<Chessical: .... His last chance was to scramble for King safety with <14. a3> and hope he could hold on.>

From 'New-York Daily Tribune', 1890.12.19

Black 3 - Quite in the old style as played already by Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnais and Alexander McDonnell.

White 4 - The above masters invariably played here BxP instead.

White 7 - This I already played against Mikhail Chigorin in a consultation game; the object is not to allow the N to go back to c6, but it is probably better to retreat the B to e2 at once.

White 11 - e4 or f3 were the right moves at this juncture; and, in fact, the move made loses the game by letting too many of the adverse pieces in against the king.

Black 13 - A very fine move, which forces the gain of a pawn.

White 20 - This is a bad move, and Nf3 at once was undoubtedly the proper play.

Black 20 - Also a very fine move

White 21 - Forced, as Black threatened to win a piece by Ne4+, nor could the g pawn advance, as it would be lost by the same sally

Black 23 - Very fine play as White cannot advance the pawn without creating an opening for the adverse rook that would be disastrous for him, and otherwise the whole of White's attack on the K-side is completely stopped.

White 24 - Be3 was now the only defence. The next move draws White into the "mate" net.

After Black's 28th move - As will be seen, the mate is accomplished in a most ingenious manner. At this stage Gunsberg announced mate in five moves.

Apparently Steinitz was suffering from a cold which in them pre-Lemsip days at the age of 54 would have been quite debilitating. This helps explain one of the worse examples of the 'come and get me' using his King as bait ploy he was apt to use.

Often he would do this with a pawn or piece in the bank or a severe positional weakness to exploit after beating back the attack.

In this case he was a pawn down and positionally bust when Guinsberg sacced the Knight. This was one attack that was not going to be beaten back.

So disgusted with himself Steinitz said he would keep playing 1.d4 in the match till he won with it, which he did a few games later.