John William Schulten

Who was John William Schulten?

John William Schulten, also spelled Johann Wilhelm, was a 19th-century chess master from Germany and the United States. 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, Alexandre Deschapelles, Daniel Harrwitz, Bernhard Horwitz, Lionel Kieseritzky, Paul Morphy, Gustav Neumann, Jules Arnous de Rivière, Eugéne Rousseau, Pierre St. Amant, Charles Stanley, Von der Lasa, and Johannes Zukertort—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 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 variation named after him—the Schulten Defense to the Italian Game/Evans Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.O-O b5.