A pic is worth a 1,000 words
PLAYMATE 1968 and CHESS
That is right! 1968. Who cares if the board is not set correctly?
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120-YEARS AGO TODAY…
On this day in 1894, the 25-year old Emanuel Lasker won the world chess championship by defeating W.Steinitz.
”Initially Lasker 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.)
The match was played in 1894, at venues in New York, Philadelphia, and Montreal.
Posing for a photo while playing in 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. Lasker thus became the second formally recognized World Chess Champion, and confirmed his title by beating Steinitz even more convincingly in their re-match in 1896–97 (ten wins, five draws, and two losses).”
LINK
Curiously, even though Lasker very much deserved and merited his victory over Steinitz, he felt a certain sadness for the rest of his life at having defeated a figure that had done so much for the promotion and development of chess. And much of Lasker’s writings in his ‘Manual’ is dedicated to keeping alive Steinitz’ philosophy and theory of the game of chess.
”That Steinitz at the age of fifty-nine was defeated by me and later also by others is due to no defect in his theory. His theory is and forever remains the classical expression of the idea of Chess. But in his play over the board no man arises beyond the height attained by his own time…Had Steinitz lived in our period of improved Chess technique he would have played better Chess than he did and fought also today with honour. For he had all the qualities of a great fighter: force, discernment, conscientiousness, undaunted courage. But his claim on posterity is that he was a great discoverer.” Lasker’s Manual of Chess p.228.
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TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!
Somewhere on a beach in Portugal…
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