a tournament. Gossip was only a minor master, "a mediocre player who figured at or near the bottom of every better than average tourney in which he participated". However, during his career he played tournament games against most of the world's leading players, including World Champions LaskerLasker was World Champion from 1894 to 1921. Kažić 1974, p. 206. and Steinitz;Steinitz was World Champion from 1886 to 1894. Kažić 1974, p. 206; Hooper and Whyld 1992, p. 395. Some consider Steinitz's reign to have begun in 1866, after he won a match against Adolf Anderssen, Golombek 1977, p. 309; Fine 1983, p. 30, or 1872, after he won his first match against Zukertort. Sunnucks 1970, pp. 440–41. World Championship challengers Zukertort,Zukertort lost a World Championship match to Steinitz in 1886. Kažić 1974, pp. 207–08. Tarrasch,Tarrasch lost a World Championship match to Lasker in 1908. Kažić 1974, p. 215. Chigorin,Chigorin lost World Championship matches to Steinitz in 1889 and 1892. Kažić 1974, pp. 209, 211. and Gunsberg;Gunsberg lost a World Championship match to Steinitz in 1890–91. Kažić 1974, p. 210. Louis Paulsen, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, and James Mason, all at some point ranked number 1 in the world by Chessmetrics; Burn, Blackburne, Bird, and Cecil de Vere (all ranked number 2); and Weiss and Wisker (both ranked number 3). Chess books and articles As of 1874, Gossip was the chess editor of The Hornet. In that year, after several years' work, he published his magnum opus, The Chess-Player's Manual—A Complete Guide to Chess. It was "a handsomely produced work with more than 800 of its 900 pages devoted to openings and illustrative games". The book became the subject of biting criticism, largely because Gossip had included 27 illustrative games that he had won against leading players of the day, and only 12 games that he had lost. Steinitz later wrote: Mr Gossip had practiced the unfair ruse of carefully preserving stray skittles games which he had happened to win or draw, generally after many defeats, against masters whose public records stood far above his own, ... thus leading the public to believe that the author stood on a par with them, or was even their superior. According to Diggle, this edition of the book "failed utterly". The harsh reception accorded it embittered Gossip against chess critics for the rest of his life. In 1879, Gossip published Theory of the Chess Openings, a