Chess is the gymnasium of the mind.

About half of Anderssen's tournament successes came at championships of the different regional German Chess Federations; but these were open to all nationalities and most of them had a few "top ten" or even "top five" competitors. However Morphy returned to the USA in 1859 and soon afterwards announced his retirement from serious chess. It is the only tournament ever organized to commemorate a competitor.

Anderssen is famous even today for his brilliant sacrificial attacking play particularly in the "Immortal Game" (1851) and the "Evergreen Game" (1852). He was a very important figure in the development of chess problems driving forward the transition from the "Old School" of problem composition to the elegance and complexity of modern compositions.