Lasker's worst loss
Submitted by
billwall on Fri, 08/14/2009 at 5:57pm.
On November 26, 1892, future world chess champion (from 1894 to 1921) Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941), age 23, gave a simultaneous exhibiton in Quebec, Canada. There were 18 players. He won 15 games, drew 2 games, and lost one game to Nicholas Macleod, age 22. He didn't just lose. He got checkmated by two queens. Lasker refused to resign when his opponent was up two queens. And it wasn't just an amateur chess player that he could swindle. Nicholas MacLeod (1870-1965) was a child prodigy in chess. He took 1st place in the Canadian chess championship in 1886 (at age 16, the youngest Canadian champion ever), 1887, and 1888. He was the Minnesota champion in 1899. He won the 2nd Western Chess Association (later called the U.S. Open) in 1901. His one bad claim to chess fame was his world record loss of 31 games in one tournament (6th American Chess Congress, New York, in 1889). He did win 6 games and drew one in that event, but took 20th (last) place as a 19 year old. Lasker missed several chances to win this game, then draw the game, and finally allowed his opponent to queen his two pawns and was mated with the two queens. Macleod missed quicker mates, but got the job done.
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