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My Best
Chess! |
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A Remarkable Accident of Chess History.
(Adapted from an article by Bill Hartston)
Emmanuel Lasker (1868 - 1941)
World Champion from 1894 to 1921
The longest reigning World Champion - but William Hartston writes:-
'Yet it could all have been so different, but for a remarkable accident of chess history.
Lasker's main rival throughout this tournament' (the German Schachbund congress in Breslau 1889) 'had been a man
named von Feyerfeil who had indeed defeated Lasker in their individual game.
Lasker had only been able to catch von Feyerfeil thanks to an unexpected loss by
the latter in a late round. And that loss had only come about in a game of great length when, after one
adjournment, a white pawn was erroneously omitted from the position on resumption. Remarkably this error was not
noticed by either participant and von Feyerfeil went on to lose a game which he should have saved easily had he
not played half of it giving pawn odds. The error was only discovered days after the end of the game, too late to
do anything about it. Thus did Lasker and von Feyerfeil share first place, which had to be resolved by a play-off
game, won conclusively by Lasker.
Before the tournament, Lasker had told brother Berthold of his intention to abandon serious chess if he did not
take first place. Perhaps one small piece of carelessness in setting up a position was thus responsible for
giving the chess world a champion who reigned for twenty-seven years.'
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