As I was doing some reading about a chess player (Isidor Arthur Gunsberg), I came across some interesting info that I wanted to share. I personally made up the title but it seemed to fit. As I was reading about Gunsberg the source stated that he b...
Norman Tweed Whitaker (April 9, 1890 in Philadelphia – May 20, 1975 in Phenix City, Alabama) was an International Master ofchess. Although he did not receive his title from FIDE until 1965 (at age 75), he was awarded it based on his earlier play. ...
Less than two years after learning the moves, Blackburne entered the 1862 London International Tournament (the world's first chess round-robinor all-play-all tournament) and defeated Wilhelm Steinitz in their individual game, although Blackburne f...
Joseph Henry Blackburne (December 10, 1841 – September 1, 1924), nicknamed "Black Death", dominated British chess during the latter part of the 19th century. He learned the game at the relatively late age of 18 but quickly became a strong player a...
An intentional stalemate occurred on the 124th move of the fifth game of the 1978 World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi. The game had been a theoretical draw for many moves (Karolyi & Aplin 2007:170), (Griffiths 1...
Now we read more about his chess life than about his being a "spy" (part 2). He represented Cambridge University in the Varsity chess matches of 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932 ( he studied at King's College, Cambridge). He was twice a winner of the...
In February 1940 Alexander arrived at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking centre during World War II. He joined Hut 6, the section tasked with breaking German Army and Air Force Enigma messages. In 1941, he transferred to Hut 8, the correspon...
I have not posted in my blog in quite a while, mostly because I have been actively posting in my chess group (The Chess History Group) and enjoying my friends over in COT OTB. I came across this very interesting Englishman and thought I would shar...
Philipp Stamma (c.1705–1755), a native of Aleppo, Syria, later resident of England and France, was a chess master and a pioneer of modern chess. Stamma was a regular at Slaughter's Coffee House in St. Martin's Lane (London), a center of 18th...
Capablanca has heaped enormous praise on this game, calling it "amonument of magnificent precision." A quintessential game ofRubinstein.
Black Magic? A famous rook and pawn ending that seemed "hopelessly drawn", but was won by Rubinstein. The editor of the tournament book said that if this game had been played 300 years earlier, Rubinstein would have been burned at the stake fo...
Chess heritage He was one of the earliest chess players to take the endgame into account when choosing and playing the opening. He was exceptionally talented in the endgame, particularly in rook endings, where he broke new ground in knowledge. J...
A friend of mine has perked my interest in several different players, one of whom is Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein. The following is just some research that I have found and as you know I like to share what I find. Akiba Kiwel...
Work in other fields Despite the relatively small amount of time Lasker spent working on mathematics, he produced a theorem which, after a further refinement, became one of the foundations of modern algebra. His attempt to create a general...
Influence on chess Lasker founded no school of players who used a similar approach to the game. Max Euwe, world champion 1935-1937 and a prolific writer of chess manuals, said, "It is not possible to learn much from him. One can only stand and w...
Assessment Chess strength and style Lasker is often said to have used a "psychological" method of play in which he considered the subjective qualities of his opponent, in addition to the objective requirements of his position on...
Lasker in his later years In January 1920 Lasker and José Raúl Capablancasigned an agreement to play a world championship match in 1921, noting that Capablanca was not free to play in 1920. Because of the delay...
Recently a friend (Dozy) of mine wrote about the top bloggers on chess.com. His post really got me to thinking about all of the great articles he has written. As a creative writing teacher he is far more qualified than I and...
Academic activities 1894-1918 Despite his superb playing results, chess was not Lasker's only interest. His parents recognized his intellectual talents, especially for mathematics, and sent the adolescent Emanuel to study in Berlin (wher...
Chess 1894-1918 Lasker then challenged reigning World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz to a match for the title. Initially Lasker wanted to play for US $5,000 a side and a match was agreed at stakes of $3,000 a side, but Steinitz agreed to a serie...
Early years Emanuel Lasker was born at Berlinchen in Brandenburg (now Barlinek in Poland), the son of a Jewish cantor. At the age of 11 he was sent to Berlin to study mathematics, where he lived with his brother Berthold, eight years his s...
I recently purchased Lasker's Manual of Chess by Emanuel Lasker. It has since made me interested in the man here is some research I copied from wikepedia. Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German c...
Ok, I admit I put Morphy in the title to garner attention, But John Owen did play and beat Paul Morphy. Morphy is one of my favorite chess players for many reasons but while studying Morphy I find that you meet a lot of other very interesti...
Assessment Playing strength and styleAnderssen was the king of European tournaments from 1851 to early 1878, taking first prize in over half of the events in which he played. His only recorded tournament failures were a 1-game-per-round kno...
1866-1879 By this time tournaments were becoming more frequent, and the general adoption of the round-robin format meant that the occasional lost game was not such a disaster. Anderssen took advantage of these developments to compile a very succe...
