The Mathematician Who Gave Away Both Bishops: Emanuel Lasker

Illustration of Emanuel Lasker at the chessboard. This is not a real picture of him, and the board shown is not a position from a real game.

Let us start with a puzzle. Look at the position below. It is White's move. Black's king is tucked away on g8, with three pawns in front of it, on f7, g7 and h7. White has no knight left, but two bishops, a queen and a rook are all pointing toward that corner. One of the pawns in front of the king is guarded only by the king himself. Can White break open the position by giving something up? Keep it in mind: you will meet the answer in the game below.

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White to move. Black's knight has just captured on h5. White has bishops on d3 and e5, a queen on e2 and a rook on f1. Black's king stands on g8 behind pawns on f7, g7 and h7, and one of those pawns is guarded only by the king. Can White break the position open by giving something up?

Analyze this position in the full game

The player with the white pieces was Emanuel Lasker, who was 20 years old. In less than five years he would be World Champion. The player with Black was Johann Hermann Bauer. They met in Amsterdam in August 1889, in the first round of a tournament.

A Boy from Berlinchen

Emanuel Lasker was born on 24 December 1868 in Berlinchen, a small town in Prussia that is now called Barlinek and lies in Poland. His father was a cantor in the synagogue, the person who leads the prayers by singing. When Emanuel was 11 he was sent to Berlin to go to school, and there his older brother Berthold taught him to play chess. To earn a little money he played chess in the cafés of Berlin.

School mattered to him too. He finished school in 1888 and then studied mathematics and philosophy at the universities of Berlin, Göttingen and Heidelberg. Chess and mathematics stayed together for the rest of his life.

Climbing to the Top

• In 1889 he won the Hauptturnier in Breslau, a tournament for players who were not yet masters. The prize was the title of master.
• Also in 1889 he played the tournament in Amsterdam where you will see the game below. He finished second, behind Amos Burn.
• In 1893, in New York, he won a strong international tournament with a perfect score, 13 wins in 13 games.
• In 1894 he played the World Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, in a match in New York, Philadelphia and Montreal. The first player to win ten games would be champion. Lasker, who was 25, won ten, lost five and drew four, and Steinitz, who was 58, lost his title.
• In 1896 and 1897 they played again, and Lasker won again, with ten wins, two losses and five draws.

Twenty-Seven Years as Champion

Lasker stayed World Champion from 1894 until 1921. That is 27 years, the longest reign in the history of the title. Some of the matches along the way:

• 1907, against Frank Marshall. Lasker won eight games and drew seven. He did not lose one.
• 1908, against Siegbert Tarrasch. Lasker won 10½ to 5½, with eight wins, five draws and three losses.
• 1914, the tournament in St Petersburg. Many of the best players in the world played a first stage, and the top five went on to a final. In the first stage José Raúl Capablanca finished a point and a half ahead of Lasker. In the final Lasker scored six wins and two draws, with no losses, and finished first, ahead of Capablanca. You can play through one of those wins below.
• 1921, in Havana. Lasker lost his title to Capablanca. In 14 games he did not win one, lost four and drew ten.

Chess was not his only subject. Lasker earned a doctorate in mathematics, and in 1905 he proved a theorem in algebra about the ideals of polynomial rings, the primary decomposition theorem. Mathematicians still use his name in that part of algebra.

The Game: Emanuel Lasker vs. Johann Hermann Bauer, Amsterdam 1889

Emanuel Lasker 1-0 Johann Hermann Bauer Amsterdam 1889 · Round 1 White: Emanuel Lasker · Black: Johann Hermann Bauer

A quiet opening

The game began as a Bird's Opening, which is the opening that starts with the f-pawn.

1.f4 d5 2.e3 Nf6 3.b3 e6 4.Bb2 Be7 5.Bd3 b6 6.Nc3 Bb7 7.Nf3 Nbd7 8.O-O O-O 9.Ne2 c5 10.Ng3 Qc7 11.Ne5 Nxe5 12.Bxe5 Qc6 13.Qe2 a6

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Position after 13...a6, with White to move. White's bishop on d3 looks at the pawn on h7, and the bishop on e5 looks at Black's knight on f6, which stands in the way of the pawn on g7. White's knight on g3 can jump to h5.

Analyze this position in the full game

For thirteen moves, our own Stockfish 17.1 run, at depth 22, kept the game within about half a pawn of level, apart from one swing at the trade on e5. Both sides put a bishop on the long diagonal, White on b2 and Black on b7. Lasker's bishops on d3 and e5 were already pointing at Black's king, and his knight on g3 and queen on e2 were ready to join them. Black's last move, 13...a6, is a quiet move on the other side of the board. It is the first real mistake our engine marks. The engine would have played 13...g6, which keeps the game level and covers the squares h5 and f5. After 13...a6 it had White about one and a half pawns better.

The sacrifice

14.Nh5 Nxh5

This is the position from the puzzle. Black took the knight, and our engine marks this as the biggest mistake of the game. It rated White 4.7 pawns better after it, up from 1.6 before. The knight on f6 had been standing between White's bishop on e5 and the pawn on g7. Now it was gone.

The answer to the puzzle is a bishop sacrifice, and then another one.

15.Bxh7+ Kxh7 16.Qxh5+ Kg8 17.Bxg7 Kxg7

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Position after 16...Kg8, with White to move. White's bishop on e5 attacks the pawn on g7, and the pawn is guarded only by Black's king. White's queen on h5 stands right next to the black king.

Analyze this position in the full game

First the bishop on d3 took the pawn on h7 with check. The king took it, and the queen took the knight on h5 with check. The black king had one legal move, to g8. Then came the second bishop sacrifice. The bishop on e5 took the pawn on g7, and the king took it. Lasker had given up both bishops, and Black had given up two pawns, and the knights had been traded. Now Black's king stood alone, without a single pawn in front of it.

If Black had refused the first sacrifice with 15...Kh8, our engine, at depth 20, finds a forced checkmate for White in four moves, starting with 16.Qxh5.

The attack finishes

18.Qg4+ Kh7 19.Rf3

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Position after 18...Kh7, with White to move. White's queen on g4 has just given check, and Black's king stepped to h7. White's rook on f1 can swing to the third row. Black has a queen and two bishops, but the king has no pawn cover.

Analyze this position in the full game

After 18.Qg4+ Black had five legal moves, and four of them lose to a forced checkmate in four moves or fewer. For example, 18...Kf6 is answered by 19.Qg5, checkmate. Only 18...Kh7 does not lose by force at once, and it runs into the rook. Lasker brought the rook from f1 to f3, ready to come to h3 with check.

19...e5 20.Rh3+ Qh6 21.Rxh6+ Kxh6 22.Qd7

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Position after 21...Kxh6, with White to move. White has a queen and a rook, and Black has two rooks and two bishops. Neither of Black's bishops, on b7 and e7, is protected, and a queen on d7 would attack both of them.

Analyze this position in the full game

After 20.Rh3+ Black had only two legal moves. Black chose 20...Qh6, giving the queen for a rook, and the king took back. The other move, 20...Bh4, was rated worse by our engine, by more than two pawns. On paper the material was now about even, but not for long. The queen jumped to d7 and attacked both bishops at once. A move that attacks two pieces at the same time is called a fork, and Black could only save one of them.

The rest of the game

22...Bf6 23.Qxb7 Kg7 24.Rf1 Rab8 25.Qd7 Rfd8 26.Qg4+ Kf8 27.fxe5 Bg7 28.e6 Rb7 29.Qg6 f6 30.Rxf6+ Bxf6 31.Qxf6+ Ke8 32.Qh8+ Ke7 33.Qg7+ Kxe6 34.Qxb7 Rd6 35.Qxa6 d4 36.exd4 cxd4 37.h4 d3 38.Qxd3

Lasker took the bishop on b7 and kept the attack going. Black resigned after 38.Qxd3. For the rest of the game after 22...Bf6 our engine had White better by more than five pawns.

What to Learn from This Game

• Look where your bishops point. Lasker's bishop on d3 looked at h7 and his bishop on e5 looked at g7. Two bishops on those two diagonals are two keys to the same door.
• Take the pawns away from the king. A king is safe because of the pawns in front of it. After 15.Bxh7+ and 17.Bxg7 there were none left, and the queen could give check.
• Count the king's escape squares before you sacrifice. After 16.Qxh5+ the black king had only one move, and after 18.Qg4+ four of its five replies lost by force. Counting them first tells you whether the attack works.
• Bring the rook. The queen alone could not finish the game. The rook came from f1 to f3 to h3 with check, and that decided it.
• Do not make a quiet move when pieces are aimed at your king. Look at what your opponent threatens first. 13...a6 let the knight jump to h5.

Five More Games to Study

Every engine number below comes from our own Stockfish 17.1 run at depth 20.

• Emanuel Lasker vs. José Raúl Capablanca, St Petersburg 1914 (1-0). A Ruy Lopez where the queens came off on move 6. Lasker needed a win, and he won a quiet game in 42 moves. Our engine had it close to level for about fifteen moves, and then White slowly built an edge. Black's 30...Nb6 is the move it marks, and after it White was better by about three and a half pawns.
• Harry Nelson Pillsbury vs. Emanuel Lasker, St Petersburg 1895/96 (0-1). A Queen's Gambit Declined with a fast attack by White. Our engine had Black better for most of it, then the evaluation swung several times. Pillsbury's 26.Kb2 and 28.Kxa3 are the moves it marks, and after 28.Kxa3 it finds a forced checkmate. Lasker won in 30 moves.
• Wilhelm Steinitz vs. Emanuel Lasker, London 1899 (0-1). The old champion against the new one, in a Vienna Gambit. Black gave a knight on move 15 and our engine had Lasker better from then on, growing from about one and a third pawns before that move to more than six by move 30. You can try the position below.
• Frank Marshall vs. Emanuel Lasker, 1907 World Championship match, Game 1 (0-1). A Ruy Lopez, and the first game of the match. Lasker had Black and won it. The queens were gone by move 18, and Lasker won the endgame in 50 moves, with a passed pawn on b2 at the end. Our engine marks 37...Be2, which let some of his advantage slip, and Marshall's reply 38.Nd2+, which gave it all back.
• Siegbert Tarrasch vs. Emanuel Lasker, 1908 World Championship match, Game 2 (0-1). A Ruy Lopez. Both sides gave up a piece and a pawn on moves 15 and 16, and then Tarrasch's queen took a pawn on a7 on move 19, so Lasker was a pawn down. Our engine had Tarrasch better by about one and a third pawns, and Tarrasch's 27.Rd3 and 32.Nd3 are the moves it marks. Lasker won in 41 moves.

A Position to Try

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Steinitz vs. Lasker, London 1899, after 15.Nf3. Black to move. Black's knight on h4 attacks a pawn that is guarded by the white king, and Black's queen and bishops are aimed at the white king's side. What would you play?

Analyze this positionReview the full game

Lasker played 15...Nxg2, and our engine's first choice at depth 22 is the same move. After 16.Kxg2 he continued 16...Bxh3+, and the white king went to f2.

A Champion Who Came Back

Lasker played serious chess again late in life. In 1935, in Moscow, he was 66 years old and he played 19 games without losing one, winning six and drawing 13. He finished third. He died in New York on 11 January 1941. He learned chess from his brother, won the title at 25 and kept it for 27 years. In the game above he found a path to the king by giving up two bishops, one at a time. When your pieces point at the king, count the squares he can run to, and then look for the sacrifice that takes his shelter away.