Wilhelm Steinitz: what Wikipedia removed
Wilhelm Steinitz, later William Steinitz, was the first World Chess Champion, a Bohemian-Austrian Jew. The 2020 opening paragraph said he was the target of anti-Semitic abuse and moved to the United States in 1883 to escape it. Today the opening covers only his chess record, and antisemitism appears nowhere in it, though the word survives once in the body. A reader today learns his championship dates, not why he emigrated to America.
The word “antisemitism” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2020. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 1. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| antisemitism | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- An earlier phrasing giving his birth name Wilhelm alongside William, since restated differently in the current opening.
- The passage describing Steinitz as the target of antisemitic abuse who emigrated to the United States to escape it is gone from the opening; a reader no longer learns why he left for America.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 16054490):
File:Steinitz.jpg Wilhelm Steinitz Wilhelm Steinitz ( May 17 , 1836 , Prague , Czech Republic (then Austrian Empire ) - August 12 1900 , New York City , United States ) was an Austrian chess player, and the first official World Champion of chess . Known for his original contributions to chess strategy such as his ideas on positional play, his theories were held in high regard by disparate chess players such as Aron Nimzowitsch , Siegbert Tarrasch , and Emanuel Lasker . Steinitz was world champion from 1886 to 1894 , retaining the title in four matches against Zukertort , Chigorin (two times) and Gunsberg . He lost two matches against Lasker, his successor as world champion. Steinitz adopted …
2025 (revision 1292307453):
Austrian-American chess player (1836–1900) William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz ; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was a Bohemian-Austrian, and later American, chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first World Chess Champion . He was also a highly influential writer and chess theoretician . When discussing chess history from the 1850s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz could be effectively considered the champion from an earlier time, perhaps as early as 1866. Steinitz lost his title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894, and lost a rematch in 1896–97. Statistical rating systems give Steinitz a rather low ranking among world champions, mainly because he took several long breaks …
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
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