A Study On Emanuel Lasker – The Second World Champion!
The Game gives us a satisfaction that Life denies us. And for the Chess player, the success which crowns his work, the great dispeller of sorrows, is named "combination"
— Emanuel Lasker
Chess has its champions. And the one we will be looking at today, Emanuel Lasker, became a world champion for the longest time, 27 years! We will be looking at this undefeatable player, his opponents that he checkmated, how he became the world champion, and his life.
Enjoy!
On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1868, Emanuel Lasker is born at Neumark Poland. He was very intelligent at a young age, so his parents sent him to Berlin at eleven to study mathematics with his brother. His brother, a chess master, introduced Emanuel to chess, which marked the beginning of his exciting chess journey.
He rapidly grew in chess, and played for a side hustle. He then earned the master title at 20, after winning the Café’s Kaiserhok tournament. After gaining the title, he started to play competitively in places like Amsterdam, Berlin, and notably New York City where he played a rare perfect tournament.
New York 1893 Tournament
He also played many famous chess masters, such as Joseph Blackbrune, Jacques Mieses, and Jackson Stowall. After moving to the US in 1893, he challenged top player, Siegbert Tarrasch. After being declined, he challenged the world champion, Wilhelm Stienitz, who accepted even though he thought he would beat him easily. The championship match started in May 1894, with the high stakes of $2,000. (Worth $495,000 today)
To Steinitz’s surprise, Lasker won his first game, although losing at the second. The match continued until Steinitz went for a week’s break, after Lasker won three games in a row. He returned at the eleventh game, and although Steinitz played better, the match concluded with Lasker winning, 12 – 7. (10 Wins/5 Loses/5 Draws) Lasker became the next world champion.
If you find a good move, look for a better one.
— Emanuel Lasker
During his time as world champion, Lasker had played many matches and tournaments. Although he did beat Steinitz, many believe that he wasn’t supposedly the best chess player, because he didn’t play the top four players. However, Lasker proved them wrong after playing many against the top players.
His first chess match was actually against Frank Marshall but Lasker won all of his games. For 27 years, Lasker won match after match against different masters, until in 1921 when Capablanca beat Lasker for the first time.
Siegbert Tarrasch
After crushing Mashall, Lasker played against Siegbert Tarrasch. Extremally cocky Tarrasch said to Lasker, “Mr. Lasker, I have only three words to say to you: check and mate!”. However, when Laster won 10 ½ - 5 ½, Tarrasch stated that he lost because of the wet weather. Can’t argue with that.
Other than learning not to be so cocky, we can also learn not to be so set on principles. Tarrasch believed that chess has a set of principles, much like the universe had laws of physics. Tarrasch believed that Lasker, who does not follow these principles, is a coffeehouse player who plays better in bars then in serious events.
In summary, Tarrasch lost most of his games, and even in the face of many loses against him, he still blames the weather. Don’t be like Tarrasch. Use stockfish and AI generated roasts instead.
Dawid Janowski
Janowski was not much different than Tarrasch. Janowski was a wild attacker, so Lasker decided to focus on defending his positions. He was so wild, that he leaves his side vulnerable after an early attack, and after Lasker defends, he can take advantage of the vulnerable position and win the game. Lasker rushed him, winning 8 – 2. Enraged by his lost, Janowski played a revenge match, which Lasker win again, 9 ½ - 1 ½.
Janowski didn’t even understand Lasker’s move, saying after the game, “Your homonym plays so stupidly that I cannot even look at the chessboard when he thinks.” Lasker crushed his opponents, but he will face a much better opponent.
Carl Schlecter
Unlike the last two opponents, Carl Schlecter was a much humbler man, who had a chance to win the match. It was a very tense match, with many draws, until at the fifth game when Lasker blundered and lose the game giving Schlecter an extra point. Both sides continue to play well, with more draws, until at the tenth game where Lasker ended winning. The match, as expected, is closed to a draw.
Both sides played well, and the match would’ve been longer, but it was reduced to 10 games instead of 30 games. Lasker was very close to losing his title, but he kept it.
It won’t last forever though.
Jose Capablanca (Final Match)
By now, its 1920, and Lasker had the title for almost 30 years, so finally a champion arose to beat him. Jose Capablanca and Lasker agree to a world champion match, but complications arose, until the match was decided to be in Havana in March 1921. By now Lasker was in his early fifties, and he wanted to retire from competitive chess, so he said even if he did beat Capablanca, he will still give the title.
The games were draws except a game where Lasker blundered and ended up losing. Capablanca won two more games, in which Lasker ended up resigning the whole match. After 27 years, Lasker finally loses the title to Capablanca, the new world champion.
Capablanca had a solid style, which is why there were so many draws. Many say that the match was an “even and fascinating fight” while others were disappointed that Lasker lost.
Having spent 200 hours on the above, the young player, even if he possesses no special talent for chess, is likely to be among those two or three thousand chessplayers [who play on a par with a master]. There are, however, a quarter of a million chessplayers who annually spend no fewer than 200 hours on chess without making any progress. Without going into any further calculations, I can assert with a high degree of certainty that nowadays we achieve only a fraction of what we are capable of achieving.
— Emanuel Lasker
After his match against Capablanca, Lasker retired from competitive chess.
Aside from chess, Lasker was a mathematician. He pursued a degree in math and philosophy at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and then became a lecturer. Lasker introduced the theory of primary decomposition, and had the Laskerian Rings named in his honor. (Rings of Decomposition)
In 1911, a year after the match against Schlecter, he married Martha Cohn.
He’s also an author, publishing Philosophical works such as The Philosophy of the Unattainable. Another interesting book he published is Struggle, which is a theory of competitiveness on various events, or Common Sense in Chess, a book based on the lectures he had given in London.
He also played other board games such as Go, a Chinese strategy game, and invented the board game, Lasca, a variant of draughts. In fact, Lasker played Go so much, that he said, “Had I discovered Go sooner, I would never become World Chess Champion”.
Later in his life in the 1920s, he continued to write books, such as Lasker’s Manual on Chess, Encyclopedia of Games, and the Game of Bridge. Just like chess, he became an expert on the board game Bridge, and reported on newspapers on different matches. He wrote many books, mainly about Go, Chess, or Bridge.
Lasker had to leave Germany in 1933, because Adolf Hitler began to deprive Jews out of many rights. Lasker’s family was invited to the Soviet Union, so they moved to Moscow. After playing Soviet Masters for five years, Lasker’s family moved to the US, due to the political downfall of the Soviet Union.
In the US, he continued to give lectures on bridge and chess, and left chess competitions for good. He also published his last book, The Community of the Future, which was supposedly solutions to political problems.
Lasker’s Incredible life came to an end on January 11, 1941, when he died of a kidney infection, at 72. This was the end of a brilliant man, not just in chess, but in many other things like Bridge, or Go.
Lasker had a great influence to chess, and in other areas. He was undefeatable for 27 years, playing many matches against many masters. Throughout his life, he published works, and taught in lectures. But he most notably impacted competitive chess, and now, chess masters can make money on their chess. He certainly impacted chess for the better…
Thanks for reading! I had to make this blog in a limited time, so I will be covering his style and possibly his openings in another blog. This blog took a lot of time, around eight hours to be exact, and I spent a lot of time improving my writing. And I learned, that good writing, takes a lot of time. But I hope you learn a lot, about Emanuel Lasker’s life.
Comment your thoughts on this blog, and I will see you soon. I hope you enjoyed this blog. : D
