11 October 2006

Lasker's Moves that Matter

Dr. Emanuel Lasker, second World Champion, had a style that was difficult to fathom. Two books exploring his play and ideas have appeared in recent years. 'My Great Predecessors, Part I' by Garry Kasparov was published in 2003. 'Why Lasker Matters' by Andrew Soltis was published in 2005. Both writers are grandmasters and both have a special interest in chess history.

I thought it would be instructive to see which Lasker games have been annotated by both players, to determine whether there was significant difference in opinion on specific moves or positions, and to study the differences. Here is a list of Lasker's games found in both books.

1889 Amsterdam, Lasker - Bauer
1895 Hastings, Tarrasch - Lasker
1895 St. Petersburg, Pillsbury - Lasker (Rd.1)
1895 St. Petersburg, Chigorin - Lasker (Rd.3)
1907 New York, Marshall - Lasker (WCC Gm.1)
1908 Dusseldorf/Munich, Tarrasch - Lasker (WCC Gm.4)
1910 Berlin/Vienna, Lasker - Schlechter (WCC Gm.10)
1914 St. Petersburg, Lasker - Tarrasch (prelim)
1914 St. Petersburg, Lasker - Capablanca (final)
1914 St. Petersburg, Lasker - Marshall (final)
1924 New York, Reti - Lasker
1925 Moscow, Iljin-Genevsky - Lasker
1934 Zurich, Euwe - Lasker

I'll tackle them one by one in subsequent posts. It is entirely possible that some games have more than one move worth studying.

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