To determine Morphy's successor, a match was held between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort in New York, St. Louis and New Orleans.  Steinitz won by a score of 12½ - 7½, becoming the 1st World Champion. What makes this match particularly interesting is that they decided that the winner was to be considered officially "World Champion", a title until then inexistent. The match was very exciting, with Zukertort taking a strong lead in the first games, played in New York. However, Steinitz recovered in the next series, played in St. Louis, and in the last one, played in New Orleans, he definitively dominated.