Facing Lasker
Submitted by on Sat, 08/29/2009 at 3:32pm.
Which World Champion was the worst to face over the board? Impossible to say, of course, since each one of them would have nailed most of us 12-0 in any given match..
Facing Kasparov or Aljechin always led to a lot of tension, over the board and off, and will range high in such a competition. These 2 also were the absolutely dominating player of their time. Facing Fischer is a chapter of its own, in particular in the candidates tournament leading up to Reykjavik, 1972.
Facing Emanuel Lasker was a special tough task. He became the 2nd World Champion in 1894, finishing off the Steinitz period. He played 7 WC matches, winning them all, until he played the 8th against Capablanca in 1921 and lost. The match scores speak for themselves,
1894 against Steinitz 12 - 7
1896/7 against Steinitz 12,5 - 4,5
1907 against Marshall 11,5 - 3,5
1908 against Tarrasch 10,5 - 5,5
1909 against Janowsky 8 - 2
1910 against Schlechter 5 - 5
1910 against Janowsky 9,5 - 1,5
1921 lost to Capablanca by 9 - 5
The match against Schlecher was the only with some equality. Schlechter won game 5 and had advantage in game 10, but this game Lasker won in the end. The rest of the games were draws. In any case, Schlechter distinguished himself by being the first person in 16 years to seriously threaten to claim Lasker's world title.
Three of these matches had something none other WC match have had : Marshall (1907) and Janowsky (1910) didn't even win a single game. Only draws (that was counted into the score) made these players avoid the 0 number in the final score. And finally, Lasker himself also failed to win a game against Capablanca, a kind of tasting his own medicine..
What made it so difficult to face Lasker? Beside being the dominant player these years, he introduced psycology into the game, making his opponent playing style and temperament a factor. His opponents must have felt they were playing with
glass-brains, and Lasker could read every thought they had... He often drove the game into positions, inferior for him, but at the same time reaching a position his opponent didn't liked. He then played very bold for a while, making it hard for the opponent to find the right moves. The drawing skills of the time, wasn't much developed eighter, making many games a win or loose situation.
Well, this was supposed to be all about Marshall, not Lasker anyway... Since my little series of WC stories is all about the losers, not the winners.. (Bronstein, Short, Topalov ..) What happend in New York 1907, making it impossible to win
againt Lasker? We don't know of course, but Marshall probably wasn't ready for it against the 9 year older and more experienced Lasker. He tried out some of his trademarks, the "swindle tricks" but each time Lasker had seen it coming, and
was prepared. He sacrificed pieces, only to find out they were unsound sacrifices. Marshall was no novice at all, being the US Champion from 1909 (or 1904) - 1936 he was among the very best in the world at his time. But Lasker was a number too big for him and in fact it was hard to find any game Marshall could have won at all. So instead I give you game 15. Last game, and last chance to beat Mr. See It All.. The game much reflects the whole match, it all was a bridge too far....