf3 16. gxf3 b5 17. f5 bxc4 18. f6 1-0.

Schulten has a chess opening

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

 variation named after him — the Schulten Defense to the Italian Game

Italian Game

The Italian Game is a family of chess openings beginning with the moves:The game's defining move is the White king's bishop's move to c4 in preparation for an early attack on Black's vulnerable f7-square. As such the game is typified by aggressive play, where Black's best chances are often...

/Evans Gambit

Evans Gambit

The Evans Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the moves:The gambit is named after the Welsh sea Captain William Davies Evans, the first player known to have employed it. The first game with the opening is considered to be Evans - McDonnell, London 1827, although in that game a slightly...

: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.O-O b5.

External links

• C51:Schulten Defense