Emanuel Lasker is the longest and 2nd official world chess champion, he held the title for 27 years. He was also a mathematician and philosopher. He published some books, “Lasker’s Manual of Chess”, “Kampt”, etc.
He was born on December 24, 1868 at Barlinek, Poland. At 11, he was sent to Berlin to study Mathematics, he lived there together with his brother Berthold (who was in the top 10 at that time). Berthold taught him how to play chess.
In 1888, he played in the Hauptturnier A, he reached the final, won the tournament and received the master title. This title enabled him to play in the master tournaments and started his chess career. The following year, he was 2nd place at the 1889 Amsterdam Masters. In 1892, he won the British CA Congress and London Quintangular. In 1893, he went to U.S, there, he held the world record of 100% performance in New York 1893.
In 1894, Lasker challenged the reigning world champion Wilhelm.
Steinitz for a World Championship title. The prize was less than the initial due to difficulty in raising the money, the final prize was $4,000 (which is more than $495,000 at this time). The World Chess Championship was set in 3 places at New York, Philadelphia and Montreal. The winner will be the one who get the first 10 points excluding the draws. Lasker got the first 10 points and formally recognized as 2nd official world chess champion.
Some of the influential players was not convinced about the result, maybe Steinitz was too old, but he proved this convincingly in their re-match in the 1896 World Championship with 10 wins 2 losses and 5 draws. There were some issues about the match, since Lasker was not in the top 4 and not won big international tournaments. But, later on, Lasker proved his title by creating more impressive record. He was 3rd at Hasting 1895, 1st place at St. Petersburg 1895-96, Nuremburg 1896, etc.
In January 1920, Lasker and Capablanca signed an agreement for 1921 World Championship match. It was set at Havana, Cuba with huge amount of fund $20,000 ($11,000 for Lasker and $9,000 for Capablanca) plus $5,000 ($3,000 for winner and $2,000 for loser).
He lost his title in this match with 0 win, 4 losses and 10 draws.
In January 11, 1941, he died and buried at Beth Olom Cemetery in New York.
There are 1126 games listed in the chessbase.
Let’s look of his best games which feature in our GMG page.
https://www.chess.com/blog/GMG29/the-mysterious-rook
By Coach Gerald