Welcome to "Lasker: Immortal Strategy, 27 Years of Board Domination"!

Emanuel Lasker was born on December 24, 1868 in Berlinchen, a small German town near the border with Russia, which today belongs to Poland. His family was Jewish and humble. His father, Adolf, was a cantor at the local synagogue and his mother, Rosalie, cared for his ten children. Emanuel was the youngest of them and showed great talent for mathematics since he was a child. At the age of twelve he moved to Berlin, where he lived with his older brother Berthold, who taught him to play chess. He soon began earning money by gambling in cafes and participating in local tournaments. In 1888 he entered the University of Berlin to study mathematics and philosophy. 

His chess career took off in 1889, when he won a secondary tournament in Breslau and was invited to his first international tournament in Amsterdam, where he placed second, second only to Amos Burn. In that tournament he performed a brilliant combination known as Lasker's two bishop sacrifice. In the following years he traveled through Europe and the United States, facing the best players of the time and winning most of the tournaments in which he participated. In 1894 he challenged the world champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, and took the title from him after beating him 10-5 in a match held in New York, Philadelphia and Montreal. He was only 25 years old and became the second world champion in history. 

Lasker did not dedicate himself exclusively to chess, but also continued his academic studies. In 1902 he received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Erlangen with a thesis on abstract algebraic systems, under the supervision of Max Noether, the father of the famous mathematician Emmy Noether. He also wrote several books and articles on philosophy, logic, ethics and psychology. He was interested in socialism, pacifism and Zionism, and was a friend of personalities such as Albert Einstein, David Hilbert and Siegfried Jacobsohn. 

As world champion, Lasker defended his title on several occasions, always successfully. In 1896-97 he again defeated Steinitz 10-2 in Moscow. In 1907 he beat Frank Marshall 8-0 in the United States. In 1908 he beat Siegbert Tarrasch 8-3 in Düsseldorf and Munich. In 1910 he beat Carl Schlechter 5-5 (a draw favored the champion) in Vienna and Berlin. And in 1910 and 1914 he defeated Dawid Janowski 8-0 and 9-1 respectively in Paris and Berlin. During his reign, Lasker improved the economic conditions of professional chess players, demanding high sums of money for his matches and tournaments. He also contributed to the theoretical and practical development of the game, introducing concepts such as positional play, psychological play, the principle of least surprise and the principle of economy.   

Lasker dominated world chess for 27 years, until in 1921 he lost the title to the Cuban José Raúl Capablanca, considered the natural genius of chess. The match was played in Havana and Lasker abandoned after losing four games and drawing ten, citing health and weather problems. Some historians believe that Lasker renounced the title to avoid further humiliation, since Capablanca was clearly superior. Others believe that Lasker acted nobly, recognizing the merit of his rival and facilitating the generational change. 

After losing the title, Lasker continued playing chess, although with less frequency and intensity. He participated in some important tournaments, such as the one in Moscow in 1925, where he came third, behind Efim Bogoliubov and Capablanca, and the one in New York in 1927, where he came second, only surpassed by Alexander Alekhine, the new champion of the world. He also tried to organize a revenge match against Capablanca, but did not reach an agreement with the Cuban on the conditions. In 1933 he played his last tournament in Zurich, where he placed fifth, tied with Max Euwe, the future world champion. 

Lasker's life was affected by two world wars and the rise of Nazism. During the First World War he was imprisoned in Germany, unable to travel or play chess. In 1918 he married Martha Cohn, a German widow with two children. In 1924 he moved to England, where he obtained British citizenship. In 1933, faced with Hitler's persecution of the Jews, he fled to Holland and then to the United States, where he settled permanently. There he worked as a mathematics professor at Tulane University and collaborated with the American Chess Federation. He also published his last book, Struggle, in which he reflected on the nature of human conflict. 

Lasker died on January 11, 1941 in New York, at age 72, due to a kidney infection. He was buried in the Beth Olam cemetery, next to his wife, who had died a few months earlier. His grave bears the inscription: “Here lies Emanuel Lasker, who for 27 years was world chess champion and who in his life fought for truth and justice.” Lasker is remembered as one of the greatest players of all time, for his versatility, his creativity and his longevity. His legacy has influenced generations of chess players, who have followed his teachings and admired his genius. As grandmaster Reuben Fine said: “Lasker was the first modern player, the first to understand that chess is a fight.”