Product Description
One of the Great Chess Tournaments of All Time! The Famous Tournament Book by the Second World Chess Champion The International Chess Congress at St. Petersburg was the premier event of 1909, by far the strongest chess competition held that year. Even today, St. Petersburg 1909 ranks high on any list of top tournaments, a trial of skill which produced more than a few "anthology" games. In February 1909, nineteen of the world's best chessplayers gathered in St. Petersburg to play in one of the most famous tournaments in chess history. World Champion Emanuel Lasker topped the list of competitors, which also included Akiva Rubinstein, considered by many to be Lasker's likely successor, Carl Schlecter, who would play one of the most infamous matches against Lasker a year later, and many other of the "greats" of the era Spielmann, Bernstein, Teichmann, Mieses and Tartakower, to name but a few. This is the official tournament book available for the first time in English in algebraic notation written by Emanuel Lasker. He annotated all 175 games in the clear, instructive style that would become his trademark. The great 1909 International Chess Congress has long since taken its place among the greatest chess tournaments of all time. Now you may experience this 21st-century edition of Lasker's terrific tournament book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

St. Petersburg 1909
O que atrai neste livro, que não precisaria de nada além para atrair tendo em vista o autor, foi uma opinião de Alekhine: "Emmanuel Lasker tem sido meu mestre toda minha vida. Se não fosse por ele eu não seria o que sou. Seu livro sobre o torneio de San Petersburgo 1909 foi para mim uma espécie de catecismo ao longo de todos esses anos. Tenho estudado uma e outra vez cada uma das idéias que Lasker comenta neste livro, e durante anos o tenho comigo dia e noite. A idéia de xadrez como arte seria inimaginável sem Emmanuel Lasker" É certo que essa opinião de Alekhine foi por ele mesmo contestada, quando anos depoisescreveu uma série de artigos para Pariser Zeitung. Mas o contexto em que isso se deu foge um pouco do presente assunto. A respeito do livro e do autor há muitas implicações que até hoje convergem na história do xadrez. Para quem tem interese em conhecer o status quo do xadrez contemporaneo, uma das vertentes obrigatórias passa por Tarrasch, Steinitz, Lasker. Neste livro será possível principalmente aprender xadrez e inevitavelmente, por tabela, aprender história do xadrez. Para mim, como estudioso do xadrez, tem sido um trabalho mais lento, mas nem por isso menos gratificante em termos de conhecimento, o fato de estar traduzindo do ingles para o portugues, para entender as idéias de Lasker, que se não foi o maior, foi certamente um dos maiores campeões da história do xadrez.

Classic Lasker
I can't comment on the review of the Kindle edition that criticized the formatting. I can tell you that most everything ever written by Emanuel Lasker, the second world chess champion, is still considered topical and instructive. I have the hard copy (i.e., traditional book) version.

St. Petersburg 1909 was where Akiba Rubinstein was recognized by most as being the legitimate challenger to Lasker. He defeated Lasker in their individual encounter in this tournament (a very famous game in its own right). Lasker does not burden the reader with extremely deep notes; his style had always been when annotating a game to give clear guidance to the reader about the ebb and flow of the game. For players of less than master strength, his notes will be exactly what is needed.

Don't buy this Kindle version of a great tournament book
I just returned this Kindle book to Amazon. It is badly misformatted in places. You see the discussion of a position starting with, say, move 15. Unfortunately, there is no diagram of the position at this point, no name of the game or who it is played between, no list of moves that have been made -- just a discussion of the moves! I found this in two places and had to return the book.

I eventually noticed that the games discussed were way further forward in the file. That is no excuse, and at least in the poorly formatted areas, the book is unreadable.

I own a copy of this book, just wanted to have it on my Kindle. Not this version! I hope this is corrected.

The diagrams that existed were fine, and I was otherwise pleased enough with the book. Most players would need a chessboard to follow the annotations -- they couldn't just read the book and follow the games -- there weren't enough diagrams to do that. I just opened SCID (Linux equivalent to Chessbase) on my computer and followed along. Till I got to the totally messed-up stuff. ... Read more

Product Description
Dr. Lasker’s original text on opening play, attack, defense, endgame, with analyses of games by Morphy, Steinitz, Tarrasch, Dr. Lasker.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

BAD -- LEARN NOTHING FROM IT
Ok , before you buy a book look how many pages it is and how many reviews it has received . DO NOT LOOK AT NUMBER OF STARS . 4 stars with less than 10 reviews does not mean much . This book is useless . 128 pages and you won't learn a thing from it . Not to blame the author -- you cannot put down the game of chess in 128 pages . Seriously , no . I don't care how big a genius you are . Take my advice -- stay away from this and you won't be disappointed like me .

Great Starter Book
The author of this book, Emmanuel Lasker is one of the immortal figures of chess and held the World Championship in the early 20th century for 27 years.This is a great little chess primer for the beginning student of chess.Learn and enjoy!

A Classic of Chess Literature Still very Useful for Novices

In this book Lasker offers the novice many valuable hints which will improve his game rapidly. The book deals with each part of the game with the aid of general principles.

If you are an experienced or already an strong player you won't benefit from this book. Chances are that you will find the book too basic or obvious, but if you are a newcomer to the world of chess you have something to win from reading and studying this book.

The book is wrote in an clear and conversational way, such as the one of a lecturer. Any novice will find expositions of the basic problems common to every game of chess.

Old age, old ideas
Dr. Lasker was a great world champion in his time, but that doesn't say that he was a good teacher as well (Dr. Tarrash on the other hand, wasn't a world champion, but he was a great tutor). Lasker's "Common sense in Chess" suffers from a serious weaknesses. The first one is Lasker's type of player. He was a "practical" player more than a theory creator. That helped him, I guess, to keep the title for more than 20 years, but didn't help him to explain in this book the thoughts behind the ideas, to show us how to observe complicated positions, and to understand the game better, like Tarrash did. Second weakness of the book is its age: It was written in 1895. Being an old book doesn't mean that it must be a bad one, but in this case it does. Short time after the book was released, theory revolution started by the "hyper modern" masters - Nimzovich, Reti, Alekhine, Breyer etc. Reti, in his classic "Modern ideas in Chess", demonstrates very well how the old Steinitz school masters, including Lasker, failed to understand the new ideas of the young masters. This revolution, that is represented well by Nimzovich and Reti, and is agreed to be the basic foundation of the modern Chess, is not in this book. So besides a limited historical value, this book had lost its importance years ago, unlike "My system", for example.

You said Common Sense?
This was a disappointing buy to me. Common sense is a large topic and this book didn't give me what I was expecting from it.
The matters are treated in a too slim way, and games analysis are from openings we usually do not see any more. A large subject but a small treatment. But maybe I just didn't understand it? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Biography of a great man, mathematician , philosopher and chess master !!

This book is great in all senses: the information about the man and the epoch, the chess tournaments, the life of without doubt the greatest chess master ever, and probably he will remain insuperable, because he was not "only" a chess world champion, but also a "real" philosopher and mathematician in all the sense of those terms. So is sad when you hear that he has been called "a chess-coffee master" or something like that... ¿How dare them? His triumphs in life as a whole are innumerables, and in chess, without equal... "In august 1936 (Nottingham 1936), he once again amazed the chess world by a performance no one could possibly expect of him... achieved what seemed a miracle at the beginning of the tournament: he had caught up with the leaders every one of whom ranked among the world's top-players and was by decades his juniors (Botvinnik, Capablanca, Euwe, Fine, Reshevsky and Alekhine)... To have maintained his place among those leaders at the age of 68 was, perhaps, one of the greatest achievements in Lasker's long career..." (pgs. 297,299). This book, moreover, is beautifully written.

This is a nice collection of Lasker's games.
This book is a combination of a biography and game collection. There are 102 games in the book. The games are given in descriptive notation. The annotations were collected. Many of them are from the original book of the tournament that they were played in, however there are alot of games annotated by Reinfeld and Reti. Most of the annotations are light, and there is only one diagram per game. For about 60% of the tournaments that Lasker played in, full results are given. The theory in the book that Lasker played pyschological chess was Reti's theory.
The biography side of the book is pretty interesting. For the sake of those who aren't Yiddish speakers, the term 'chammer', which appears in the beginning of the book, really should be 'chammore', and means donkey. For some reason, this is the Yiddish phrase used to insult someone of less than average intelligence.

An Excellent Biography and Lots of Great Games
Emanuel Lasker was one of the four or five greatest chess players of all time, an outstanding player of many other games, and an outstanding mathematician and philosopher.The biography is a good read, but the gamesalone are worth the price of the book.They are in descriptive notation. I know a lot of players don't like descriptive notation, but there is amountain of low-priced classic chess literature in descriptive notation, ofwhich this book is just one of the many outstanding examples.Take myadvice: Learn descriptive and read the classics.You won't regret theexperience.

A great book about the greatest player
Another Dover reprint! You know I rate Dover books highly. This one is top notch too, reaching their usual high standards for binding etc. The original print is retained which is good as the diagrams from the hardcoveredition were excellent. [For computer users they are the Hastings font ] The translation to English was done by Heinrich Fraenkel ('Assiac') and isexcellent. The games are typical of Lasker - all fighting games ( there arelosses) and all show his grim determination to win. But the best part isthe biography. Lasker was a highly intelligent man, who only played chessout of necessity. We are treated to a description of his youth, hisrelationship with his brother, Berthold, who became a famous Doctor. Butthe real story is his romancing of Martha his wife. Great human interest,great chess, and we also get the crosstables for the events that Laskerplayed in. A must buy for all players no matter their strength. ... Read more

Product Description
"Lasker's Manual of Chess" is one of the greatest chess books ever written. The fact that it was first published over 80 years ago has diminished neither its relevance nor significance in today's modern chess world.Lasker was both a wonderful fighter and a deep thinker; his book is the quintessence of the exceptionally successful experiences he had over many long years, and his thoughts about them. He teaches what he himself considers most important: general principles and methods applicable to any situation. Once you have read the "Manual", you will become smarter - afterwards, this is bound to help you, both in chess and in life.Emanuel Lasker, the Second World Champion, begins at the most basic level, explaining the board, the pieces, how they move and then goes on to describe the fundamentals of chess strategy, chess tactics and even chess philosophy.The result is one of best chess books ever written. This 21st Century Edition has been supplemented with dozens of archival photographs of Lasker and his contemporaries. In addition, an entertaining and instructive feature, "Lasker Lore," highlights the chess history and trivia of the Lasker era.Finally, if the significance of "Lasker's Chess Manual," needed to offer more, the greatest chess instructor of the modern era, Mark Dvoretsky, has penned a special foreword to this new edition of the legendary classic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Chess for Everyone
This is one of the best books I have ever read about chess.It's a wonderful "how to" with many great examples and illustrations.

A Classic for the 21st-Century Chess Player
The original Lasker's Manual of Chess was recognized in its day as being one of the best chess books ever written. Time has not diminished its significance. What was needed was a "modern" version, using algebraic notation, with more diagrams.

This edition published by Russell Enterprises hits the nail on the head. Not only is the original text preserved, the notation has been converted from the antiquated English Descriptive to English Figurine Algebraic and lots of new diagrams added.

In addition, there are photographs (not in the original edition) as well as segments called "Lasker Lore" - a bit of history about the author and his times.

An absolute must for all chessplayers. Well done!

Parker Rose

Lasker's Manual of Chess
Very thorough treatment of the subject, for beginners to more experienced players.An excellent resource to learn the game.

Much improved edition of a great chess book
This is a review of the new (Russell) edition of Lasker's Manual. Lasker's Manual is justly famous as one of the greatest ever chess books - and the glowing foreword the book receives from Mark Dvoretsky, in this new Russell edition, reiterates the greatness of both Lasker and his Manual. It is an indispensible book for every chess enthusiast's library. But in which edition?
My four star rating (which is, perhaps, a tad harsh) relates specifically to this edition rather than to Lasker's content which, of course, deserves the highest possible rating.
In comparison with the older Dover edition this new Russell edition is a huge improvement. The older Dover edition suffered from having too few diagrams, poor quality diagrams, hard to read print, poor layout, and descriptive notation. All these drawbacks are very well addressed in the Russell edition which is beautifully produced and has an exemplary layout (among the very best I've seen in a chess book). This Russell edition also has lots of wonderful old photographs and numerous anecdotal asides ("Lasker Lore"). In addition all the analysis has been computer checked for the Russell edition - which confirms the high quality and accuracy of Lasker's analysis.
So why four stars? The editor does admit to some editing of Lasker's words and, for me, this is a negative. I want to read what Lasker wrote - not what someone else thinks he should have written. However, in fairness to the editor, it must be admitted (and I do so having compared the two editions) that any such editing is very light. The Dover edition contains two Lasker prefaces - one to the initial German edition and the other to the later English edition - the Russell edition contains only the first of these. Also missing from the Russell edition is the "Lasker Appreciation" by Fred Reinfield in the Dover edition. But these are minor quibbles/omissions in this wonderful edition of Lasker's great book.
In short, the Russell edition of Lasker's "Manual of Chess" is a must buy for chess enthusiasts.

SUPERB
This has got to be one of the top chess books . It is superbly written and by that I mean 6 stars . Lasker was world champion for 28 years -- you read his book and you will be champion in your small league for sure!!
I haven't gone through the whole book but already am losing sleep over it --- it is that good !! Do yourself a favor -- pick this up NOW . I am an average player and I do not write good reviews like this . Lasker will show u how and why to play . Will definitely improve your rating to 2000+ -- NO MATTER WHERE YOU START FROM !! If you do not see any improvement , I will say this --- you have not read this book ! It probably stayed on your shelf for too long . ... Read more

Product Description
The ChessCafe World Chess Champions Series Emanuel Lasker was a great chess fighter, thinker and researcher. He was possessed of gigantic playing strength, retaining the title of World s Number One Chessplayer for 27(!) years. Even after losing his crown, he kept his ability for a long time, as shown by his victories and prize-winning finishes in immensely powerful international tournaments when he was 54 (Moravska-Ostrava 1923), 55 (New York 1924), 56 (Moscow 1925), and even at 66 (Moscow 1935)! One of the chief postulates of the Second World Champion was the battle of honor. On the chessboard, lies and dishonesty have no place. These words of Lasker could serve, even today, as an example to every young chessplayer of how to relate to the Great Game. Emanuel Lasker was the first in history to achieve a universal style. This was a Style of the Future, which is why the Second World Champion would not be understood by many of his contemporaries, who believed that he had no style at all. Lasker s games of chess, like his entire chess legacy, will live forever! Join Russian chess historians Isaak and Vladimir Linder as they take you on a journey exploring the life and games of the great world champion Emanuel Lasker. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A great book on the greatest fighter of chess world.
Fist of all I must say that the notation in this book is descriptive. But I think any one who has I. Q. can usually get used to it. If you have brought Soltis book on " Why Lasker matters ". Then I strongly recommend you to buy this book as well. Though I think some annotation of games may be false, since this book was first problished in Germana in 1952 and later translated into English. I think one very important point that Soltis' lacking is the human side of Lasker. Both chooses hundred of games, but this book spends considerable pages on the biography of Lasker. Lasker really is a " figher", as I have written in the review on" Soltis " book, if all the past champions can re-incarnate, then learn the current opening theory etc, and play matchs with Fischer or Kasparov, only Lasker can draw or even beat F or K. As stated in the mentioned review, the reason is not other champions who ches ability miles away compared with Fischer or Kasparov, the fact is simply these " Champions cannot cope the the tremendous pressure generated by F or K. " BUT Lasker can." I also wants to mention one more thing is that, besides a Chess World Champion, Lasker was also a great mathematcian of the firt category with contributing to the ring theory of Algebra. But Lasker is only forever remembered as a great Champion only especiall today.

Synopsis
First published in 1959. With a foreword by Albert Einstein. Emanuel Lasker held the World Chess Championship for a record period from 1894-1921. During this time he dominated his contemporaries in elite events such as St Petersburg 1896, London 1899, Paris 1900 and St Petersburg again in 1914. He won numerous matches against such greats as Steinitz, Marshall, Janowski and Tarrasch, as well as defending his title in a drawn match against Schlechter. This account of Lasker's life and games reads like a novel - how as a young man he fought his way to the world title while still in his twenties, how he survived the First World War and the later Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany, and how Lasker emerged at over 60 years of age to once again carve out a career for himself amongst the hungry young lions of world chess.

Lasker is one of the all time chess greats and this gripping book does full justice to his achievements. The author Dr Jacques Hannak was a German expert and chess author of the first half of the 20th century. He was also responsible for a biography of Steinitz. The translation into English is by Heinrich Fraenkel, the endgame study enthusiast, who wrote a regular column for the New Statesman magazine under the pseudonym Assiac. Hardinge Simpole have also reprinted Assiac's other main contribution to the literature of the 64 squares - Delights of chess.
... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Lasker we hardly knew you
I was in my 20's, and already a budding chess fan, when Fischer won the title. Hundreds of chess books and many years later, I realized that, of all the game's champions, I knew little about Lasker, other than the duration of his reign and his reputation as a "practical" player. (Should there be any other kind?) I am an avid d4 player, so when I realized that a large number of games in this book were not only the Ruy, but the Steinitz Ruy, I wasn't sure of my interest. But these games are pure chess delight.
It must be said that Lasker and his contempories played when opening theory often went 6 moves deep, not 16. They developed many of the concepts that comprise today's basic toolkit. So even the errors are instructive. The games are intense struggles and Lasker was a genius when judging a position's best opportunities(hence his "practicality"),doing so while facing a variety of openings and defenses. He also played prophylactic chess at a very high level. And his endgames are dazzling. Soltis places every game, and many variations, into their historical context, adding drama and flavor to games already rich in ideas. He is unafraid to disagree with many chess authors as to their take on Lasker's games. This book is for all chess lovers.

A monument to Lasker
Tal, Alekhine and Korchnoi love(d) him. Fischer, Larsen and Kasparov show considerably less regard. Soltis tries to convince us that the "good doctor" matters. To justify his thesis Soltis firmly believes that the best way is not to tell us, but show us. The 100 games are covered in 320 pages--80 more pages than he devoted to "Bobby Fischer Rediscovered." In his usual style Soltis sets the historical stage for each encounter and highlights those themes and critical points which reveal Lasker qua Lasker: His games are replete with calculated risk-taking, material sacrifices for positional gains, middlegame-to-endgame transitional skill, making the best practical moves, targets, subterfuge, insight into opponent's style, and complicating when the situation merits it.

During this exciting expose of a dynamic and resourceful genius, Soltis dispels some popular myths about Lasker the mesmerist, psychologist, sorcerer--early 20th century pseudo-intellectual nonsense which has clouded Lasker's real legacy. Lasker simply appeared to be ahead of his time and modern players will feel right at home studying his games.

This in my estimation is Soltis' best work, a monument to Lasker.

Of course, Lasker matters!!! Andrew Soltis, you have done a good job!!!
I totally agree with another reader's review title. To me, Lasker is one of the three strongest chess champions in the history. The other two are Fischer and Kasparov. I do not use the word greatest as I think in each generation each Chess Champion were the greatest in their days, otherwise they would not be Champions. But why I specifically mention these three? I think it lay on the fact that all champions are genius, but one point is the degree of stress they can withstand makes the 3 mentioned above to stand apart from the other champions. I always imagine that if the past champions re-incarnate, study current theories, like Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik etc, they would still lose to Fischer and Kasparov. The fact is not their chess knowledge and play are worse than Fischeror Kasparov, but they cannot withstand the enormous pressure from these two. As Korchnoi once commented about his chance against Fischer, he said that he was not afraid of Fischer, but only in one or two games, concerning a match, he said he has no chance to survive. This apply to Kasparov' opponents as well. Only I think Lasker can stand against Fischer or Kasparov. One point or the points most of us neglect is that Lasker, besides being a chess champion, he was also amathematician and philosopher as well. He knew pschology no less than Fischer or Kasparov, in withstanding severe pressure, I conjecture he might be even better than the two.Though I am a fervent fan of Fischer and Kasparov, I still have to disdain their commments on Lasker. Fischer said Lasker was just a coffeehouse player and Kasparov said that thequality of match of Lasker's was poor. No!!! One cannot use today's standard to comment on the past. Otherwise I can laugh at Newton's concept of absolute space and time!!! In fact when I played through Lasker's games, I find them as interesting as Fischer's and Kasparov's games. Take just two examples, one can found a game as wild as the one between Lasker and Pillsbury in the third round of St. Petesburg 1895/1896 and as stategic as the one fromLasker's famous win over the almost invincible Capablanca in St. Petersburg in 1914 using a drawish opening and in fact he absolutely needed a win paradoxically!!.Andew Soltis, you have done a very good job!!

Worth buying
There have been several books already written yet Soltis manages to infuse something new and informative.
I find his comments vastly more interesting than Kasparov's in the chapter on Lasker in his series of previous World Champions.

yes, lasker does matter
this is an up-to-date look at laskers greatest games. i was hoping for more of a biographical section but you could tell soltis was just wanting to focus on the games. the analysis is just right, no endless variations but enough to make you make. ... Read more

Product Description
This Book Is In Spanish. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more