Wilhelm Steinitz was an Austrian-American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894; some contemporaries and later writers described him as world champion since 1866, when he won a match against Adolf Anderssen. Steinitz lost his title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894 and also lost a re-match in 1897.

Statistical rating systems give Steinitz a rather low ranking among world champions, mainly because he took several long breaks from competitive play. However an analysis based on one of these rating systems shows that he was one of the three most dominant players in the history of the game.