Wishing all his readers and fellow chess enthusiasts a happy holiday and a ratings-enhancing 2024, David Sands is taking a break this week to work on his queen-and-pawn endgames. The following is a reprint of a column that first ran on Dec. 25, 2018.
It technically came a day early, but the chess world was given a wonderful Christmas present 150 years ago on Dec. 24, 1868, with the birth of Emanuel Lasker in the German (now Polish) town of Berlinchen.
The young mathematician would wrest the world chess title from Austria’s Wilhelm Steinitz in 1894 and hold the crown for a record 27 years before he was dethroned by Jose Raul Capablanca in 1921. He won some of the most storied tournaments in history — London 1899, St. Petersburg 1909 and 1914, New York 1924 — and was still competing at a world-class level against a rising generation of masters into the 1930s.
Revered — perhaps a little too much — as a master of the psychological aspects of the game, Lasker was a brilliant tactician, a profound strategist and an underappreciated endgame specialist. He was the least dogmatic of the game’s great players, running up massive plus scores against more “scientific” rivals such as Siegbert Tarrasch.
Tarrasch, Lasker once said, “admires an idea in chess for its depth. I admire it for its efficacy. … I think that by being strong, a move is beautiful, too.”
His ruthless pragmatism makes Lasker something of an acquired taste for many, but a taste that ages like a fine wine. “The older the player is,” Russian-American GM Lev Alburt once wrote, “the greater the odds his idol is Lasker.”
It is no chore to admire the vast number of fine Lasker games, such as his win over English star H.E. Bird in Bird’s eponymous opening from an 1892 tournament. Black gambits a pawn for easy development, puts White’s pieces on awkward squares and cashes in with a clever winning motif.
Lasker has no compunction about trading queens given the better placement of his minor pieces, and secures a clamp on the position after 24. Be3 h3 25. Bxg5? (better was 25. Kb2 g3 26. hxg3 h2 27. Rh1 Rg8 28. Rxh2 Ng4 29. Bg1 Nxh2 30. Bxh2 Rd8, and White’s still in the game) g3! 26. hxg3 Rf1+ 27. Kb2 (Rd1?? hxg2! 28. Ne2 Bg4) Rxa1 28. Kxa1 h2 29. Rd1 Ng4, and White is tied up in knots.
Black cashes in with 33. Kd2 Rxe4! 34. Nd1 (Nxe4 Bxe4 35. Rc1 Bxg2 36. Kd3 c5 37. a3 h1=Q) Rd4+ 35. Ke2 Rxd1! 36. Rxd1 Be4 37. Rd8+ Kc7 38. Rd1 (Rh8 Bxg2 39. Rxh2 Nxh2 40. Bf4+ Kb6 41. Be3+ Kb5 42. Kf2 Ng4+ 43. Kxg2 Nxe3+ 44. Kf2 Nxc2 and wins) Bxg2 39. Bd8+ Kc8 40. Bb6 Bd5! (Lasker was not about to overlook 40…h1=Q?? 41. Rd8 mate) 41. c4 h1=Q 42. Rxh1 Bxh1 and White resigned.
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Lasker famously founded no school and collected no disciples, but his influence and insights continue to enhance the modern game. In an 1889 game against Czech master Johann Bauer, Lasker first played the two-bishop sacrifice that is now part of the basic grammar of combinational chess.
Picking it up from the diagram, where the unsuspecting Bauer as Black has just played 13…a7-a6, White uncorks 14. Nh5! Nxh5 15. Bxh7+! Kxh7 16. Qxh5+ Kg8 17. Bxg7!! — the magnificent second punch in the one-two combination. The bishops rip the pawn cover from the Black king, and the White queen and rook take it from there.
There followed 17…Kxg7 18. Qg4+ Kh7 19. Rf3 e5 (the only way to stop immediate mate) 20. Rh3+ Qh6 21. Rxh6+ Kxh6 22. Qd7! Bf6 23. Qxb7, and White went on to win easily in 38 moves.
(Click on the image above for a larger view of the chessboard.)
Bird-Lasker, Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, August 1892
1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 d6 3. exd6 Bxd6 4. Nf3 g5 5. d4 g4 6. Ne5 Bxe5 7. dxe5 Qxd1+ 8. Kxd1 Nc6 9. Bf4 Be6 10. e3 Nge7 11. Bb5 O-O-O 12. Kc1 Bd5 13. Rg1 a6 14. Be2 Be6 15. Nc3 h6 16. Bd3 Ng6 17. Bxg6 fxg6 18. Rd1 Rde8 19. e4 g5 20. Bg3 Rhf8 21. b3 h5 22. Rd2 h4 23. Bf2 Nxe5 24. Be3 h3 25. Bxg5 g3 26. hxg3 Rf1+ 27. Kb2 Rxa1 28. Kxa1 h2 29. Rd1 Ng4 30. Rh1 Bf7 31. Kb2 c6 32. Kc1 Bg6 33. Kd2 Rxe4 34. Nd1 Rd4+ 35. Ke2 Rxd1 36. Rxd1 Be4 37. Rd8+ Kc7 38. Rd1 Bxg2 39. Bd8+ Kc8 40. Bb6 Bd5 41. c4 h1=Q 42. Rxh1 Bxh1 White resigns.
• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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