For the month of November WCM is featuring a gentleman that currently holds a record for the longest span of time holding on to the World Champion Chess title. Grandmaster Emanuel Lasker held the World title from 1894-1921. A record 27 years, finally yielding it to an up coming chess prodigy by the name of J.R. Capablanca from Havana Cuba.
Emanuel was born on December 24, 1864 in a small town in Poland. As a young boy his parents took note of the boys aptitude for mathematics and at the age of 11 sent him to Berlin to further his studies. While there he stayed with his older brother Berthold who was at that time among the top ten chess players in the world. Berthold taught Emanuel how to play chess and often played at a small cafe known as Cafe' Kaiserhof, where he helped supplement their income by playing chess and card games.
Emanuel was developing a knack for chess and soon was rising in the tournament chess standings. He began by playing in local tournaments and soon was traveling around Europe playing in well known tournament venues.
In 1893 at a tournament held in New York city he played 13 games and achieved a perfect score, one of only a few known in the history of tournament chess.
Even though Emanuel had developed a strong passion for chess he also had become a well know academician for the subjects of mathematics and philosophy. Studying at the University of Berlin he befriended a young man by the name of Albert Einstein, whom later in life would deliver a fond remembrance of Emanuel in a book dedicated in the honor of the great Grandmaster of Chess.
In his life Emanuel was known for many accomplishments. He was an author, publisher, for both chess and mathematics. He was well known for his insistence upon high stakes matches and as a result paved the way for chess to become a professional undertaking rather than just a parlor or cafe' past time.
Emanuel Lasker was the second world champion defeating an aging William Stienitz in 1894. It was billed as the Chess Tournament of the Century with venues in New York , Philadelphia , and Montreal. Tournaments at that time took up to nine months to complete and drew fans from all across the surrounding areas. Stienitz then 54 was said to suffer from insomnia and the young Lasker (24) was said to of overwhelmed his opponent. Of the 19 games played Emanuel won convincingly winning 10, losing 5 and 4 draws. The two Grand masters met later in 1896-1897 for a rematch where Lasker won 10, lost 2, and had 5 draws, retaining his world champion status.
At this particular point in time , the game of chess as we know it was in transition. Up until the twentieth century, the mindset of most of the prominent players of the world were attack oriented in their game . Paul Morphy , William Steinitz and Emanual Lasker among few others developed the idea of strategical positional play and defensive pawn structures, that paved the way for the modern chess play of today.
Emanuel Lasker had a brilliant chess playing career spanning nearly 5 decades and the first world war. His family driven out of Germany with the onslaught of Hitler and his brutality, moved to Russia, where he taught chess and mathematics. With the rise of another (Stalin) he was forced to flee Russia and then moved to the USA.
"Unfortunately Stalin's Great Purge started at about the same time the Laskers arrived in the USSR. In August 1937, Martha and Emanuel Lasker decided to leave the Soviet Union, and they moved, via the Netherlands, to the United States (first Chicago, next New York) in October 1937. In the following year Emanuel Lasker's patron, Krylenko, was purged. Lasker tried to support himself by giving chess and bridge lectures and exhibitions, as he was now too old for serious competition. In 1940 he published his last book, The Community of the Future, in which he proposed solutions for serious political problems, including anti-Semitism and unemployment. He died of a kidney infection in New York on January 11, 1941, at the age of 72, as a charity patient at the Mount Sinai Hospital.He was buried in the Beth Olom Cemetery, Queens, New York. His was survived by his wife Martha and his sister, Mrs. Lotta Hirschberg."
The teachings of this brilliant Grandmaster of Chess continue today. His influence will remain...
To Continue Reading about this brilliant endgame tactician and view part of his story and gain insight into a few of his annotated games, Go to:
To your Chess Playing Success
Terry Ritschard
