Emanuel Lasker

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Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emanuel Lasker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 January 11, 1941)

was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher
who was World Chess Champion for 27 years (from 1894
to 1921). In his prime Lasker was one of the most dominant
champions, and he is still generally regarded as one of the
strongest players ever.
Emanuel Lasker
His contemporaries used to say that Lasker used a

"psychological" approach to the game, and even that he
sometimes deliberately played inferior moves to confuse
opponents. Recent analysis, however, indicates that he was
ahead of his time and used a more flexible approach than his
contemporaries, which mystified many of them. Lasker knew
contemporary analyses of openings well but disagreed with
many of them. He published chess magazines and five chess
books, but later players and commentators found it difficult to
draw lessons from his methods.
Lasker made contributions to the development of other
games. He was a first-class contract bridge player[1] and
wrote about bridge and other games, including Go and his
own invention, Lasca. His books about games presented a
problem that is still considered notable in the mathematical
analysis of card games. Lasker was also a research
mathematician who was known for his contributions to
commutative algebra, which included proving the primary
decomposition of the ideals of polynomial rings. On the other
hand, his philosophical works and a drama that he coauthored received little attention.
Full name
Emanuel Lasker
Country
Germany
Born
December 24, 1868

Berlinchen, Prussia (now Barlinek,
Poland)
Died
January 11, 1941 (aged 72)

New York City, United States
World
Champion
18941921
Contents
1 Life and career
1.1 Early years 186894
1.2 Chess competition 18941918
1.2.1 Match against Steinitz
1.2.2 Tournament successes
1.2.3 Matches against Marshall and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Lasker
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Tarrasch
1.2.4 Matches against Janowski
1.2.5 Match against Schlechter
1.2.6 Abandoned challenges
1.3 Academic activities 18941918
1.4 Other activities 18941918
1.5 Match against Capablanca
1.6 1921 to end of life
2 Assessment
2.1 Playing strength and style
2.2 Influence on chess
2.3 Work in other fields
3 Friends and relatives
4 Publications
4.1 Chess
4.2 Other games
4.3 Mathematics
4.4 Philosophy
5 In popular culture
5.1 Fiction
5.2 Quotations
5.2.1 By Lasker
5.2.2 About Lasker
6 Notable games
7 Tournament results
8 Match results
9 See also
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
Life and career

Early years 186894
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Emanuel Lasker was born on December 24, 1868 at Berlinchen in Neumark (now Barlinek in Poland), the son of a
Jewish cantor. At the age of eleven he was sent to Berlin to study
mathematics, where he lived with his brother Berthold, eight years his senior,
who taught him how to play chess. According to the website Chessmetrics,
Berthold was among the world's top ten players in the early 1890s.[2] To
supplement their income Emanuel Lasker played chess and card games for
small stakes, especially at the Caf Kaiserhof.[3][4]
Lasker shot up through the chess rankings in 1889, when he won the Caf
Kaiserhof's annual Winter tournament 1888/89 and the Hauptturnier A
("second division" tournament) at the sixth DSB Congress (German Chess
Federation's congress) held in Breslau. Winning the Hauptturnier earned
Lasker the title of "master". The candidates were divided into two groups of
ten. The top four in each group competed in a final. Lasker won his section,
with 2 points more than his nearest rival. However, scores were reset to 0
for the final. With two rounds to go, Lasker trailed the leader, Viennese
amateur von Feierfeil, by 1 points. Lasker won both of his final games,
Lasker as a young man
while von Feierfeil lost in the penultimate round (being mated in 121 moves
after the position was reconstructed incorrectly following an adjournment)
and drew in the last round. The two players were now tied. Lasker won a playoff and garnered the master title.
This enabled him to play in master-level tournaments and thus launched his chess career.[5]
Lasker finished second in an international tournament at Amsterdam, ahead of some well-known masters, including
Isidore Gunsberg (assessed as the second strongest player in the world at that time by Chessmetrics).[3][6][7][8][9]
In 1890 he finished third in Graz, then shared first prize with his brother Berthold in a tournament in Berlin.[7][10] In
spring 1892, he won two tournaments in London, the second and stronger of these without losing a game.[11][12] At
New York 1893, he won all thirteen games,[7][13][14] one of the few times in chess history that a player has
achieved a perfect score in a significant tournament.[15][16][17]
His record in matches was equally impressive: at Berlin in 1890 he drew a short play-off match against his brother
Berthold; and won all his other matches from 1889 to 1893, mostly against top-class opponents: Curt von
Bardeleben (1889; ranked 9th best player in the world by Chessmetrics at that time[18]), Jacques Mieses (1889;
ranked 11th[19]), Henry Edward Bird (1890; then 60 years old; ranked 29th[20]), Berthold Englisch (1890; ranked
18th[21]), Joseph Henry Blackburne (1892, without losing a game; Blackburne was aged 51 then, but still 9th in the
world[22]), Jackson Showalter (189293; 22nd[23]) and Celso Golmayo Zpide (1893; 29th[24]).[9][25]
Chessmetrics calculates that Emanuel Lasker became the world's strongest player in mid-1890,[26] and that he was
in the top ten from the very beginning of his recorded career in 1889.[27]
In 1892 Lasker founded the first of his chess magazines, The London Chess Fortnightly, which was published
from August 15, 1892 to July 30, 1893. In the second quarter of 1893 there was a gap of ten weeks between
issues, allegedly because of problems with the printer.[28] Shortly after its last issue Lasker traveled to the USA,
where he spent the next two years.[29]
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Lasker challenged Siegbert Tarrasch, who had won three consecutive strong international tournaments (Breslau
1889, Manchester 1890, and Dresden 1892), to a match. Tarrasch haughtily declined, stating that Lasker should
first prove his mettle by attempting to win one or two major international events.[30]
Chess competition 18941918

Match against Steinitz
Wilhelm Steinitz, whom Lasker

beat in World Championship
matches in 1894 and 1896
Rebuffed by
Tarrasch, Lasker
challenged the
reigning World
Champion Wilhelm
Steinitz to a match
for the title.[30]
The players and tournament officials at the New
Initially Lasker
York 1893 tournament
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
series of reductions when Lasker found it difficult to raise the money. The
final figure was $2,000, which was less than for some of Steinitz' earlier
matches (the final combined stake of $4,000 would be worth over
$495,000 at 2006 values[31]). Although this was publicly praised as an act

of sportsmanship on Steinitz' part,[14] Steinitz may have desperately needed
the money.[32] The match was played in 1894, at venues in New York,
Philadelphia, and Montreal. Steinitz had previously declared he would win without doubt, so it came as a shock
when Lasker won the first game. Steinitz responded by winning the second, and maintained the balance through the
sixth. However, Lasker won all the games from the seventh to the eleventh, and Steinitz asked for a week's rest.
When the match resumed, Steinitz looked in better shape and won the 13th and 14th games. Lasker struck back in
the 15th and 16th, and Steinitz did not compensate for his losses in the middle of the match. Hence Lasker won
convincingly with ten wins, five losses and four draws.[33][34][35] Lasker thus became the second formally
recognized World Chess Champion, and confirmed his title by beating Steinitz even more convincingly in their rematch in 189697 (ten wins, five draws, and two losses).[9][36]
Tournament successes
Influential players and journalists belittled the 1894 match both before and after it took place. Lasker's difficulty in
getting backing may have been caused by hostile pre-match comments from Gunsberg and Leopold Hoffer,[14]
who had long been a bitter enemy of Steinitz.[37] One of the complaints was that Lasker had never played the other
two members of the top four, Siegbert Tarrasch and Mikhail Chigorin[14] although Tarrasch had rejected a
challenge from Lasker in 1892, publicly telling him to go and win an international tournament first.[28][38] After the
match some commentators, notably Tarrasch, said Lasker had won mainly because Steinitz was old (58 in
1894).[3][39]
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Emanuel Lasker answered these criticisms by creating an even more impressive playing record. Before World War
I broke out his most serious "setbacks" were third place at Hastings 1895 (where he may have been suffering from
the after-effects of typhoid fever[3]), a tie for second at Cambridge Springs 1904, and a tie for first at the Chigorin
Memorial in St Petersburg 1909.[4] He won first prizes at very strong tournaments in St Petersburg (189596,
Quadrangular), Nuremberg (1896), London (1899), Paris (1900) and St Petersburg (1914), where he overcame
a 1-point deficit to finish ahead of the rising stars, Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, who later became the
next two World Champions.[7][25][40][41][42] For decades chess writers have reported that Tsar Nicholas II of
Russia conferred the title of "Grandmaster of Chess" upon each of the five finalists at St Petersburg 1914 (Lasker,
Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall), but chess historian
Edward Winter has questioned this, stating that the earliest known
sources supporting this story were published in 1940 and
1942.[43][44][45]
Matches against Marshall and Tarrasch
Lasker's match record was as impressive between his 189697 re-match
with Steinitz and 1914: he won all but one of his normal matches, and
three of those were convincing defenses of his title. He first faced
Marshall in the World Chess Championship 1907, when despite his
aggressive style, Marshall could not win a single game, losing eight and
drawing seven (final score: 113).[46]
Sketch of Lasker, c. 1894
He then played Tarrasch in the World Chess Championship 1908, first at

Dsseldorf then at Munich. Tarrasch firmly believed the game of chess
was governed by a precise set of principles.[46] For him the strength of a chess move was in its logic, not in its
efficiency. Because of his stubborn principles he considered Lasker as a coffeehouse player who won his games
only thanks to dubious tricks, while Lasker mocked the arrogance of Tarrasch who, in his opinion, shone more in
salons than at the chessboard. At the opening ceremony, Tarrasch refused to talk to Lasker, only saying: "Mr.
Lasker, I have only three words to say to you: check and mate!"[47][48]
"Tarrasch vs Lasker, World Ch. 1908" (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1241474).
a
1
a
Lasker
gave a
brilliant
answer
on the
Position after 19.Qxa7
chessboard, winning four of the first five games, and playing a type of chess Tarrasch could not understand. For
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example, in the second game after 19 moves arose a situation (see diagram at left) in which Lasker was a pawn
down, with a bad bishop and doubled pawns. At this point it appeared Tarrasch was winning, but 20 moves later
he was forced to resign.[49] Lasker eventually won by 105 (eight wins, five draws, and three losses). Tarrasch
claimed the wet weather was the cause of his defeat.[49]
Matches against Janowski
In 1909 Lasker drew a short match (two wins, two losses) against Dawid Janowski, an all-out attacking Polish
expatriate. Several months later they played a longer match in Paris, and chess historians still debate whether this
was for the World Chess Championship.[50] Understanding Janowski's style, Lasker chose to defend solidly so that
Janowski unleashed his attacks too soon and left himself vulnerable. Lasker easily won the match 82 (seven wins,
two draws, one loss).[51] This victory was convincing for everyone but Janowski, who asked for a revenge match.
Lasker accepted and they played a World Chess Championship match in Berlin in NovemberDecember 1910.
Lasker crushed his opponent, winning 91 (eight wins, three draws, no losses).[52] Janowski did not
understand Lasker's moves, and after his first three losses he declared to Edward Lasker, "Your homonym plays so
stupidly that I cannot even look at the chessboard when he thinks. I am afraid I will not do anything good in this
match."[51]
Match against Schlechter
Between his two matches against Janowski, Lasker arranged another World
Chess Championship in JanuaryFebruary 1910 against Carl Schlechter.
Schlechter was a modest gentleman, who was generally unlikely to win the
major chess tournaments by his peaceful inclination, his lack of
aggressiveness and his willingness to accept most draw offers from his
opponents (about 80% of his games finished by a draw).[53] The conditions
of the match against Lasker are still debated among chess historians, but it
seems Schlechter accepted to play under very unfavourable conditions,
notably that he would need to finish two points ahead of Lasker to be
declared the winner of the match, and he would need to win a revenge match
to be declared World Champion.[53] The match was originally meant to
consist of 30 games, but when it became obvious that there were insufficient
funds (Lasker demanded a fee of 1,000 marks per game played), the number
of games was reduced to ten, making the margin of two points all the more
difficult.[29]
Schlechter would have taken

Lasker's world title if he had won
the last game of their 1910
match.
At the beginning, Lasker tried to attack but Schlechter had no difficulty

defending, so that the first four games finished in draws. In the fifth game
Lasker had a big advantage, but committed a blunder that cost him the game.
Hence at the middle of the match Schlechter was one point ahead. The next four games were drawn, despite fierce
play from both players. In the sixth Schlechter managed to draw a game being a pawn down. In the seventh Lasker
nearly lost because of a beautiful exchange sacrifice from Schlechter. In the ninth only a blunder from Lasker
allowed Schlechter to draw a lost ending. The score before the last game was thus 54 for Schlechter. In the tenth
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game Schlechter tried to win tactically and took a big advantage, but he missed a clear win at the 35th move,
continued to take increasing risks and finished by losing.[54] Hence the match was a draw and Lasker remained
World Champion.
Abandoned challenges
In 1911 Lasker received a challenge for a world title match against the rising star Jos Ral Capablanca. Lasker
was unwilling to play the traditional "first to win ten games" type of match in the semi-tropical conditions of Havana,
especially as drawn games were becoming more frequent and the match might last for over six months. He
therefore made a counter-proposal: if neither player had a lead of at least two games by the end of the match, it
should be considered a draw; the match should be limited to the best of thirty games, counting draws; except that if
either player won six games and led by at least two games before thirty games were completed, he should be
declared the winner; the champion should decide the venue and stakes, and should have the exclusive right to
publish the games; the challenger should deposit a forfeit of US $2,000 (equivalent to over $194,000 in 2006
values[55]); the time limit should be twelve moves per hour; play should be limited to two sessions of 2 hours each
per day, five days a week. Capablanca objected to the time limit, the short playing times, the thirty-game limit, and
especially the requirement that he must win by two games to claim the title, which he regarded as unfair. Lasker
took offence at the terms in which Capablanca criticized the two-game lead condition and broke off negotiations,
and until 1914 Lasker and Capablanca were not on speaking terms. However, at the 1914 St. Petersburg
tournament, Capablanca proposed a set of rules for the conduct of World Championship matches, which were
accepted by all the leading players, including Lasker.[56]
Late in 1912 Lasker entered into negotiations for a world title match with Akiba Rubinstein, whose tournament
record for the previous few years had been on a par with Lasker's and a little ahead of Capablanca's.[57] The two
players agreed to play a match if Rubinstein could raise the funds, but Rubinstein had few rich friends to back him
and the match was never played. The start of World War I put an end to hopes that Lasker would play either
Rubinstein or Capablanca for the World Championship in the near future.[58][59] Throughout World War I (1914
18) Lasker played in only two serious chess events. He convincingly won (5) a non-title match against
Tarrasch in 1916.[60] In SeptemberOctober 1918, shortly before the armistice, he won a quadrangular (fourplayer) tournament, half a point ahead of Rubinstein.[61]
Academic activities 18941918

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 (where he found he also had
a talent for chess). Lasker gained his abitur (high school graduation certificate) at Landsberg an der Warthe, now a
Polish town named Gorzw Wielkopolski but then part of Prussia. He then studied mathematics and philosophy at
the universities in Berlin, Gttingen and Heidelberg.[62]
In 1895 Lasker published two mathematical articles in Nature.[63] On the advice of David Hilbert he registered for
doctoral studies at Erlangen during 190002.[62] In 1901 he presented his doctoral thesis ber Reihen auf der
Convergenzgrenze ("On Series at Convergence Boundaries") at Erlangen and in the same year it was published by
the Royal Society.[64][65] He was awarded a doctorate in mathematics in 1902.[62] His most significant
mathematical article, in 1905, published a theorem of which Emmy Noether developed a more generalized form,
which is now regarded as of fundamental importance to modern algebra and algebraic geometry.[66][62]
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Lasker held short-term positions as a mathematics lecturer at Tulane University in New Orleans (1893) and
Victoria University in Manchester (1901; Victoria University was one of the "parents" of the current University of
Manchester).[62] However, he was unable to secure a longer-term position, and pursued his scholarly interests
independently.[67]
In 1906 Lasker published a booklet titled Kampf (Struggle),[68] in which he attempted to create a general theory
of all competitive activities, including chess, business and war. He produced two other books which are generally
categorized as philosophy, Das Begreifen der Welt (Comprehending the World; 1913) and Die Philosophie des
Unvollendbar (sic; The Philosophy of the Unattainable; 1918).[62]
Other activities 18941918

In 189697 Lasker published his book Common Sense in Chess, based on
lectures he had given in London in 1895.[69]
In 1903, Lasker played in Ostend against Mikhail Chigorin, a six-game
match that was sponsored by the wealthy lawyer and industrialist Isaac Rice
in order to test the Rice Gambit.[70] Lasker narrowly lost the match. Three
years later Lasker became secretary of the Rice Gambit Association,
founded by Rice in order to promote the Rice Gambit,[29] and in 1907
Lasker quoted with approval Rice's views on the convergence of chess and
military strategy.[71]
In November 1904, Lasker founded Lasker's Chess Magazine, which ran
until 1909.[72]
For a short time in 1906 Emanuel Lasker was interested in the strategy game
Go, but soon returned to chess. He was introduced to the game by his
namesake Edward Lasker, who wrote a successful book Go and Go-Moku
in 1934.[73]
David Hilbert encouraged Lasker

to obtain a Ph.D in mathematics.
At the age of 42, in July 1911, Lasker married Martha Cohn (ne Bamberger), a rich widow who was a year older
than Lasker and already a grandmother. They lived in Berlin.[29][74][75]
Martha Cohn wrote popular stories under the pseudonym "L. Marco".[67][76]
During World War I, Lasker invested all of his savings in German war bonds. Since Germany lost the war, Lasker
lost all his money. During the war, he wrote a book which claimed that civilization would be in danger if Germany
lost the war.[29]
Match against Capablanca

In January 1920 Lasker and Jos Ral Capablanca signed an agreement to play a World Championship match in
1921, noting that Capablanca was not free to play in 1920. Because of the delay, Lasker insisted on a final clause
that allowed him to play anyone else for the championship in 1920, that nullified the contract with Capablanca if
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Lasker lost a title match in 1920, and that stipulated that if Lasker resigned
the title Capablanca should become World Champion. Lasker had
previously included in his agreement before World War I to play Akiba
Rubinstein for the title a similar clause that if he resigned the title, it should
Rice Gambit
a
become Rubinstein's.[77]
A report in the American Chess Bulletin (JulyAugust 1920 issue) said

that Lasker had resigned the world title in favor of Capablanca because
the conditions of the match were unpopular in the chess world. The
American Chess Bulletin speculated that the conditions were not
sufficiently unpopular to warrant resignation of the title, and that Lasker's
real concern was that there was not enough financial backing to justify his
devoting nine months to the match.[77] When Lasker resigned the title in
favor of Capablanca he was unaware that enthusiasts in Havana had just
raised $20,000 to fund the match provided it was played there. When
Capablanca learned of Lasker's resignation he went to the Netherlands,
where Lasker was living at the time, to inform him that Havana would
finance the match. In August 1920 Lasker agreed to play in Havana, but
insisted that he was the challenger as Capablanca was now the champion.
Capablanca signed an agreement that accepted this point, and soon
afterwards published a letter confirming this. Lasker also stated that, if he
beat Capablanca, he would resign the title so that younger masters could
compete for it.[77]
1
a
Position after 1.e4 e5 2.f4

exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.h4 g4 5.Ne5
Nf6 6.Bc4 d5 7.exd5 Bd6
8.0-0
White sacrifices the knight on e5 in
order to get his king to safety and
enable a rook to join the attack
against the under-developed black
position.
The match was played in MarchApril 1921. After four draws, the fifth game saw Lasker blunder with Black in an
equal ending. Capablanca's solid style allowed him to easily draw the next four games, without taking any risks. In
the tenth game, Lasker as White played a position with an isolated queen pawn but failed to create the necessary
activity and Capablanca reached a superior ending, which he duly won. The eleventh and fourteenth games were
also won by Capablanca, and Lasker resigned the match.[78]
Reuben Fine and Harry Golombek attributed this to Lasker's being in mysteriously poor form.[4][79] On the other
hand Vladimir Kramnik thought that Lasker played quite well and the match was an "even and fascinating fight" until
Lasker blundered in the last game, and explained that Capablanca was twenty years younger, a slightly stronger
player, and had more recent competitive practice.[80]
1921 to end of life

By this time Lasker was nearly 53 years old, and he never played another serious match;[60][81] his only other
match was a short exhibition against Frank James Marshall in 1940, which Lasker lost. After winning the New
York 1924 chess tournament (1 points ahead of Capablanca) and finishing second at Moscow in 1925 (1
points behind Efim Bogoljubow, point ahead of Capablanca),[82] he effectively retired from serious chess.[4]
During the Moscow 1925 chess tournament, Emanuel Lasker received a telegram informing him that the drama
written by himself and his brother Berthold, Vom Menschen die Geschichte ("History of Mankind"), had been
accepted for performance at the Lessing theatre in Berlin. Emanuel Lasker was so distracted by this news that he
lost badly to Carlos Torre the same day.[83] The play, however, was not a success.[67]
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In 1926 Lasker wrote Lehrbuch des Schachspiels, which he re-wrote in English in 1927 as Lasker's Manual of
Chess.[84] He also wrote books on other games of mental skill: Encyclopedia of Games (1929) and Das
verstndige Kartenspiel (means "Sensible Card Play"; 1929; English translation in the same year), both of which
posed a problem in the mathematical analysis of card games;[85] Brettspiele der Vlker ("Board Games of the
Nations"; 1931), which includes 30 pages about Go and a section about
a game he had invented in 1911, Lasca.[86]
In 1930, Lasker was a special correspondent for Dutch and German
newspapers[87] reporting on the Culbertson-Buller bridge match during
which he became a registered teacher of the Culbertson system.[87] He
became an expert bridge player,[1] representing Germany at international
events in the early 1930s,[29][34] and wrote Das Bridgespiel ("The Game
of Bridge") in 1931.[88]
In October 1928 Emanuel Lasker's brother Berthold died.[29][89]
In spring 1933 Adolf Hitler started a campaign of discrimination and
intimidation against Jews, depriving them of their property and citizenship.
Emanuel Lasker and his brother
Lasker and his wife Martha, who were both Jewish, were forced to leave
Berthold Lasker in 1907
[90][91]
Germany in the same year.
After a short stay in England, in 1935
they were invited to live in the USSR by Nikolai Krylenko, the Commissar of Justice who was responsible for the
Moscow show trials and, in his other capacity as Sports Minister, was an enthusiastic supporter of chess.[67] In the
USSR, Lasker renounced his German citizenship and received Soviet citizenship.[92] He took permanent residence
in Moscow, and was given a post at Moscow's Institute for Mathematics[67] and a post of trainer of the USSR
national team.[93] Lasker returned to competitive chess to make some money, finishing fifth in Zrich 1934 and third
in Moscow 1935 (undefeated, point behind Mikhail Botvinnik and Salo Flohr; ahead of Capablanca, Rudolf
Spielmann and several Soviet masters), sixth in Moscow 1936 and seventh equal in Nottingham 1936.[94] His
performance in Moscow 1935 at age 66 was hailed as "a biological miracle."[95]
Joseph 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.[96] 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.[29][67] 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.[67] 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.[29] He was buried in the Beth Olom Cemetery, Queens, New York.[97] He
was survived by his wife Martha and his sister, Mrs. Lotta Hirschberg.[98][99]
Assessment
Playing strength and style
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Lasker was considered to have 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 the board. Richard Rti published a
lengthy analysis of Lasker's play in which he concluded that Lasker deliberately played inferior moves that he knew
would make his opponent uncomfortable.[100] W. H. K. Pollock commented, "It is no easy matter to reply
correctly to Lasker's bad moves."[101]
Lasker himself denied the claim that he deliberately played bad moves, and most modern writers agree. According
to Grandmaster Andrew Soltis and International Master John L. Watson, the features that made his play mysterious
to contemporaries now appear regularly in modern play: the g2-g4 "Spike" attack against the Dragon Sicilian;
sacrifices to gain positional advantage; playing the "practical" move rather than trying to find the best move;
counterattacking and complicating the game before a disadvantage became serious.[102][103] Former World
Champion Vladimir Kramnik said, "He realized that different types of advantage could be interchangeable: tactical
edge could be converted into strategic advantage and vice versa", which mystified contemporaries who were just
becoming used to the theories of Steinitz as codified by Siegbert Tarrasch.[80]
Max Euwe opined that the real reason behind Lasker's success was his "exceptional defensive technique" and that
"almost all there is to say about defensive chess can be demonstrated by examples from the games of Steinitz and
Lasker", with the former exemplifying passive defence and the latter an active defence.[104]
The famous win against Jos Ral Capablanca at St. Petersburg in 1914, which Lasker needed in order to retain
any chance of catching up with Capablanca, is sometimes offered as evidence of his "psychological" approach.
Reuben Fine describes Lasker's choice of opening, the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez, as "innocuous but
psychologically potent".[4] However, an analysis of Lasker's use of this variation throughout his career concludes
that he had excellent results with it as White against top-class opponents, and sometimes used it in "must-win"
situations.[105] Ludk Pachman writes that Lasker's choice presented his opponent with a dilemma: with only a
point lead, Capablanca would have wanted to play safe; but the Exchange Variation's pawn structure gives
White an endgame advantage, and Black must use his bishop pair aggressively in the middle game to nullify this.[106]
In Kramnik's opinion, Lasker's play in this game demonstrated deep positional understanding, rather than
psychology.[80]
Fine reckoned Lasker paid little attention to the openings,[4] but Capablanca thought Lasker knew the openings
very well but disagreed with a lot of contemporary opening analysis. In fact before the 1894 world title match
Lasker studied the openings thoroughly, especially Steinitz' favorite lines. In Capablanca's opinion, no player
surpassed Lasker in the ability to assess a position quickly and accurately, in terms of who had the better prospects
of winning and what strategy each side should adopt.[107] Capablanca also wrote that Lasker was so adaptable that
he played in no definite style, and that he was both a tenacious defender and a very efficient finisher of his own
attacks.[108]
He did everything at a high level. However, he was the first great endgame player, and instead of using his epic
tactical skills solely for mating schemes, he used them for attack and, most important, for defense. In a way, he was
the first universal player, which made him very odd indeed for those times. Like all great players, Lasker could play
any type of position; however, the classic course of a Lasker game was to concede some small concession to an
opponent, exchange off either one or two minor pieces and then play a game of manoeuvre where he did not
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necessarily stand better but in which he could keep the position balanced. When his opponent could not maintain
the balance, either by over-pressing or by playing too passively, Lasker would have them. Although famed for his
defence, Lasker was equally brutal in his treatment of opponents who overpressed or played passively.[109]
Lasker followed Steinitz principles, and both demonstrated a completely different chess paradigm than the
romantic mentality before them. Thanks to Steinitz and Lasker, positional players gradually became common
(Tarrasch, Schlechter, and Rubinstein stand out.) But, while Steinitz created a new school of chess thought,
Laskers talents were far harder for the masses to grasp; hence there was no Lasker school.[110]
In addition to his enormous chess skill, Lasker was said to have an excellent competitive temperament: his rival
Siegbert Tarrasch once said, "Lasker occasionally loses a game, but he never loses his head."[4] Lasker enjoyed the
need to adapt to varying styles and to the shifting fortunes of tournaments.[3] Although very strong in matches, he
was even stronger in tournaments. For over twenty years, he always finished ahead of the younger Capablanca: at
St. Petersburg 1914, New York 1924, Moscow 1925, and Moscow 1935.[111] Only in 1936 (15 years after their
match), when Lasker was 67, did Capablanca finish ahead of him.[112]
In 1964, Chessworld magazine published an article in which future World Champion Bobby Fischer listed the ten
greatest players in history.[113] Fischer did not include Lasker in the list, deriding him as a "coffee-house player
[who] knew nothing about openings and didn't understand positional chess".[114] In a poll of the world's leading
players taken some time after Fischer's list appeared, Tal, Korchnoi, and Robert Byrne all said that Lasker was the
greatest player ever.[115] Both Pal Benko and Byrne stated that Fischer later reconsidered and said that Lasker
was a great player.[116][117]
Statistical ranking systems place Lasker high among the greatest players of all time. The book Warriors of the
Mind places him sixth, behind Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Fischer, Mikhail Botvinnik and Capablanca.[118]
In his 1978 book The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present, Arpad Elo gave retrospective ratings to players
based on their performance over the best five-year span of their career. He concluded that Lasker was the joint
second strongest player of those surveyed (tied with Botvinnik and behind Capablanca).[119] The most up-to-date
system, Chessmetrics, is rather sensitive to the length of the periods being compared, and ranks Lasker between
fifth and second strongest of all time for peak periods ranging in length from one to twenty years.[120] Its author, the
statistician Jeff Sonas, concluded that only Kasparov and Karpov surpassed Lasker's long-term dominance of the
game.[121] By Chessmetrics' reckoning, Lasker was the number 1 player in 292 different monthsa total of over
24 years. His first No. 1 rank was in June 1890, and his last in December 1926a span of 36 years.[122]
Chessmetrics also considers him the strongest 67-year-old in history: in December 1935, at age 67 years and 0
months, his rating was 2691 (number 7 in the world), well above second-place Viktor Korchnoi's rating at that age
(2660, number 39 in the world, in March 1998).[123]
Influence on chess
Lasker founded no school of players who played in a similar style.[4] Max Euwe, World Champion 193537 and a
prolific writer of chess manuals, who had a lifetime 03 score against Lasker,[124] said, "It is not possible to learn
much from him. One can only stand and wonder."[125] However, Lasker's pragmatic, combative approach had a
great influence on Soviet players like Mikhail Tal and Viktor Korchnoi.[126]
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There are several "Lasker Variations" in the chess openings, including Lasker's Defense to the Queen's Gambit,
Lasker's Defense to the Evans Gambit (which effectively ended the use of this gambit in tournament play until a
revival in the 1990s),[127] and the Lasker Variation in the McCutcheon Variation of the French Defense.[128]
One of Lasker's most famous games is LaskerBauer, Amsterdam 1889, in which he sacrificed both bishops in a
maneuver later repeated in a number of games. Similar sacrifices had already
been played by Cecil Valentine De Vere and John Owen, but these were
not in major events and Lasker probably had not seen them.[125]
Lasker was shocked by the poverty in which Wilhelm Steinitz died and did
not intend to die in similar circumstances.[129] He became notorious for
demanding high fees for playing matches and tournaments, and he argued
that players should own the copyright in their games rather than let publishers
get all the profits.[3][130] These demands initially angered editors and other
players, but helped to pave the way for the rise of full-time chess
professionals who earn most of their living from playing, writing and
teaching.[3] Copyright in chess games had been contentious at least as far
back as the mid-1840s,[131] and Steinitz and Lasker vigorously asserted that
players should own the copyright and wrote copyright clauses into their
match contracts.[132] However, Lasker's demands that challengers should
Lasker at home in Berlin, in 1933
raise large purses prevented or delayed some eagerly awaited World
Championship matchesfor example Frank James Marshall challenged him
in 1904 to a match for the World Championship but could not raise the stakes demanded by Lasker until
1907.[58][62] This problem continued throughout the reign of his successor Capablanca.[133][134]
Some of the controversial conditions that Lasker insisted on for championship matches led Capablanca to attempt
twice (1914 and 1922) to publish rules for such matches, to which other top players readily agreed.[56][135]
Work in other fields

Lasker was also a mathematician. In his 1905 article on commutative algebra, Lasker introduced the theory of
primary decomposition of ideals, which has influence in the theory of Noetherian rings.[136] Rings having the
primary decomposition property are called "Laskerian rings" in his honor.[62][137]
His attempt to create a general theory of all competitive activities were followed by more consistent efforts from
von Neumann on game theory,[138] and his later writings about card games presented a significant issue in the
mathematical analysis of card games.[85]
However, his dramatic and philosophical works have never been highly regarded.[67]
Friends and relatives
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Lasker was a good friend of Albert Einstein, who wrote the introduction to the posthumous biography Emanuel
Lasker, The Life of a Chess Master from Dr. Jacques Hannak (1952).[139] In this preface Einstein express his
satisfaction at having met Lasker, writing:
Emanuel Lasker was undoubtedly one of the most interesting people I came to know in my later
years. We must be thankful to those who have penned the story of his life for this and succeeding
generations. For there are few men who have had a warm interest in all the great human problems and
at the same time kept their personality so uniquely independent.
Poetess Else Lasker-Schler was his sister-in-law. Edward Lasker, born in Kempen (Kpno), Greater Poland
(then Prussia), the German-American chess master, engineer, and author, claimed that he was distantly related to
Emanuel Lasker.[140][141] They both played in the great New York 1924 chess tournament.[142]
Publications
Chess
The London Chess Fortnightly, 189293[28]
Common Sense in Chess, 1896 (an abstract of 12 lectures delivered to a
London audience in 1895)
Lasker's How to Play Chess: An Elementary Text Book for Beginners,
Which Teaches Chess By a New, Easy and Comprehensive Method, 1900
Lasker's Chess Magazine, OCLC 5002324
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5002324), 190407.[29]
The International Chess Congress, St. Petersburg, 1909, 1910
Lasker's Manual of Chess, 1925, is as famous in chess circles for its
philosophical tone as for its content.[143]
Lehrbuch des Schachspiels, 1926 English version Lasker's Manual of Chess published in 1927.
Lasker's Chess Primer, 1934
Other games
Encyclopedia of Games, 1929.[85]
Das verstndige Kartenspiel (Sensible Card Play), 1929 English translation published in the same
year.[85]
Brettspiele der Vlker (Board Games of the Nations), 1931 includes sections about Go and
Lasca.[144][86]
Das Bridgespiel ("The Game of Bridge"), 1931.[88]
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Mathematics
Lasker, Emanuel (August 1895). "Metrical Relations of Plane Spaces of n Manifoldness"
(http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/052340d0). Nature 52 (1345): 340343.
Bibcode:1895Natur..52R.340L (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1895Natur..52R.340L).
doi:10.1038/052340d0 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2F052340d0). Retrieved 2008-05-31.
Lasker, Emanuel (October 1895). "About a certain Class of Curved Lines in Space of n Manifoldness"
(http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/052596a0). Nature 52 (1355): 596596.
Bibcode:1895Natur..52..596L (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1895Natur..52..596L).
doi:10.1038/052596a0 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2F052596a0). Retrieved 2008-05-31.
Lasker, Emanuel (1901). "ber Reihen auf der Convergenzgrenze ( "On Series at Convergence Boundaries"
)". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 196 (274286): 431477.
Bibcode:1901RSPTA.196..431L (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1901RSPTA.196..431L).
doi:10.1098/rsta.1901.0009 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1098%2Frsta.1901.0009). Lasker's Ph.D. thesis.
Lasker, E. (1905). "Zur Theorie der Moduln und Ideale". Math. Ann. 60 (1): 19116.
doi:10.1007/BF01447495 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01447495).
Philosophy
Kampf (Struggle), 1906.[68]
Das Begreifen der Welt (Comprehending the World), 1913.[62]
Die Philosophie des Unvollendbar (sic; The Philosophy of the Unattainable), 1918.[62]
Vom Menschen die Geschichte ("History of Mankind"), 1925 a play, co-written with his brother
Berthold.[67]
The Community of the Future, 1940.[67]
In popular culture
Fiction
In Michael Chabon's alternate history mystery novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, the murdered man, Mendel
Shpilman (born during the 1960's), being a chess enthusiast, uses the name "Emanuel Lasker" as an alias. The
reference is clearly understood by the protagonist, Detective Meyer Landsman, because he has also studied chess.
Quotations
By Lasker
"Lies and hypocrisy do not survive for long on the chessboard. The creative combination lays bare the
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presumption of a lie, while the merciless fact, culminating in a checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite."[145]
"Education in Chess has to be an education in independent thinking and judgement. Chess must not be
memorized, simply because it is not important enough. ... Memory is too valuable to be stocked with
trifles."[146]
"Pit two players against each other who both have perfect technique, who both avoid weaknesses, and what
is left? a sorry caricature of chess."[147]
Although the adage "If you find a good move, look for a better one" is often attributed to Lasker, it actually
dates earlier.[148]
About Lasker
W. H. K. Pollock: "It is no easy matter to reply correctly to Lasker's bad moves."[149]
Viktor Korchnoi: "My chess hero."[150]
Mikhail Tal: "The greatest of the champions was, of course, Emanuel Lasker."[151]
Notable games
"Emanuel Lasker vs Johann Hermann Bauer, Amsterdam 1889"
(http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1026352). ChessGames.com.
Although this was not the earliest known game with a successful two bishops sacrifice, this combination is
now known as a "LaskerBauer combination" or "Lasker sacrifice".[125]
"Harry Nelson Pillsbury vs Emanuel Lasker, St Petersburg 1895"
A brilliant sacrifice in the seventeenth move leads to a victorious attack.[4]
"Wilhelm Steinitz vs Emanuel Lasker, London 1899" (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?
gid=1132758). ChessGames.com.
The old champion and the new one really go for it.[152]
"Frank James Marshall vs Emanuel Lasker, World Championship Match 1907, game 1"
Lasker's attack is insufficient for a quick win, so he trades it in for an endgame in which he quickly ties
Marshall in knots.[153]
"Emanuel Lasker vs Carl Schlechter, match 1910, game 10" (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?
gid=1121156). ChessGames.com.
Not a great game, but the one that saved Emanuel Lasker from losing his world title in 1910.[154]
"Emanuel Lasker vs Jose Raul Capablanca, St Petersburg 1914"
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Lasker, who needed a win here, surprisingly used a quiet opening, allowing Capablanca to simplify the game
early. There has been much debate about whether Lasker's approach represented subtle psychology or deep
positional understanding.[4][80][106]
"Max Euwe vs Emanuel Lasker, Zurich 1934" (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008008).
ChessGames.com.
66-year-old Lasker beats a future World Champion, sacrificing his Queen to turn defense into attack.[155]
Tournament results
The following table gives Lasker's placings and scores in tournaments.[7][29][40][41][82][94][156] The first "Score"
column gives the number of points on the total possible. In the second "Score" column, "+" indicates the number of
won games, "" the number of losses, and "=" the number of draws.
Date
1888/89
1889
Location
Berlin (Caf
Kaiserhof)
Breslau "B"
Place
1st
1st =
Score
Notes
20/20
+20 0 =0
12/15
Tied with von Feyerfeil and won the play-off.

This was Hauptturnier A of the sixth DSB
+11 2 =2
Congress, i.e. the "second-division"
tournament.
1889
Amsterdam "A"
tournament
2nd
6/8
+5 1 =2
Behind Amos Burn; ahead of James Mason,

Isidor Gunsberg and others. This was the
stronger of the two Amsterdam tournaments
held at that time.
1890
Berlin
12
6/8
+6 1 =1
Tied with his brother Berthold Lasker.
1890
Graz
3rd
4/6
+3 1 =2
Behind Gyula Makovetz and Johann Hermann

Bauer.
1892
London
1st
9/11
+8 1 =2
Ahead of Mason and Rudolf Loman.[12]
1892
London
1st
6/8
+5 0 =3
Ahead of Joseph Henry Blackburne, Mason,

Gunsberg and Henry Edward Bird.
1893
New York City
1st
13/13
+13 0 =0
Ahead of Adolf Albin, Jackson Showalter and

a newcomer called Harry Nelson Pillsbury.
1895
Hastings
1895/96 St. Petersburg
3rd
1st
Behind Pillsbury and Mikhail Chigorin; ahead

15/21 +14 4 =3 of Siegbert Tarrasch, Wilhelm Steinitz and the
rest of a strong field.
11/18
+8 3 =7
A Quadrangular tournament; ahead of

Steinitz (by two points), Pillsbury and
Chigorin.
Ahead of Gza Marczy, Pillsbury, Tarrasch,
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1896
1899
1900
Nuremberg
London
Paris
1904
Cambridge Springs
1906
Trenton Falls
1909
St. Petersburg
1st
1st
Ahead of Janowski, Pillsbury, Marczy, Carl

23/28 +20 1 =7 Schlechter, Blackburne, Chigorin and several
other strong players.
1st
Ahead of Pillsbury (by two points), Frank

14/16 +14 1 =1 James Marshall, Marczy, Burn, Chigorin and
several others.
2nd =
11/15
+9 2 =4
Tied with Janowski; two points behind

Marshall; ahead of Georg Marco, Showalter,
Schlechter, Chigorin, Jacques Mieses,
Pillsbury and others.
1st
5/6
+4 0 =2
A Quadrangular tournament; ahead of Curt,

Albert Fox and Raubitschek.
1st =
Tied with Akiba Rubinstein; ahead of Oldich

14/18 +13 2 =3 Duras and Rudolf Spielmann (by 3 points),
Ossip Bernstein, Richard Teichmann and
several other strong players.
Ahead of Jos Ral Capablanca, Alexander
Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall. This
tournament had an unusual structure: there was
a preliminary tournament in which eleven
players played each other player once; the top
five players then played a separate final
tournament in which each player who made
the "cut" played the other finalists twice; but
13/18 +10 1 =7 their scores from the preliminary tournament
were carried forward. Even the preliminary
tournament would now be considered a
"super-tournament". Capablanca "won" the
preliminary tournament by 1 points without
losing a game, but Lasker achieved a plus
score against all his opponents in the final
tournament and finished with a combined
score point ahead of Capablanca's.
1914
St. Petersburg
1st
1918
Berlin
1st
1923
1924
Moravsk Ostrava
New York City
13/18 +12 3 =3 Dawid Janowski, Steinitz and the rest of a

strong field.
1st
1st
4/6
10/13
16/20
+3 0 =3
Quadrangular tournament. Ahead of

Rubinstein, Schlechter and Tarrasch.
+8 0 =5
Ahead of Richard Rti, Ernst Grnfeld, Alexey

Selezniev, Savielly Tartakower, Max Euwe
and other strong players.
Ahead of Capablanca (by 1 points),

+13 1 =6 Alekhine, Marshall, and the rest of a very
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strong field.
1925
1934
Moscow
2nd
Zrich
5th
14/20
10/15
Behind Efim Bogoljubow; ahead of

Capablanca, Marshall, Tartakower, Carlos
+10 2 =8
Torre, other strong non-Soviet players and the
leading Soviet players.
+9 4 =2
Behind Alekhine, Euwe, Salo Flohr and

Bogoljubow; ahead of Bernstein, Aron
Nimzowitsch, Gideon Sthlberg and various
others.
half a point behind Mikhail Botvinnik and

Flohr; ahead of Capablanca, Spielmann, Ilya
12/19 +6 0 =13 Kan, Grigory Levenfish, Andor Lilienthal,
Viacheslav Ragozin and others. Emanuel
Lasker was about 67 years old at the time.
1935
Moscow
3rd
1936
Moscow
6th
8/18
1936
Nottingham
78th
8/14
+3 5 =10 Capablanca won.

+6 3 =5
Capablanca and Botvinnik tied for first place.
Match results
Here are Lasker's results in matches.[9][25][52][60] The first "Score" column gives the number of points on the total
possible. In the second "Score" column, "+" indicates the number of won games, "" the number of losses, and "="
the number of draws.
Date
Opponent
Result
Location
Score
1889
E.R. von Feyerfeil
Won
Breslau
10
+1 0 =0
1889/90
Curt von Bardeleben
Won
Berlin
2
1
+2 1 =1
1889/90
Jacques Mieses
Won
Leipzig
6
1
+5 0 =3
1890
Berthold Lasker
Drew
Berlin
+0 0 =1
1890
Henry Edward Bird
Won
Liverpool
8
3
+7 2 =3
1890
N.T. Miniati
Won
Manchester
41
+3 0 =2
1890
Berthold Englisch
Won
Vienna
3
1
+2 0 =3
1891
Francis Joseph Lee
Won
London
+1 0 =1
1892
Joseph Henry Blackburne
Won
London
82
+6 0 =4
Notes
Play-off
match
Play-off
match
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1892
Bird
Won
Newcastle upon Tyne
50
+5 0 =0
1892/93
Jackson Showalter
Won
Logansport and
Kokomo, Indiana
73
+6 2 =2
1893
Celso Golmayo Zpide
Won
Havana
+2 0 =1
1893
Andrs Clemente Vzquez
Won
Havana
30
+3 0 =0
1893
A. Ponce
Won
Havana
20
+2 0 =0
1893
Alfred Ettlinger
Won
New York City
50
+5 0 =0
1894
Wilhelm Steinitz
Won
World
New York,
127 +10 5 =4 Championship
Philadelphia, Montreal
match
World
12
+10 2 =5 Championship
4
match
1896/97
Steinitz
Won
Moscow
1901
Dawid Janowski
Won
Manchester
+1 0 =1
1903
Mikhail Chigorin
Lost
Brighton
2
3
+1 2 =3
Rice Gambit
match
Won
New York,
Philadelphia,
Washington, D.C.,
Baltimore, Chicago,
Memphis
11
3
+8 0 =7
World
Championship
match
+8 3 =5
World
Championship
match
1907
Frank James Marshall
1908
Siegbert Tarrasch
Won
Dsseldorf, Munich
10
5
1908
Abraham Speijer
Won
Amsterdam
+2 0 =1
1909
Janowski
Drew
Paris
22
+2 2 =0
1909
Janowski
Won
Paris
82
+7 1 =2
1910
Carl Schlechter
Drew
ViennaBerlin
55
1910
Janowski
Won
Berlin
9
1
1914
Ossip Bernstein
Drew
Moscow
11
Exhibition
match
+1 1 =8
World
Championship
match
+8 0 =3
World
Championship
match
+1 1 =0
Exhibition
match
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1916
Tarrasch
Won
Berlin
+5 0 =1
1921
Jos Ral Capablanca
Lost
Havana
59
+0 4 =10
lost World
Championship
1940
Frank James Marshall
Lost
New York
+0 1 =1
exhibition
match
See also
List of mathematicians who studied chess
References
1. A detailed examination of Emanuel Laskers involvement in bridge is provided by the chapter Nicht nur Schach
Emanuel Lasker als Bridgespieler by Robert van de Velde on pages 332-363 of Emanuel Lasker Denker
Weltenbrger Schachweltmeister edited by Richard Forster, Stefan Hansen and Michael Negele (Berlin, 2009).
2. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Berthold Lasker" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?
Params=199510SSSSS3S073074000000111000000000017510100). Chessmetrics. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
3. Tyle, L.B., ed. (2002). UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography
(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5229/is_2003/ai_n19151908). UXL. ISBN 0-7876-6465-0. Retrieved
2008-05-30.
4. Fine, Reuben (1952). "Emanuel Lasker". The World's Great Chess Games. Andre Deutsch (now as paperback from
Dover). ISBN 0-679-13046-2.
5. "The Start of a Chess Career", from Lasker & His Contemporaries, issue 1, published by Thinkers Press, Inc.
6. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Isidor Gunsberg" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?
Params=199510SSSSS3S048852000000111000000000011010100). Chessmetrics.
7. "I tornei di scacchi dal 1880 al 1899"
(http://xoomer.virgilio.it/cserica/scacchi/storiascacchi/tornei/pagine/itornei1880-99.htm). La grande storia degli
scacchi. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
8. Thulin, A. (August 2007). "SteinitzChigorin, Havana 1899 [sic] - A World Championship Match or Not?"
(http://www.anders.thulin.name/SUBJECTS/CHESS/SteinitzChigorin1889.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 2008-12-03.
9. "I matches 1880/99" (http://xoomer.virgilio.it/cserica/scacchi/storiascacchi/matches/1880-99.htm). La grande
storia degli scacchi. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
10. Di Felice, Gino (2004). Chess Results, 1747-1900. McFarland & Company. pp. 121123. ISBN 0-7864-2041-3.
11. Di Felice, Gino (2004). Chess Results, 1747-1900. McFarland & Company. pp. 133134. ISBN 0-7864-2041-3.
12. Gillam, A.J. (2008). London March 1892; London March/April 1892; Belfast 1892
(http://www.schachversand.de/e/detail/buecher/9414.html). The Chess Player. ISBN 978-1-901034-59-2.
Retrieved 2008-11-23.
13. Di Felice, Gino (2004). Chess Results, 1747-1900. McFarland & Company. p. 142. ISBN 0-7864-2041-3.
14. "Ready for a big chess match" (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?
_r=2&res=9400E4DF1630E033A25752C1A9659C94659ED7CF&oref=slogin&oref=slogin) (PDF). New York
21/32
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_r=2&res=9400E4DF1630E033A25752C1A9659C94659ED7CF&oref=slogin&oref=slogin) (PDF). New York

times. 11 March 1894. Retrieved 2008-05-30. Note: this article implies that the combined stake was $4,500, but
Lasker wrote that it was $4,000: "From the Editorial Chair"
(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lasker%27s_Chess_Magazine/Volume_1). Lasker's Chess Magazine 1. January
1905. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
15. Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess. Oxford University Press. p. 81. ISBN 019-866164-9.
16. Soltis, Andrew (2002). Chess Lists Second Edition. McFarland & Company. pp. 8183. ISBN 0-7864-1296-8.
17. Sunnucks, Anne (1970). The Encyclopaedia of Chess. St. Martin's Press. p. 76. ISBN 0-7091-1030-8.
18. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Curt von Bardeleben"
(http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?
19. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Jacques Mieses" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?
20. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Henry Bird" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?
21. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Berthold Englisch" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?
22. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Joseph Blackburne" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?
23. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Jackson Showalter" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?
24. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Celso Golmayo Zpide"
25. Select the "Career details" option at Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Emanuel Lasker (career details)"
Params=188510SSSSS3S073076189006131000000000017510100). Chessmetrics.com. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
26. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Monthly Lists: 18851895" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/MonthlyLists.asp?
27. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Summary: 18851895" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/Summary.asp?
28. Lasker, Emanuel. The London Chess Fortnightly (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review302.pdf) (PDF).
Moravian Chess. Retrieved 2008-06-06.
29. Bill Wall. "Dr. Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941)"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20080216035727/http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/lasker.htm).
GeoCities.com. Archived from the original
(http://web.archive.org/web/20091028083454/http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/lasker.htm) on
2008-02-16. Retrieved 2007-08-03.
30. Hannak, J. (1959). Emanuel Lasker: The Life of a Chess Master. Simon & Schuster. p. 31. ISBN 0-486-26706-7.
31. Using incomes for the adjustment factor, as the outcome depended on a few months' hard work by the players; if
prices are used for the conversion, the result is over $99,000see "Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a
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U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to Present" (http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/). MeasuringWorth. Retrieved

2008-05-30. However, Lasker later published an analysis showing that the winning player got $1,600 and the losing
player $600 out of the $4,000, as the backers who had bet on the winner got the rest: "From the Editorial Chair"
(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lasker%27s_Chess_Magazine/Volume_1). Lasker's Chess Magazine 1. January
1905. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
32. "The Steinitz Papers - review" (http://www.chessville.com/reviews/SteinitzPapers.htm). ChessVille. Retrieved
2008-05-30.
33. Kai, B. M. (1974). International Championship Chess: A Complete Record of FIDE Events. Pitman. p. 212.
ISBN 0-273-07078-9.
34. Giffard, Nicolas (1993). Le Guide des checs (in French). ditions Robert Laffont. p. 394.
35. "Lasker v. Steinitz - World Championship Match 1894"
(http://www.chessville.com/instruction/Lasker_v_Steinitz/instr_annogames_laskervsteinitz1894.htm). ChessVille.
36. Kai, B. M. (1974). International Championship Chess: A Complete Record of FIDE Events. Pitman. p. 213.
ISBN 0-273-07078-9.
37. Winter, E. "Kasparov, Karpov and the Scotch" (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/scotch.html).
ChessHistory. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
38. "Emanuel Lasker" (http://www.chess-poster.com/great_players/lasker.htm). Chess-Poster. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
39. "Chess World Champions Emanuel Lasker" (http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/lasker/lasker.htm).
ChessCorner. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
42. For good measure he also took first prize in a weaker tournament at Trenton Falls in 1906.
43. Winter, Edward (1999). Kings, Commoners and Knaves: Further Chess Explorations (1 ed.). Russell Enterprises,
Inc. pp. 315316. ISBN 1-888690-04-6.
44. Winter, Edward (2003). A Chess Omnibus (1 ed.). Russell Enterprises, Inc. pp. 177178. ISBN 1-888690-17-8.
45. Winter, Edward. "Chess Note 5144: Tsar Nicholas II"
(http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter38.html#5144._Tsar_Nicholas_II). ChessHistory. Retrieved
2008-11-21.
46. Giffard, p.396
47. Stefan Lffler. "Check and Mate" (http://www.atlantic-times.com/archive_detail.php?recordID=1509). The
Atlantic Times.
48. Giffard, p.397
49. Giffard, p.398
50. Several authors have considered this match as a World Chess Championship, for instance:
Horowitz, Israel (1973). From Morphy to Fischer. Batsford. pp. 6364.
Keene, Raymond; Goodman, David (1986). The Centenary Match Kasparov-Karpov III. Batsford. p. 6.
ISBN 0-02-028700-3.
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ISBN 0-02-028700-3.
Giffard, Nicolas (1993). Le guide des checs (in French). ditions Robert Laffont. p. 400.
More recent sources consider it was only an exhibition match:
Edward Winter. "Chess Notes 5199"
(http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter38.html#5199._Lasker_v_Janowsky_Paris_1909).
ChessHistory.com.
Mark Weeks. "1909 Lasker - Janowski Exhibition Matches" (http://www.markweeks.com/chess/09lj$wix.htm). mark-weeks.com.
51. Giffard, Nicolas (1993). Le guide des checs (in French). ditions Robert Laffont. p. 400.
53. Giffard 1993, p. 404
54. Giffard 1993, p. 406
55. Using average incomes as the conversion factor; if prices are used for the conversion, the result is about $45,000
see "Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to Present"
(http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/). MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
56. "1921 World Chess Championship"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20050120165616/http://members.aol.com/graemecree/chesschamps/world/world1921.
htm). Archived from the original (http://members.aol.com/graemecree/chesschamps/world/world1921.htm) on
January 20, 2005. Retrieved 2008-11-21. This cites: a report of Lasker's concerns about the location and duration
of the match, in New York Evening Post. March 15, 1911. Missing or empty |title=(help); Capablanca's letter
of December 20, 1911 to Lasker, stating his objections to Lasker's proposal; Lasker's letter to Capablanca,
breaking off negotiations; Lasker's letter of April 27, 1921 to Alberto Ponce of the Havana Chess Club, proposing
to resign the 1921 match; and Ponce's reply, accepting the resignation.
57. Jeff Sonas. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Akiba Rubinstein" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?
58. Horowitz, I.A. (1973). From Morphy to Fischer. Batsford.
59. Wilson, F. (1975). Classical Chess Matches, 19071913. Dover. ISBN 0-486-23145-3.
61. "Berlin 1897, 1918 and 1928" (http://www.endgame.nl/berlin1928.htm). Endgame. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
62. "Lasker biography" (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Lasker.html). University of St
Andrews. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
63. Lasker, Emanuel (August 1895). "Metrical Relations of Plane Spaces of n Manifoldness"
(http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/052340d0). Nature 52 (1345): 340343. Bibcode:1895Natur..52R.340L
(http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1895Natur..52R.340L). doi:10.1038/052340d0
(https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2F052340d0). Retrieved 2008-05-31.
Lasker, Emanuel (October 1895). "About a certain Class of Curved Lines in Space of n Manifoldness"
(http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/052596a0). Nature 52 (1355): 596596. Bibcode:1895Natur..52..596L
(http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1895Natur..52..596L). doi:10.1038/052596a0
(https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2F052596a0). Retrieved 2008-05-31.
64. Reshevsky, Samuel (1976). Great Chess Upsets. Arco. ISBN 0-668-03492-0.
65. Lasker, Emanuel (1901). "ber Reihen auf der Convergenzgrenze". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
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65. Lasker, Emanuel (1901). "ber Reihen auf der Convergenzgrenze". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society A 196 (274286): 431477. Bibcode:1901RSPTA.196..431L
(http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1901RSPTA.196..431L). doi:10.1098/rsta.1901.0009
(https://dx.doi.org/10.1098%2Frsta.1901.0009).
66. Lasker, E. (1905). "Zur Theorie der Moduln und Ideale" (http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/index.php?
id=11&PPN=PPN235181684_0060&DMDID=DMDLOG_0008&L=1). Math. Ann. 60 (1): 20116.
doi:10.1007/BF01447495 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01447495).
Noether, Emmy (1921). "Idealtheorie in Ringbereichen" (http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/index.php?
id=11&PPN=PPN235181684_0083&DMDID=DMDLOG_0008&L=1). Mathematische Annalen 83 (1): 2466.
Bibcode:1921MatAn..83...24N (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1921MatAn..83...24N). doi:10.1007/BF01464225
(https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01464225). For the relationship between Lasker's work and Noether's see
"Springer Online Reference Works: Lasker ring" (http://eom.springer.de/L/l057600.htm). Springer. Retrieved
2008-05-31.
67. "Lasker: New Approaches" (http://www.lasker-gesellschaft.de/forum/johannes-fischer/lasker-newapproaches.html). Lasker-Gesellschaft. Retrieved 2008-11-21.; also available at "Lasker: New Approaches"
(http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles158.pdf) (PDF). ChessCafe. Retrieved 2008-05-02.. This refers to Sieg,
Ulrich; Dreyer, Michael (2001). Emanuel Lasker: Schach, Philosophie und Wissenschaft (Emanuel Lasker: Chess,
Philosophy and Science). Philo. ISBN 3-8257-0216-2..
68. Many sources say Kampf was published in 1907, but Lasker said 1906 - Lasker, Emanuel (1932, re-printed 1960).
Lasker's Manual of Chess. Courier Dover. ISBN 0-486-20640-8. Check date values in: |date=(help)
69. Lasker, Emanuel (1896 (German edition); 1897, reprinted 1965 (English edition)). Common Sense in Chess
(http://books.google.com/?id=1MP1FhWELmAC&dq=%22common+sense+in+chess%22+lasker). Courier Dover.
ISBN 0-486-21440-0. Retrieved 2008-05-02. Check date values in: |date=(help)
70. "Chess World's Doings; Lasker to Test Rice Gambit" (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?
_r=1&res=9D03E7DD173AE733A25751C0A96E9C946297D6CF&oref=slogin) (PDF). New York Times. August
2, 1903. Retrieved 2008-05-02.
71. "Chess Notes by Edward Winter" (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter29.html). Lasker's Chess Magazine:
35. November 1907. Retrieved 2008-05-02.
72. "Moravian chess publishing - Catalogue" (http://moravian-chess.cz/katalog.php?idkat=11). Moravian Chess.
73. Laird, R. (2001). "Go in America". The Proceedings of the First International Conference on Go (PDF) (Seoul:
Myong-Ji University) http://www.usgo.org/resources/downloads/goinamerica.pdf. Retrieved 2008-05-02. Missing
or empty |title=(help)
74. Hannak, J. (1959). Emanuel Lasker: The Life of a Chess Master. Simon & Schuster. pp. 152, 16061.
75. Hooper, D.; Whyld, K. (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess (2 ed.). p. 218. ISBN 0-19-866164-9.
76. Hannak, J. (1959). Emanuel Lasker: The Life of a Chess Master. Simon & Schuster. p. 125.
77. Winter, Edward. "How Capablanca Became World Champion"
(http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/capablanca2.html). ChessHistory. Retrieved 2008-06-05.. Winter cites:
American Chess Bulletin (JulyAugust 1920 issue) for Lasker's resignation of the title, the ACB's theory about
Lasker's real motive and Havana's offer of $20,000; Amos Burn in The Field of 3 July 1920, the British Chess
Magazine of August 1920 and other sources for protestations that Lasker had no right to nominate a successor;
Amos Burn in The Field of 3 July 1920 and E.S. Tinsley in The Times (London) of 26 June 1920 for criticism of
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the conditions Lasker set for the defense of the title; American Chess Bulletin SeptemberOctober 1920 for
Lasker's and Capablanca's statements that Capablanca was the champion and Lasker the challenger, for
Capablanca's statement that Lasker's contract with Rubinstein had contained a clause allowing him to abdicate in
favor of Rubinstein, for Lasker's intention to resign the title if he beat Capablanca and his support for an
international organization, preferably based in the Americas, to manage international chess. Winter says that before
Lasker's abdication some chess correspondents had been calling for Lasker to be stripped of the title. For a very
detailed account given by Capablanca after the match, see Capablanca, Jos Ral (October 1922). "Capablanca's
Reply to Lasker (presented by Edward Winter)"
(http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/capablancalasker.html). British Chess Magazine. Retrieved
2008-06-05.
78. Giffard, Nicolas (1993). Le guide des checs (in French). ditions Robert Laffont. p. 412.
79. Golombek, H. (1959). "On the Way to the World Championship". In Golombek, H. Capablanca's Hundred Best
Games of Chess. G. Bell & Sons. p. 59. ISBN 0-679-14044-1.
80. Vladimir Kramnik. "Kramnik Interview: From Steinitz to Kasparov"
(http://www.kramnik.com/eng/interviews/getinterview.aspx?id=61). Kramnik.com. Retrieved 2009-01-02.
83. "Production of Lasker trainer cancelled" (http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3779). ChessBase.
Retrieved 2008-05-02. includes an image of part of the original newspaper report.
84. Lasker, Emanuel (1927, 2nd edition 1932, reprinted 1960). Lasker's Manual of Chess (http://books.google.com/?
id=vNXFc-JWpH0C&dq=%22lasker%27s+manual+of+chess%22&pg=PP1). Dover. ISBN 0-486-20640-8.
Retrieved 2008-06-06. Check date values in: |date=(help)
85. Johan Wstlund (September 5, 2005). "A solution of two-person single-suit whist"
(http://www.emis.de/journals/EJC/Volume_12/PDF/v12i1r43.pdf) (PDF). The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics
12. Retrieved 2008-06-06.
86. "About Lasca a little-known abstract game" (http://research.interface.co.uk/lasca/about.htm). HumanComputer
Interface Research. Retrieved 2008-06-06.
87. Culbertson, Ely (1940). The Strange Lives of One Man
(http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/culbertson.html). Chicago: The John C. Winston Company. pp. 552
553.
88. "Chess and Bridge" (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/bridge.html). ChessHistory. Retrieved 2008-06-06.
89. Hannak, J. (1959). Emanuel Lasker: The Life of a Chess Master. Simon and Schuster. p. 266. ISBN 0-486-267067.
90. Hannak, J. (1959). Emanuel Lasker: The Life of a Chess Master. Simon & Schuster. p. 268. ISBN 0-486-267067.
91. Hooper, D.; Whyld, K. (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess (2 ed.). p. 218. ISBN 0-19-866164-9.
92. Litmanowicz, Wadysaw & Giycki, Jerzy (1986, 1987). Szachy od A do Z. Wydawnictwo Sport i Turystyka
Warszawa. ISBN 83-217-2481-7. (1. A-M), ISBN 83-217-2745-X (2. N-Z). Check date values in: |date=(help)
93. Weinstein, Boris Samoilovich (1981). Myslitel (Thinker). Fizkultura i sport. pp. 104 (Russian edition).
26/32
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93. Weinstein, Boris Samoilovich (1981). Myslitel
(Thinker). Fizkultura i sport. pp. 104 (Russian edition).

95. Reuben Fine (1976). The World's Great Chess Games. Dover. p. 51. ISBN 0-486-24512-8.
96. Weinstein, Boris Samoilovich (1981). Myslitel (Thinker). Fizkultura i sport. pp. 105 (Russian edition).
97. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=631
98. Winter, Edward. "5076. Lasker's last words"
(http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter36.html#5076._Laskers_last_words_C.N._4705). ChessHistory.
99. Landsberger, K. (2002). The Steinitz Papers: Letters and Documents of the First World Chess Champion
(http://books.google.com/?id=NltT4BinugsC&pg=PA295&dq=lasker+capablanca+1921). McFarland. p. 295.
ISBN 0-7864-1193-7. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
100. Rti wrote, "In analyzing Lasker's tournament games, I was struck by his lasting and at first seemingly incredible
good luck. ... There is no denying the fact that over and over again Lasker's exposition is poor, that he is in a
losing position hundreds of times and, nevertheless, wins in the end."Rti, Richard (1976). Masters of the
Chessboard. Dover Publications. p. 132. ISBN 0-486-23384-7. Rti considered, but rejected as too improbable, the
"hypothesis of lasting luck", finally concluding that the only explanation for Lasker's repeated success from bad
positions is that he "often plays badly on purpose". Id. Rti concluded that Lasker studied his opponents' strong
and weak points, and that, "He is not so much interested in making the objectively best moves as he is in making
those most disagreeable to his opponent; he turns the game in a direction not suitable to the style of his opponent
and on this unaccustomed road leads him to the abyss, often by means of intentionally bad moves, as I have
previously described." Id. at 133.
101. Rowland, Mrs. F.F. (1899). Pollock Memories: A Collection of Chess Games, Problems, &c., &c.
(http://books.google.com/?id=9SECAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Pollock+Memories%22&printsec=frontcover) Chess
Player's Chronicle. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-4371-9392-3.
102. Soltis, A. (2005). Why Lasker Matters (http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/jwatsonbkrev80.html). Batsford. p. 5.
ISBN 0-7134-8983-9. The URL is a review by John L. Watson. Another review, with examples, is at Taylor
Kingston. "Analyzing an Enigma" (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review538.pdf). ChessCafe. Retrieved
2009-01-01.
103. "Lasker's greatest skill in defense was his ability to render a normal (inferior) position chaotic": Crouch, C. (2000).
How to Defend in Chess. Everyman. ISBN 1-85744-250-4.; review including this quotation at Watson, J. "How to
Defend in Chess: review" (http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jw/jw_ht_defend_chess.html).
JeremySilman. Retrieved 2008-11-19.
104. Max Euwe and Hans Kramer (1994). The Middlegame. Hays Publishing. pp. 93, 101.
105. As White in Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez Lasker scored ten wins, three draws and just one loss, to
Steinitz in 1894. Lasker also won the three recorded games in which he played the variation as Black; one was
against Alekhine, in the 1914 St. Petersburg Tournament, the day before Lasker beat Capablanca.Wrinn, Steve.
"Lasker and the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez - Part 1" (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles230.pdf)
(PDF). ChessCafe. Retrieved 2008-06-09. and Wrinn, Steve. "Lasker and the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez
Part 2" (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles232.pdf) (PDF). ChessCafe. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
106. Pachman, L. (1987). "St Petersburg 1914: Drawing Variation - The Way to Victory". Decisive Games in Chess
History (http://books.google.com/?id=jlgJTCyonAgC&pg=PA1&dq=capablanca). Courier Dover. pp. 6468.
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History (http://books.google.com/?id=jlgJTCyonAgC&pg=PA1&dq=capablanca). Courier Dover. pp. 6468.

ISBN 0-486-25323-6. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
107. Nagesh Havanur. "Why Lasker Matters review by Nagesh Havanur"

(http://www.chessville.com/reviews/WhyLaskerMatters2.htm). ChessVille. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
108. Capablanca, Jos Ral (May 1927). "The Ideal Style of the Masters"
(http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/capablanca3.html). Mundial. pp. 14. Retrieved 2009-01-02.
109. [1] (http://freespace.virgin.net/kenny.m/Lasker/a_lasker_article.htm)
110. Garry Kasparov (2003). My Great Predecessors - Part I. Everyman Chess. pp. 187222. ISBN 1857443306.
111. Harry Golombek (1978). Capablanca's 100 Best Games of Chess. David McKay. pp. 37, 88, 116, 222. ISBN 0679-14044-1.
112. Reuben Fine (1976). The World's Great Chess Games. Dover. p. 50. ISBN 0-486-24512-8.
113. Bobby Fischer, "The Ten Greatest Masters in History", Chessworld, Vol. 1, No. 1 (JanuaryFebruary 1964), pp.
56-61.
114. Fischer, "The Ten Greatest Masters in History", p. 59.
115. Brady, Frank (1973). Profile of a Prodigy (2nd ed.). David McKay. p. 78. ISBN 0-486-25925-0.
116. Benko, Pal; Silman, Jeremy (2003). Pal Benko: My Life, Games and Compositions. Siles Press. p. 429. ISBN 1890085-08-1.
117. Brady 1973, p. 79.
118. Keene, Raymond; Divinsky, Nathan (1989). Warriors of the Mind. Brighton, UK: Hardinge Simpole. ISBN 09513757-2-5. See the summary list at "All Time Rankings"
(http://chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk/Chess/Trivia/AlltimeList.html). Edinburgh University Chess Club. Retrieved
2008-11-21.
119. Elo, A. (1978). The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present (http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?
newsid=1160). Arco. ISBN 0-668-04721-6. The URL provides greater detail, covering 47 players whom Elo rated,
and notes that Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov would have topped the list if the January 1, 1978, FIDE ratings
had been included (FIDE ratings use Elo's system).
120. Jeff Sonas. "Peak Average Ratings: 1 year peak range" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PeakList.asp?
Params=199510SSSSS1S000000000000111000000000000010100). Chessmetrics. Retrieved 2008-06-10.Jeff
Sonas. "Peak Average Ratings: 5 year peak range" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PeakList.asp?
Params=199510SSSSS5S000000000000111000000000000010100). Chessmetrics. Retrieved 2008-06-10.Jeff
Params=199510SSSSSTS000000000000111000000000000010100). Chessmetrics. Retrieved 2008-06-10.Jeff
Params=199510SSSSSFS000000000000111000000000000010100). Chessmetrics. Retrieved 2008-06-10.Jeff
Params=199510SSSSSWS000000000000111000000000000010100). Chessmetrics. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
121. Jeff Sonas (2005). "The Greatest Chess Player of All Time Part IV" (http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?
newsid=2409). ChessBase. Retrieved 2008-11-19. Part IV gives links to all three earlier parts.
122. "Chessmetrics Player Profile: Emanuel Lasker" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?
123. "Age-Aligned Rating List: 67 years, 0 months" (http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/SingleAge.asp?
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124. ChessGames.com. "EuweLasker Results" (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?

yearcomp=exactly&year=&playercomp=either&pid=&player=Euwe&pid2=&player2=Lasker&movescomp=exactly
&moves=&opening=&eco=&result=). Retrieved 2008-12-03.
125. Michael Jeffreys. "Why Lasker Matters - review by Michael Jeffreys"
(http://www.chessville.com/reviews/WhyLaskerMatters.htm). ChessVille.com. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
126. Crouch, C. (2000). How to Defend in Chess. Everyman Chess. p. 115. ISBN 1-85744-250-4.
127. Lasker's Defense: Fine, R. (1948). The Ideas behind the Chess Openings. Bell. p. 63. ISBN 0-8129-1756-1.
Revival:De Firmian, N. (2000). "Evans Gambit". Batsford's Modern Chess Openings. Batsford. p. 26. ISBN 07134-8656-2.
128. "French Defense" (http://www.chessville.com/instruction/Openings/French_Defense/instr_open_french_eco.htm).
ChessVille.com. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
129. Lasker wrote "I who vanquished him must see to it that his great achievement, his theories should find justice, and
I must avenge the wrongs he suffered". Lasker, Emanuel (1960) [1925]. Lasker's Manual of Chess
(http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/z4ls$wix.htm). Dover. ISBN 0-486-20640-8. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
130. Lasker, Emanuel (January 1905). "From the Editorial Chair"
(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lasker%27s_Chess_Magazine/Volume_1). Lasker's Chess Magazine 1. Retrieved
2008-05-31.
131. Edward Winter. "Chess Note 4767 Copyright"
(http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter29.html#4767._Copyright). ChessHistory.com. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
132. Edward Winter. "Copyright on Chess Games" (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/copyright.html).
ChessHistory.com. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
133. "Jose Raul Capablanca: Online Chess Tribute" (http://www.chessmaniac.com/2007/06/jose-raul-capablanca-onlinechess.php). ChessManiac.com. 2007-06-28. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
134. "New York 1924" (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1007158). ChessGames.com. Retrieved
2008-05-20.
135. Graham Clayton. "The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia - Archive #3"
(http://www.chessville.com/misc/History/Mad_Aussie_Trivia_Archive_Three.htm). ChessVille.com. Retrieved
2008-06-09.
136. He defined the primary decomposition property of the ideals of some commutative rings when he proved that
polynomial rings have the primary decomposition property.
137. Derbyshire, J. (December 2006). "12: The Lady of the Rings". Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History
of Algebra (http://books.google.com/?id=5SIPdYbUhU0C&pg=PP1&dq=lasker+einstein+hannak). National
Academy Press. pp. 234235. ISBN 0-309-09657-X. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
138. Leonard, J. "Working Paper - New Light on von Neumann: politics, psychology and the creation of game theory"
(http://www.cesmep.unito.it/WP/2007/7_WP_Cesmep.pdf) (PDF). Department of Economics, University of
Turin. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
139. Hannak, J. (1952). Emanuel Lasker, The Life of a Chess Master
(http://philosophyofscienceportal.blogspot.com/2008/05/einstein-laskers-and-chess.html). ISBN 0-486-26706-7.
140. Bill Wall. "Relatives of Chessplayers" (http://www.webcitation.org/query?
url=http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/relative.htm&date=2009-10-25+09:50:51). GeoCities.com.
Archived from the original
29/32
3/29/2015
Archived from the original
(http://web.archive.org/web/20091028033711/http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/relative.htm) on
2009-10-25. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
141. Reprint of Edward Lasker's memoirs of the New York 1924 tournament, in Chess Life. March 1974. Missing or
empty |title=(help)
142. "New York 1924" (http://xoomer.virgilio.it/cserica/scacchi/storiascacchi/tornei/1900-49/1924newyork.htm). La
grande storia degli scacchi. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
143. " Emanuel Lasker's Manual of Chess is the most expressly philosophical chess book ever written" Shibut, M.
"Modern Chess Anarchy?"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20081203175103/http://www.vachess.org/content/book_review_MODERNCH.htm).
Archived from the original (http://www.vachess.org/content/book_review_MODERNCH.htm) on 2008-12-03.
144. "History of Go in Europe 1880-1945" (http://web.archive.org/web/20060528115529/http://www.leipziggo.de/fruehgeschichte_e.php) ( Scholar search (http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?
hl=en&lr=&q=intitle%3AHistory+of+Go+in+Europe+1880-1945&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=Search)).
Archived from
the original (http://www.leipzig-go.de/fruehgeschichte_e.php) on May 28, 2006. Retrieved 2008-11-21.

145. Lasker, Emanuel (1947). "The Principle of Justice". Lasker's Manual of Chess. David McKay. p. 235. ISBN 1888690-50-X.
146. Lasker, Emanuel (1947). "Final Reflections". Lasker's Manual of Chess. David McKay. p. 337. ISBN 1-888690-50X.
147. Soltis, Andy (1975). "New York 1927 The End of Chess?". The Great Chess Tournaments and Their Stories.
Chilton Book Company. p. 133. ISBN 0-8019-6138-6.
148. The Chess Player's Chronicle (January 1878), vol. 2, no. 13, page 31 (http://books.google.com/books?
id=xjACAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q&f=false): Annotation by William Wayte (1829-1898): "Still flying at
high game, in accordance with the rule, "When you see a good move look out for a better." "
149. Rowland, Mrs. F.F. (1899). Pollock Memories: A Collection of Chess Games, Problems, &c., &c.
(http://books.google.com/?id=9SECAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Pollock+Memories%22&printsec=frontcover) Chess
Player's Chronicle. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-4371-9392-3. Retrieved 2009-01-14.
150. Korchnoi, V. (1975). "My Chess Hero". In Keene, R. Learn from the Grandmasters
(http://www.chesscafe.com/text/dvoretsky90.pdf). David McKay. p. 11. ISBN 0-679-13047-0. Retrieved
2009-01-14.
151. Soltis, A. (2005). Why Lasker Matters. Batsford. p. 3. ISBN 0-7134-8983-9.
152. Tartakower, S.G. and Du Mont, J. (1975). 500 Master Games of Chess (http://books.google.com/?
id=yfe7qbmvqkkC&pg=RA1-PA269&dq=steinitz+lasker#PRA1-PA270,M1). Courier Dover Publications. p. 270
(game number 209). ISBN 0-486-23208-5. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
153. Capablanca, J.R. (1994). "Example 30". Chess Fundamentals
(http://www.archive.org/stream/chessfundamental00capa/chessfundamental00capa_djvu.txt) (Algebraic, 1994
ed.). London: Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-073-0. Retrieved 2008-12-29. A key position is discussed at Mark
Weeks. "Endgame: Marshall - Lasker, 1907 Match, Game 1"
(http://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2006/12/endgame-marshall-lasker-1907-match-game.html). Retrieved
2008-12-29.
154. Pachman, L. (1987). "11: World Championship Match 1910". Decisive Games in Chess History
(http://books.google.com/?id=jlgJTCyonAgC&pg=PA48&dq=lasker+schlechter+1910).
Russell, A.S. Courier
30/32
3/29/2015
(http://books.google.com/?id=jlgJTCyonAgC&pg=PA48&dq=lasker+schlechter+1910). Russell, A.S. Courier

Dover Publications. pp. 4851. ISBN 0-486-25323-6. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
155. Crouch, C. (2007). "Game 9". How to Defend in Chess: Learn from the World Champions
(http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jw/jw_ht_defend_chess.html). Gambit Publications. ISBN 1904600-83-2. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
156. "London 1883 and 1899" (http://www.endgame.nl/london1883.htm). Endgame.nl. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
Further reading
Chernev, Irving (1995). Twelve Great Chess Players and Their Best Games. New York: Dover.
pp. 143162. ISBN 0-486-28674-6.
Hannak, J. (1952, reprinted by Dover, 1991). Emanuel Lasker: The Life of a Chess Master. New York:
Dover. ISBN 0-486-26706-7. Check date values in: |date=(help)
Kasparov, Garry (2003). My Great Predecessors, part I. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-330-6.
Soltis, Andrew (2005). Why Lasker Matters. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-8983-9.
Whyld, Ken (1998). The Collected Games of Emanuel Lasker. The Chess Player.
Winter, Edward (1981). World chess champions. Oxford. ISBN 0-08-024094-1.
External links
"Emanuel Lasker Society" (http://www.laskergesellschaft.de/society/flyer.html). Lasker-gesellschaft.de.
Emanuel Lasker (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?
pid=19149) player profile and games at Chessgames.com
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Emanuel Lasker"
(http://www-history.mcs.standrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Lasker.html), MacTutor History of
Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
Emanuel Lasker (http://www.genealogy.ams.org/id.php?
Wikiquote has quotations

related to: Emanuel Lasker
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Emanuel
Lasker.
Wikisource has original
text related to this article:
Lasker's Chess
Magazine
Volume 1
id=60257) at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

"About Lasca a little-known abstract game" (http://research.interface.co.uk/lasca/about.htm). Human
Computer Interface Research.
Hans Kmoch. "Grandmasters I have known" (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kmoch08.pdf).
ChessCafe.com.
Tryfon Gavriel, Janet Edwardson. "Biography of Emanuel Lasker"
(http://www.gtryfon.demon.co.uk/bcc/Technical_Articles/worldchamps/lasker/lasker.htm). Barnet chess
club.
"Lasker's Chess Magazine, January 1905 edition, excerpts" (http://www.100bestwebsites.org/lcmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Lasker
31/32
3/29/2015
jan1905.htm). 100bestwebsites.org.
Jacobs, Joseph; Porter, A. (19011906). "Lasker, Emanuel" (http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?
artid=84&letter=L). In Singer, Isidore. Jewish Encyclopedia 7. pp. 6223. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
Achievements
Preceded by
Wilhelm Steinitz
World Chess Champion

18941921
Succeeded by
Jos Ral Capablanca
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emanuel_Lasker&oldid=650718556"

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Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 January 11, 1941)

His contemporaries used to say that Lasker used a

December 24, 1868

January 11, 1941 (aged 72)

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Life and career

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chess competition 18941918

Wilhelm Steinitz, whom Lasker

$495,000 at 2006 values[31]). Although this was publicly praised as an act

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He then played Tarrasch in the World Chess Championship 1908, first at

Position after 19.Qxa7

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Schlechter would have taken

At the beginning, Lasker tried to attack but Schlechter had no difficulty

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Academic activities 18941918

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Other activities 18941918

David Hilbert encouraged Lasker

Match against Capablanca

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A report in the American Chess Bulletin (JulyAugust 1920 issue) said

Position after 1.e4 e5 2.f4

1921 to end of life

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Work in other fields

Friends and relatives

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tied with von Feyerfeil and won the play-off.

Behind Amos Burn; ahead of James Mason,

Tied with his brother Berthold Lasker.

Behind Gyula Makovetz and Johann Hermann

Ahead of Mason and Rudolf Loman.[12]

Ahead of Joseph Henry Blackburne, Mason,

New York City

Ahead of Adolf Albin, Jackson Showalter and

1895/96 St. Petersburg

Behind Pillsbury and Mikhail Chigorin; ahead

A Quadrangular tournament; ahead of

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ahead of Janowski, Pillsbury, Marczy, Carl

Ahead of Pillsbury (by two points), Frank

Tied with Janowski; two points behind

A Quadrangular tournament; ahead of Curt,

Tied with Akiba Rubinstein; ahead of Oldich

New York City

13/18 +12 3 =3 Dawid Janowski, Steinitz and the rest of a

Quadrangular tournament. Ahead of

Ahead of Richard Rti, Ernst Grnfeld, Alexey

Ahead of Capablanca (by 1 points),

Emanuel Lasker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Behind Efim Bogoljubow; ahead of

Behind Alekhine, Euwe, Salo Flohr and