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88-448: This is the most common sequence, but the knights may develop in any order to reach the same position. The opening is fairly popular with beginners who strictly adhere to the opening principle: "Develop knights before bishops ." It was one of the workhorses in the family of the Open Game , at even the highest levels, until World War I. Thereafter it fell by the wayside, along with

176-505: A theorem on primary decompositions of which Emmy Noether developed a more generalized form, which is now regarded as of fundamental importance to modern algebra and algebraic geometry . Lasker held short-term positions as a mathematics lecturer at Tulane University in New Orleans (1893) and Victoria University in Manchester (1901; Victoria University was one of the "parents" of

264-532: A "psychological" approach to the game, and even that he sometimes deliberately played inferior moves to confuse opponents. Recent analysis, however, indicates that he was ahead of his time and used a more flexible approach than his contemporaries, which mystified many of them. Lasker knew contemporary analyses of openings well but disagreed with many of them. He published chess magazines and five chess books, but later players and commentators found it difficult to draw lessons from his methods. Lasker made contributions to

352-449: A better chance for White to play for equality is 5.Nxe4, even though 5...d5 regains the piece with a good game, e.g., 6.Bd3 (6.Bxd5? Qxd5 7.Nc3 Qd8 Estrin ; 6.Bb5 ?! dxe4 7.Nxe5 Qg5! Collijn 's Lärobok ; 6.d4 dxc4 7.d5 Ne7 8.Nc3 c6 Cordel–Schupli, 1905) 6...dxe4 (the recently discovered 6...Nb4 is also playable) 7.Bxe4 Bd6 8.d4 Nxd4 9.Nxd4 exd4 10.Qxd4 0-0 11.Be3 (11.0-0 ?? Bxh2+ wins) Qe7 (Tartakower–Atkins, London 1922) and now

440-424: A bishop, a knight is often not as good in an endgame. A knight can exert control over only one part of the board at a time and often takes multiple moves to reposition to a new location, which often makes it less suitable in endgames with pawns on both sides of the board. This limitation is less important, however, in endgames with pawns on only one side of the board. Knights are superior to bishops in an endgame if all

528-401: A bitter enemy of Steinitz. One of the complaints was that Lasker had never played the other two members of the top four, Siegbert Tarrasch and Mikhail Chigorin – although Tarrasch had rejected a challenge from Lasker in 1892, publicly telling him to go and win an international tournament first. After the match some commentators, notably Tarrasch, said Lasker had won mainly because Steinitz

616-489: A brilliant answer on the chessboard, winning four of the first five games, and playing a type of chess Tarrasch could not understand. For example, in the second game after 19 moves arose a situation ( diagram ) in which Lasker was a pawn down, with a bad bishop and doubled pawns . At this point it appeared Tarrasch was winning, but 20 moves later he was forced to resign . Lasker eventually won by 10½–5½ (eight wins, five draws, and three losses). Tarrasch claimed

704-415: A draw). At the beginning, Lasker tried to attack but Schlechter had no difficulty defending, so that the first four games finished in draws. In the fifth game Lasker had a big advantage, but committed a blunder that cost him the game. Hence at the middle of the match Schlechter was one point ahead. The next four games were drawn, despite fierce play from both players. In the sixth Schlechter managed to draw

792-453: A game being a pawn down. In the seventh Lasker nearly lost because of a beautiful exchange sacrifice from Schlechter. In the ninth only a blunder from Lasker allowed Schlechter to draw a lost ending . The score before the last game was thus 5–4 for Schlechter. In the tenth game Schlechter tried to win tactically and took a big advantage, but he missed a clear win at the 35th move, continued to take increasing risks and finished by losing. Hence

880-514: A king, the game is a draw since a checkmate is impossible. When a lone king faces a king and two knights, a checkmate can never be forced ; checkmate can occur only if the opponent commits a blunder by moving their king to a square where it can be checkmated on the next move. Checkmate can be forced with a bishop and knight , however, or with two bishops, even though the bishop and knight are in general about equal in value. Paradoxically, checkmate with two knights sometimes can be forced if

968-399: A lead of at least two games by the end of the match, it should be considered a draw; the match should be limited to the best of thirty games, counting draws; except that if either player won six games and led by at least two games before thirty games were completed, he should be declared the winner; the champion should decide the venue and stakes, and should have the exclusive right to publish

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1056-459: A match. Tarrasch haughtily declined, stating that Lasker should first prove his mettle by attempting to win one or two major international events. Rebuffed by Tarrasch, Lasker challenged the reigning World Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz , to a match for the title. Initially Lasker wanted to play for US$ 5,000 a side, and a match was agreed to at stakes of $ 3,000 a side, but Steinitz agreed to a series of reductions when Lasker found it difficult to raise

1144-522: A number of other Open Games. In this period ambitious players explored the Ruy Lopez , believing it a better attempt by White to exploit the advantage of the first move . In the 1990s, this opening saw a renaissance, and is now seen in the praxis of players from beginner to grandmaster . The Four Knights usually leads to quiet positional play , though there are some sharp variations. The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings has three codes for

1232-410: A queen and a knight is usually a better combination than a queen and a bishop. However, Glenn Flear found no game of Capablanca's that supported his statement; statistics do not support the statement, either. In an endgame without other pieces or pawns, two knights generally have a better chance of forming a drawing fortress against a queen than do two bishops or a bishop and a knight. Compared to

1320-567: A registered teacher of the Culbertson system. He became an expert bridge player, representing Germany at international events in the early 1930s, and wrote Das Bridgespiel ("The Game of Bridge ") in 1931. In October 1928 Emanuel Lasker's brother Berthold died. In spring 1933 Adolf Hitler started a campaign of discrimination and intimidation against Jews , depriving them of their property and citizenship . Lasker and his wife Martha, who were both Jewish, were forced to leave Germany in

1408-538: A world title match with Akiba Rubinstein , whose tournament record for the previous few years had been on a par with Lasker's and a little ahead of Capablanca's. The two players agreed to play a match if Rubinstein could raise the funds, but Rubinstein had few rich friends to back him and the match was never played. This situation demonstrated some of the flaws inherent in the championship system then being used. The start of World War I in summer 1914 put an end to hopes that Lasker would play either Rubinstein or Capablanca for

1496-543: Is a piece in the game of chess , represented by a horse's head and neck. It moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically, jumping over other pieces. Each player starts the game with two knights on the b- and g- files , each located between a rook and a bishop . Compared to other chess pieces, the knight's movement is unique: it moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically (with both forming

1584-418: Is on a white square and it is White's turn to move, White cannot win. Similarly, if the knight were on a black square and it were Black's turn to move, White cannot win. In the other two cases, White would win. If instead of the knight, White had a bishop on either color of square, White would win with either side to move. In an endgame where one side has only a king and a knight while the other side has only

1672-647: Is relevant in some mathematical problems . For example, the knight's tour problem is the problem of finding a series of moves by a knight on a chessboard in which every square is visited exactly once. Even among sets of the standard Staunton pattern, the style of the pieces varies. The knights vary considerably. Here are some examples. Unicode defines three codepoints for a knight: ♘ U+2658 White Chess Knight ♞ U+265E Black Chess Knight 🨄 U+1FA04 Neutral Chess Knight Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker ( German pronunciation: [eˈmaːnuɛl ˈlaskɐ] ; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941)

1760-399: Is the keima of shogi , which moves like a knight but can move only two squares forward followed by one square sideways, restricting its movement to two possible squares. The knight is colloquially sometimes referred to as a "horse", which is also the translation of the piece's name in several languages: Spanish caballo , Italian cavallo , Russian конь , etc. Some languages refer to it as

1848-588: Is via the Giuoco Piano by 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Nc3 Nf6. The line is a favourite among younger players due to its simple and easy development, but was also used successfully by Nigel Short against Antoaneta Stefanova . The problem with playing for this position via the Four Knights Game is that after 4.Bc4, Black can perform the center fork trick by pseudo- sacrificing a knight with 4...Nxe4!. Then 5.Bxf7+?, though superficially attractive, relinquishes

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1936-401: The center of the board, where they have up to eight moves, and weakest in a corner, where they have only two. Enemy pawns are effective at harassing knights because a pawn attacking a knight is not itself attacked by the knight and, because a pawn is worth less than a knight, it does not matter if the knight is defended. For this reason, a knight is effective when placed in a weakness in

2024-673: The Chigorin Memorial in St ;Petersburg 1909. Later, at St Petersburg (1914) , he overcame a 1½-point deficit to finish ahead of the rising stars, Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine , who later became the next two World Champions. For decades chess writers have reported that Tsar Nicholas II of Russia conferred the title of Grandmaster of Chess upon each of the five finalists at St Petersburg 1914 (Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall ), but chess historian Edward Winter has questioned this, stating that

2112-580: The New York 1924 chess tournament (1½ points ahead of Capablanca) and finishing second at Moscow in 1925 (1½ points behind Efim Bogoljubow , ½ point ahead of Capablanca), he effectively retired from serious chess. During the Moscow 1925 chess tournament , Lasker received a telegram informing him that the drama written by himself and his brother Berthold , Vom Menschen die Geschichte  [ de ] ("History of Mankind"), had been accepted for performance at

2200-584: The ideals of polynomial rings . His philosophical works and a drama that he co-wrote, however, received little attention. Emanuel Lasker was born on December 24, 1868, at Berlinchen in Neumark (now Barlinek in Poland ), the son of a Jewish cantor . At the age of eleven he was sent to study mathematics in Berlin, where he lived with his brother Berthold , eight years his senior, who taught him how to play chess. Berthold

2288-522: The "jumper", reflecting the knight's ability to move over pieces in its path: Polish skoczek , Danish/Norwegian springer , Swedish springare , German Springer , Luxembourgish Sprénger , Slovene skakač . In Sicilian it is called sceccu , a slang term for a donkey , derived from the Arabic sheikh , who during the Islamic period rode from village to village on donkeys collecting taxes. The knight

2376-523: The Austrian chess historian Michael Ehn, Lasker agreed to forgo the plus two provision in view of the match being subsequently reduced to only 10 games. For proof Ehn quoted Schlechter's comment printed in Allgemeine Sportzeitung (ASZ) of December 9, 1909 "There will be ten games in all. The winner on points will receive the title of world champion. If the points are equal, the decision will be made by

2464-724: The Four Knights Game: White's most common move is 4.Bb5, the Spanish Variation . This variation can also be reached from the Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defence . After 4.Bb5, Black has four major alternatives. If White plays 4.d4, the Scotch Four Knights Game arises. This leads to a more open position , which can also be reached from the Scotch Game , e.g. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3. This variation

2552-483: The Hauptturnier earned Lasker the title of "master". The candidates were divided into two groups of ten. The top four in each group competed in a final. Lasker won his section, with 2½ points more than his nearest rival. However, scores were reset to 0 for the final. With two rounds to go, Lasker trailed the leader, Viennese amateur von Feierfeil, by 1½ points. Lasker won both of his final games, while von Feierfeil lost in

2640-558: The Lessing theatre in Berlin. Lasker was so distracted by this news that he lost badly to Carlos Torre the same day. The play, however, was not a success. In 1926, Lasker wrote Lehrbuch des Schachspiels , which he re-wrote in English in 1927 as Lasker's Manual of Chess . He also wrote books on other games of mental skill: Encyclopedia of Games (1929) and Das verständige Kartenspiel (means "Sensible Card Play"; 1929; English translation in

2728-620: The Scotch; however, the Belgrade is a distant second in popularity to 5.Nxd4. A further possibility is 4.Bc4, the Italian Four Knights Game , or Prussian Four Knights Game, popular in the 1880s, though this line is regarded as inferior according to Pinski, and an outright mistake by IM Larry D. Evans. Black can preserve the symmetry by 4...Bc5, leading to the quiet Giuoco Pianissimo . A better move order for White that leads to this position

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2816-736: The World ; 1913) and Die Philosophie des Unvollendbar (sic; The Philosophy of the Unattainable ; 1918). In 1896–97 Lasker published his book Common Sense in Chess , based on lectures he had given in London in 1895. In 1903, Lasker played in Ostend against Mikhail Chigorin , a six-game match that was sponsored by the wealthy lawyer and industrialist Isaac Rice in order to test the Rice Gambit . Lasker narrowly lost

2904-564: The World Championship in the near future. Throughout World War I (1914–1918) Lasker played in only two serious chess events. He convincingly won (5½−½) a non-title match against Tarrasch in 1916. In September–October 1918, shortly before the armistice , he won a quadrangular (four-player) tournament, half a point ahead of Rubinstein. Despite his superb playing results, chess was not Lasker's only interest. His parents recognized his intellectual talents, especially for mathematics, and sent

2992-535: The adolescent Emanuel to study in Berlin (where he found he also had a talent for chess). Lasker gained his abitur (high school graduation certificate) at Landsberg an der Warthe , now a Polish town named Gorzów Wielkopolski but then part of Prussia . He then studied mathematics and philosophy at the universities in Berlin, Göttingen (where David Hilbert was one of his doctoral advisors) and Heidelberg . In 1895 he published two mathematical articles in Nature . On

3080-462: The advice of David Hilbert he registered for doctoral studies at Erlangen during 1900–1902. In 1901 he presented his doctoral thesis Über Reihen auf der Convergenzgrenze ("On Series at Convergence Boundaries") at Erlangen and in the same year it was published by the Royal Society . He was awarded a doctorate in mathematics in 1902. His most significant mathematical article, in 1905, published

3168-412: The arbiter." In 1911 Lasker received a challenge for a world title match against the rising star José Raúl Capablanca . Lasker was unwilling to play the traditional "first to win ten games" type of match in the semi-tropical conditions of Havana , especially as drawn games were becoming more frequent and the match might last for over six months. He therefore made a counter-proposal: if neither player had

3256-452: 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 . On May 26, Lasker thus became

3344-426: The bishop pair and central control to Black. After 5...Kxf7 6.Nxe4 d5 7.Neg5+ Kg8, Black is already threatening 8...e4, and after 8.d3 h6 9.Nh3 Bg4, Black has a very powerful position, with an unopposed light-squared bishop, a strong duo of pawns in the centre, and a safe king, while White needs to work out how to get the displaced knight on h3 into play; often it will need to be played back to g1. Rather than 5.Bxf7+?,

3432-481: The board. Richard Réti published a lengthy analysis of Lasker's play in which he concluded that Lasker deliberately played inferior moves that he knew would make his opponent uncomfortable. W. H. K. Pollock commented, "It is no easy matter to reply correctly to Lasker's bad moves." Lasker himself denied the claim that he deliberately played bad moves, and most modern writers agree. According to Grandmaster Andrew Soltis and International Master John L. Watson ,

3520-527: The chess starting position. Knights and bishops, also known as minor pieces , have a value of about three pawns . Bishops utilize a longer range, but they can move only to squares of one color. The knight's value increases in closed positions since it can jump over blockades. Knights and bishops are stronger when supported by other pieces (such as pawns) to create outposts and become more powerful when they advance, as long as they remain active . Generally, knights are strongest in

3608-552: The chessboard when he thinks. I am afraid I will not do anything good in this match." Between his two matches against Janowski, Lasker arranged another World Chess Championship in January–February 1910 against Carl Schlechter . Schlechter was a modest gentleman, who was generally unlikely to win the major chess tournaments by his peaceful inclination, his lack of aggressiveness and his willingness to accept most draw offers from his opponents (about 80% of his games finished by

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3696-448: The current University of Manchester ). However, he was unable to secure a longer-term position, and pursued his scholarly interests independently. In 1906 Lasker published a booklet titled Kampf ( Struggle ), in which he attempted to create a general theory of all competitive activities, including chess, business and war. He produced two other books which are generally categorized as philosophy, Das Begreifen der Welt ( Comprehending

3784-413: The development of other games. He was a first-class contract bridge player and wrote about bridge, Go , and his own invention, Lasca . His books about games presented a problem that is still considered notable in the mathematical analysis of card games . Lasker was a research mathematician who was known for his contributions to commutative algebra , which included proving the primary decomposition of

3872-409: The earliest known sources supporting this story were published in 1940 and 1942. Lasker's match record was as impressive between his 1896–97 rematch with Steinitz and 1914: he won all but one of his normal matches, and three of those were convincing defenses of his title. In 1906 Lasker and Géza Maróczy agreed to terms for a World Championship , but the arrangements could not be finalised, and

3960-551: The features that made his play mysterious to contemporaries now appear regularly in modern play: sacrifices to gain positional advantage; playing the "practical" move rather than trying to find the best move; counterattacking and complicating the game before a disadvantage became serious. Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik said, "He realized that different types of advantage could be interchangeable: tactical edge could be converted into strategic advantage and vice versa", which mystified contemporaries who were just becoming used to

4048-552: The first of his chess magazines, The London Chess Fortnightly , which was published from August 15, 1892, to July 30, 1893. In the second quarter of 1893, there was a gap of ten weeks between issues, allegedly because of problems with the printer. Shortly after its last issue, Lasker traveled to the US, where he spent the next two years. Lasker challenged Siegbert Tarrasch , who had won three consecutive strong international tournaments ( Breslau 1889, Manchester 1890, and Dresden 1892), to

4136-551: The game of chess was governed by a precise set of principles. For him the strength of a chess move was in its logic, not in its efficiency. Because of his stubborn principles he considered Lasker as a coffeehouse player who won his games only thanks to dubious tricks, while Lasker mocked the arrogance of Tarrasch who, in his opinion, shone more in salons than at the chessboard. At the opening ceremony, Tarrasch refused to talk to Lasker, only saying: "Mr. Lasker, I have only three words to say to you: check and mate!" Lasker gave

4224-460: The games; the challenger should deposit a forfeit of US$ 2,000 (equivalent to over $ 250,000 in 2020 values ); the time limit should be twelve moves per hour; play should be limited to two sessions of 2½ hours each per day, five days a week. Capablanca objected to the time limit, the short playing times, the thirty-game limit, and especially the requirement that he must win by two games to claim the title, which he regarded as unfair. Lasker took offence at

4312-470: The grandmaster level as in two games between Ilya Smirin and Bartłomiej Macieja . Though rarely seen, this move is playable. For example, if Black plays 4...Bb4, White has the responses 5.Nd5, 5.0-0, and 5.d3, which retain equality with accurate play. The quiet waiting move 4.a3, the Gunsberg Variation , is a specialty of Polish grandmaster Paweł Blehm . A dubious gambit is 4.Nxe5?!,

4400-456: The king); in descriptive chess notation , Kt is sometimes used instead, mainly in older literature. In chess problems and endgame studies , the letter S , standing for Springer , the German name for the piece, is often used (and in some variants of fairy chess , N is used for the nightrider , a popular fairy chess piece ). The knight has the oldest defined movement of any chess piece. It

4488-551: The match 8–2 (seven wins, two draws, one loss). This victory was convincing for everyone but Janowski, who asked for a revenge match. Lasker accepted and they played a World Chess Championship match in Berlin in November–December 1910. Lasker crushed his opponent, winning 9½–1½ (eight wins, three draws, no losses). Janowski did not understand Lasker's moves, and after his first three losses he declared to Edward Lasker , "Your homonym plays so stupidly that I cannot even look at

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4576-474: The match never took place. Lasker's first world championship match since 1897 was against Frank Marshall in the World Chess Championship 1907 . Despite his aggressive style, Marshall could not win a single game, losing eight and drawing seven (final score: 11½–3½). Lasker then played Tarrasch in the World Chess Championship 1908 , first at Düsseldorf then at Munich . Tarrasch firmly believed

4664-412: The match was a draw and Lasker remained World Champion. It has been speculated that Schlechter played unusually risky chess in the tenth game because the terms of the match required him to win by a margin of two games. But according to Isaak and Vladimir Linder, this was unlikely. The match was originally to be a 30-game affair and Schlechter would have to win by two games. But they note that according to

4752-410: The match. Reuben Fine and Harry Golombek attributed this to Lasker's being in mysteriously poor form. On the other hand, Vladimir Kramnik thought that Lasker played quite well and the match was an "even and fascinating fight" until Lasker blundered in the last game, and explained that Capablanca was 20 years younger, a slightly stronger player, and had more recent competitive practice. Lasker

4840-609: The match. Three years later Lasker became secretary of the Rice Gambit Association, founded by Rice in order to promote the Rice Gambit, and in 1907 Lasker quoted with approval Rice's views on the convergence of chess and military strategy. In November 1904, Lasker founded Lasker's Chess Magazine , which ran until 1909. Beginning in 1910, he wrote a weekly chess column for the New York Evening Post , for which he

4928-475: The money. The final figure was $ 2,000, which was less than for some of Steinitz's 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 . Steinitz had previously declared he would win without doubt, so it came as a shock when Lasker won the first game. Steinitz won the second game and maintained

5016-631: The natural 12.0-0 Be5 would be awkward for White. In the above line, more ambitious is 8...exd4 9.Nxd4 0-0!?, as in a match game between Siegbert Tarrasch and Emanuel Lasker in 1916, which led to a Black win in 23 moves. Another try is 5.0-0!? transposing to a variation of the Boden–Kieseritzky Gambit . Igor Glek has favoured 4.g3, preparing development of the bishop to g2. According to Pinski, Black's main responses are 4...Bc5 and 4...d5, both of which are reckoned to equalize for Black. A Halloween Gambit style 4...Nxe4 has also been tried at

5104-445: The opponent's pawn structure , i.e. a square which cannot be attacked by enemy pawns. In the diagram, White's knight on d5 is very powerful – more powerful than Black's bishop on g7. Whereas two bishops cover each other's weaknesses, two knights tend not to cooperate with each other as efficiently. As such, a pair of bishops is usually considered better than a pair of knights. World Champion José Raúl Capablanca considered that

5192-424: The opposing king is trapped in a corner in front of its own pawn, it is possible to force mate with only a king and knight in a pattern known as Stamma 's mate, which has occasionally been seen in practice. In the position below, from Nogueiras –Gongora, Cuban championship 2001, Black played 75...Nxf6 ?? , incorrectly assuming that the ending would be drawn following the capture of the last white pawn on a2. (Correct

5280-406: The pawns are on one side of the board. Furthermore, knights have the advantage of being able to control squares of either color, unlike a lone bishop. Nonetheless, a disadvantage of the knight (compared to the other pieces) is that by itself it cannot lose a move to put the opponent in zugzwang (see triangulation and tempo ), while a bishop can. In the position pictured on the right, if the knight

5368-477: The penultimate round (being mated in 121 moves after the position was reconstructed incorrectly following an adjournment) and drew in the last round. The two players were now tied. Lasker won a playoff and garnered the master title. This enabled him to play in master-level tournaments and thus launched his chess career. Lasker finished second in an international tournament at Amsterdam , ahead of Mason and Gunsberg. In spring 1892, he won two tournaments in London,

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5456-441: The pseudonym "L. Marco". During World War I , Lasker invested all of his savings in German war bonds , which lost nearly their entire value with the wartime and post-war inflation . During the war, he wrote a pamphlet which claimed that civilization would be in danger if Germany lost the war. In January 1920 Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca signed an agreement to play a World Championship match in 1921, noting that Capablanca

5544-513: The same year), both of which posed a problem in the mathematical analysis of card games ; Brettspiele der Völker ("Board Games of the Nations"; 1931), which includes 30 pages about Go and a section about a game he had invented in 1911, Lasca . In 1930, Lasker was a special correspondent for Dutch and German newspapers reporting on the Culbertson-Buller bridge match during which he became

5632-600: The same year. After a short stay in England, in 1935 they were invited to live in the USSR by Nikolai Krylenko , the Commissar of Justice who had been responsible for show trials and, in his other capacity as Sports Minister, was an enthusiastic supporter of chess. In the USSR, Lasker renounced his German citizenship and received Soviet citizenship. He took permanent residence in Moscow, and

5720-678: The second and stronger of these without losing a game. At New York City in 1893, he won all thirteen games, one of the few times in chess history that a player has achieved a perfect score in a significant tournament. His record in matches was equally impressive: At Berlin in 1890 he drew a short playoff match against his brother Berthold and won all his other matches from 1889 to 1893, mostly against top-class opponents: Curt von Bardeleben (1889), Jacques Mieses (1889), Henry Edward Bird (1890), Berthold Englisch (1890), Joseph Henry Blackburne (1892), Jackson Showalter (1892–93) and Celso Golmayo Zúpide (1893). In 1892 Lasker founded

5808-435: The second formally recognized World Chess Champion and confirmed his title by beating Steinitz even more convincingly in their rematch in 1896–97 (ten wins, two losses, and five draws). Influential players and journalists belittled the 1894 match both before and after it took place. Lasker's difficulty in getting backing may have been caused by hostile pre-match comments from Gunsberg and Leopold Hoffer , who had long been

5896-405: The shape of a capital L ). Consequently, a knight alternates between light and dark squares with each move. When moving, the knight can jump over pieces to reach its destination. Knights capture in the same way, replacing the enemy piece on the square and removing it from the board. A knight can have up to eight available moves at once. Knights and pawns are the only pieces that can be moved in

5984-486: The so-called Halloween Gambit . After 4...Nxe5 5.d4, White tries to seize the centre with his pawns and drive the black knights back to their home squares. Grandmaster Larry Kaufman says that this line is refuted by 5...Nc6 6.d5 Bb4! 7.dxc6 Nxe4 8.Qd4 Qe7, which he attributes to Jan Pinski. According to Max Euwe 's opening series volume 11, Black has a decisive advantage after 5...Ng6 6.e5 Ng8 7.Bc4 d5 8.Bxd5 c6. Bibliography Knight (chess) The knight (♘, ♞)

6072-545: The strongest players in Germany and Europe and contributing occasionally to the magazine Deutsche Go-Zeitung . It is alleged that he once said "Had I discovered Go sooner, I would probably have never become world chess champion". At the age of 42, in July 1911, Lasker married Martha Cohn (née Bamberger), a rich widow who was a year older than Lasker and already a grandmother. They lived in Berlin. Martha Cohn wrote popular stories under

6160-410: The terms in which Capablanca criticized the two-game lead condition and broke off negotiations, and until 1914 Lasker and Capablanca were not on speaking terms. However, at the 1914 St. Petersburg tournament, Capablanca proposed a set of rules for the conduct of World Championship matches, which were accepted by all the leading players, including Lasker. Late in 1912 Lasker entered into negotiations for

6248-482: The title a similar clause that if he resigned the title, it should become Rubinstein's. A report in the American Chess Bulletin (July–August 1920 issue) said that Lasker had resigned the world title in favor of Capablanca because the conditions of the match were unpopular in the chess world. The American Chess Bulletin speculated that the conditions were not sufficiently unpopular to warrant resignation of

6336-501: The title, and that Lasker's real concern was that there was not enough financial backing to justify his devoting nine months to the match. When Lasker resigned the title in favor of Capablanca he was unaware that enthusiasts in Havana had just raised $ 20,000 to fund the match provided it was played there. When Capablanca learned of Lasker's resignation he went to the Netherlands, where Lasker

6424-402: The weaker side has a single extra pawn, but this is a curiosity of little practical value (see two knights endgame ). Pawnless endgames are a rarity, and if the stronger side has even a single pawn, an extra knight should give them an easy win. A bishop can trap (although it cannot then capture) a knight on the rim (see diagram), especially in the endgame. In a few rare endgame positions where

6512-589: The wet weather was the cause of his defeat. In 1909 Lasker drew a short match (two wins, two losses) against Dawid Janowski , an all-out attacking Polish expatriate. Several months later they played a longer match in Paris, and chess historians still debate whether this was for the World Chess Championship. Understanding Janowski's style, Lasker chose to defend solidly so that Janowski unleashed his attacks too soon and left himself vulnerable. Lasker easily won

6600-410: Was 75...Ne3 ! 76.Kg6 Ng4 77.Kg7 and now 77...Nxf6! may be safely played, the king being sufficiently distant). Play continued 76.Nxf6 Ke5 77.Nd7+ Kd4 78.Kf4 Kc3 79.Ke3 Kb2 80.Kd2 Kxa2 81.Kc2 Ka1 82.Nc5 Ka2 83.Nd3 Ka1 84.Nc1 and Black resigned, as 84...a2 85.Nb3 is mate. In algebraic notation, the usual modern way of recording chess games, the letter N stands for the knight ( K is reserved for

6688-451: Was Chess Editor. Emanuel Lasker became interested in the strategy game Go after being introduced to it by his namesake Edward Lasker , probably in 1907 or 1908 (Edward Lasker wrote a successful book Go and Go-Moku in 1934 ). He and Edward played Go together while Edward was helping him prepare for his 1908 match with Tarrasch. He kept his interest in Go for the rest of his life, becoming one of

6776-412: Was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher. He was the second World Chess Champion , holding the title for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognised World Chess Champion. In his prime, Lasker was one of the most dominant champions, and he is still generally regarded as one of the strongest players in history . His contemporaries used to say that Lasker used

6864-559: Was among the world's top ten players in the early 1890s. To supplement their income, Emanuel Lasker played chess and card games for small stakes, especially at the Café Kaiserhof. Lasker won the Café Kaiserhof's annual Winter tournament 1888/89 and the Hauptturnier A ("second division" tournament) at the sixth DSB Congress (German Chess Federation's congress), held in Breslau . Winning

6952-462: Was first introduced in the Indian game of chaturanga around the 6th century; it has not changed since. Pieces similar to the knight are found in almost all games of the chess family. The ma of xiangqi and janggi is slightly more restricted; conceptually, the piece is considered to pass through the adjacent orthogonal point, which must be unoccupied, rather than "jumping". Another related piece

7040-560: Was given a post at Moscow's Institute for Mathematics and a post of trainer of the USSR national team. Lasker returned to competitive chess to make some money, finishing fifth in Zürich 1934 and third in Moscow 1935 (undefeated, ½ point behind Mikhail Botvinnik and Salo Flohr ; ahead of Capablanca, Rudolf Spielmann and several Soviet masters), sixth in Moscow 1936 and equal seventh in Nottingham 1936. His performance in Moscow 1935 at age 66

7128-680: Was hailed as "a biological miracle". In August 1937, Martha and Emanuel Lasker decided to leave the Soviet Union, and they moved, via the Netherlands, to the United States (first Chicago, next New York) in October 1937. They were visiting Martha's daughter, but they may also have been motivated by political upheaval in the Soviet Union. In the United States Lasker tried to support himself by giving chess and bridge lectures and exhibitions, as he

7216-457: Was in his early 50s when he lost the world championship to Capablanca, and he retired from serious match play afterwards; his only other match was a short exhibition against Frank James Marshall in 1940, which was never completed due to Lasker's illness and subsequent death a few months after it started. After winning the Moravská Ostrava 1923 chess tournament (without a single loss) and

7304-493: Was living at the time, to inform him that Havana would finance the match. In August 1920 Lasker agreed to play in Havana, but insisted that he was the challenger as Capablanca was now the champion. Capablanca signed an agreement that accepted this point, and soon afterwards published a letter confirming this. Lasker also stated that, if he beat Capablanca, he would resign the title so that younger masters could compete for it. The match

7392-427: Was not free to play in 1920. Because of the delay, Lasker insisted on a final clause that allowed him to play anyone else for the championship in 1920, that nullified the contract with Capablanca if Lasker lost a title match in 1920, and that stipulated that if Lasker resigned the title Capablanca should become World Champion. Lasker had previously included in his agreement before World War I to play Akiba Rubinstein for

7480-457: Was now too old for serious competition. In 1940 he published his last book, The Community of the Future , in which he proposed solutions for serious political problems, including anti-Semitism and unemployment. Lasker was considered to have a "psychological" method of play in which he considered the subjective qualities of his opponent, in addition to the objective requirements of his position on

7568-580: Was old (58 in 1894). Emanuel Lasker answered these criticisms by creating an even more impressive playing record. He came third at Hastings 1895 (where he may have been suffering from the after-effects of typhoid fever ), behind Pillsbury and Chigorin but ahead of Tarrasch and Steinitz, and then won first prizes at very strong tournaments in St Petersburg 1895–96 (an elite, 4-player tournament, ahead of Steinitz, Pillsbury and Chigorin), Nuremberg (1896) , London (1899) and Paris (1900) ; tied for second at Cambridge Springs 1904 , and tied for first at

7656-542: Was played in March–April 1921. After four draws, the fifth game saw Lasker blunder with Black in an equal ending . Capablanca's solid style allowed him to easily draw the next four games, without taking any risks. In the tenth game, Lasker as White played a position with an Isolated Queen Pawn but failed to create the necessary activity and Capablanca reached a superior ending, which he duly won. The eleventh and fourteenth games were also won by Capablanca, and Lasker resigned

7744-513: Was played in the fifth game of the 1996 Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov match. One reason White may choose the Four Knights (3.Nc3) move order over the Scotch (3.d4), besides fearing that after 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Black may choose 4...Bc5 or 4...Qh4, is that White may want to play the Belgrade Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nd5!?). It is not possible to reach the Belgrade from

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