The annotator of the games from London 1899 was an interesting character. Leopold Hoffer was a Hungarian chess enthusiast who made his home in London. At first a protege of the great Steinitz, Hoffer's talents lay in the journalistic rather then playing area, and he succeeded Steinitz as chess editor of The Field and later set up his own magazine Chess Monthly. However, a falling out with his erstwhile mentor led to one of the most bitter disputes of 19th century chess. With Hoffer and the champion Steinitz each hurling scatalogical, scurrilous and scabrous insults at the other with the force of Jovian thunderbolts, this fracas would doubtless have led to the libel courts in modern times.