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Lasker’s Manual of Chess by Emanuel Lasker, Foreword by Mark

Dvoretsky, 2008 Russell Enterprises, Figurine Algebraic Notation,
Softcover, 277pp., $29.95

In two earlier reviews – of Capablanca’s Chess Fundamentals and Lasker’s

Common Sense in Chess – I set forth the criteria by which I thinkX

a new edition of a chess classic should be judged. In this “21st Century”

edition of
Lasker’s Manual of Chess, I’ve had an opportunity, to some extent, to
practice what I preach. I was involved in the final stage of editing the
manuscript. Truth in advertising and all that.

So I might as well admit up front that this will Common SenseX

be a very personal review. To call it “biased” would imply there’s in ChessX

another side to the story. When it comes to Lasker’s Manual, there isn’t.
In any list of the five greatest chess books ever written (put that in all
by Emanuel Lasker
caps if you like), or in the late-night shmooze session, with what five
books would you want to be marooned on a desert island, Lasker’s
Manual makes every list. Or should.

Before I make the case for Lasker’s Manual, though, let me make the case
for this edition. Taylor Kingston, no stranger to the web-pages of
ChessCafe.com, has been meticulous in his editing. While Lasker’s prose
can sometimes seem too polished – an English learnt formally and later in
life – it has a power and a rhythm that, once appreciated, becomes quite
compelling. Taylor wisely refrained from updating Lasker’s words or style.
The edits made were, in the opinion of this Ph.D. in English (now that’s
pretentious!), necessary. Through our email exchanges, it became clear that
Taylor respected the text as much as I did.

Even the decision to place most of the analytical notes, and always to
distinguish between the original and the later (computer-aided)
improvements, bespeaks an appreciation, almost reverence for the
Play through and original. In a way, as noted in Taylor Kingston’s introduction the
download the games from analytical improvements demonstrate Lasker’s greatness. St. Petersburg 1909X

ChessCafe.com in the This edition has, of course, Lasker’s rather impressive tournament and by Emanuel Lasker
match records. It has dropped the Appreciations in the original (Dover)
DGT Game Viewer.X edition, which were a collection of praises from other masters. In its
place, there are sprinkled tidbits of “Lasker Lore” and pictures of Lasker
and his contemporaries. Some of the pictures and tidbits will be quite
The CompleteX familiar to even the average chess players. Others will delight as only a
new tidbit of history or rare photograph can.
DGT Product LineX
Anyone who knows the publications of Russell Enterprises knows the
production values are first class. I guess there’s no better description, and
no higher compliment, than to say that the books Hanon Russell
publishes meet the same high standards, of quality, aesthetics and
practical value, as ChessCafe.com does, week in and week out.

The Art and

Struggle of
Life
Why Lasker MattersX by Andrew Soltis
I could probably stop here and just say, even if you have the original, you
need to buy this edition. In fact, if you have the original it ought to be so
well used, you actually need a new copy for your library.

But I’ve waited too long to be involved in a project like this. You see, my
copy of Lasker’s Manual is well-worn. It’s one of the few books in
which I’ve underlined passages. I first came across Lasker’s Manual in
my late teens, when I was becoming quite active and growing the fastest
(not just in chess, of course). It became a manual not just for chess, but
for life. I won’t embarrass myself – or spoil your fun and education – by
listing some of the passages I underlined. Suffice it to say that Lasker’s
philosophy of education, of struggle, of the search for truth have had a
powerful influence on my own thinking.

It was an honor and privilege to be involved in bringing Lasker’s

Manual to a new generation, in a new edition, and I want to publicly
thank Hanon and Taylor for including me – and for putting up with some
of my professorial punctiliousness.

This edition of Lasker’s Manual updates it for a modern reader, as Taylor

notes in his introduction: it uses figurine algebraic instead of descriptive.
Awkward or archaic usage has been modified. Taylor says he has edited
Lasker’s English “sparingly,” and I can testify to that. The text in this
edition is Lasker’s; what changes have been made were, as I mentioned
earlier, editorially necessary – no more than things like correcting
grammatical or spelling errors – as likely to be the first editor’s as
Lasker’s.

I have to admit I admire how Taylor handled the difficult question of

what to do with outdated analysis. As he acknowledges, when
introducing the Analytical Notes, Fritz makes it easy to find the holes in
even grandmaster analysis. What’s amazing is how few holes there were
in Lasker’s.

In most cases, the decision seems both logical and respectful: shorter
corrections note in the text, but set them off in brackets and italics.
Longer corrections put in the footnotes, leaving the original text as is but
directing the reader to do what Lasker would have wanted – test, check,
and repeat.

There were a few instances – I don’t think more than half-a-dozen, if that
many, where Lasker’s analysis was so flawed – as Fritz revealed – that the
final assessment was just off. In that case, the revised analysis was
substituted for the original, and the original was reproduced in the footnotes.
Thus, even when a major correction was necessary, the reader still gets
Lasker’s words, Lasker’s analysis, and Lasker’s thoughts.

In this regard, I was particularly impressed how Taylor handled the

difficult question of Berthold Lasker’s analysis of a line in the French.
Emanuel, out of the deepest love for his brother, included it wholesale.
While interesting, the analysis is deeply flawed. The decision to leave the
analysis in the text, and then give an extended correction in the notes,
showed a sensitivity that to me spoke volumes.

I have to disagree somewhat with Taylor’s assessment of the non-chess

aspects of the Manual. While Lasker’s philosophical works are difficult
going (I’ve read some of them), the concept of the struggle, as he
articulates it in the Manual, has profound implications – and relevance –
for our world. When we remember Lasker’s biography – his life outside
chess – his reworking of Steinitz’s chess theory into an observation about
the human condition, our real world struggles, strikes me as quite
profound.

I also think Lasker’s explanation of the double king-pawn openings a first-

rate course in history and practical chess. The chess teachers tell us to
play open games and gambits when we’re starting because we’ll learn
about the center, initiative, time vs. material, attack, etc. Playing over
Lasker’s discussions of the Giuoco Piano, the King’s Gambit, etc. gives
you half the course material. (I think he got tired when he got to the
queen’s pawn openings.)

One thing I noticed while going through the book meticulously myself, was
the appropriateness of so many of the examples, whether they were
combinations or examples of positional play. I was struck how the examples
seemed just right, paradigms from which one learned not just a position, or
even a pattern to recognize, but the underlying logic of chess itself. (As I
played over some of the combinations, or even example of positional play, I
remembered Lasker’s insistence, in the first book, that the player needed to
know the geometry of the chess board.)

Lasker’s Manual is so rich, so powerful, so useful, that as it cannot be

praised too much, any praise seems insufficient. So I’ll just give a quick
run-down of the contents:

First Book (Rather than use “Part” or “Section” Lasker uses the term
“Book” for the major divisions in the Manual): The Elements of Chess.

Sometimes I felt that one had to already know how to play chess to
appreciate Lasker’s explanation how the pieces moved, principles such as
the opposition, etc. Perhaps the sections title provides the clue: while Lasker
does explain how to play chess and provides some basic principles (“First
Proposition: the Plus of a Rook Suffices to Win the Game”), what he’s really
doing is explaining the elements: much as a chemist might explain the
properties of hydrogen or oxygen, and then the combination of the elements,
so Lasker explains the elements of chess.

Second Book: The Theory of the Openings.

I’ve already discussed this. On the double-king pawn openings, until the Ruy
Lopez – study and learn, then play and you will really understand what’s
going on. With the Ruy – a good introductory survey. With the rest – Lasker
gives you enough of an opening’s general idea to get you into a playable
game, but nowadays, you’ll need more. And he doesn’t touch the Indian
openings, or barely does so.

Third Book: The Combination

Wow! Sure, do all the “puzzles of the day” that appear on ChessCafe.
com. Get those tactic books or CDs – and use them.

But if you want to “get” combinations – study this section. Again. And
again. (Mark Dvoretsky in his foreword notes how profound – yeah, I’ve
used it before, but when talking about Lasker you can’t get away from
that word – Lasker’s conception of combinations remains.)

Fourth Book: Position Play

You want to know the history of chess? You want to know what it means
to plan or assess a position? You want to know why you have to know
Steinitz to understand chess, or why chess theory today builds on
Steinitz the way physics built on Newton, then Einstein – it’s here. Other
books may explain the “principle of attack,” but in a way they’re just
reworking what Lasker did here.

Fifth Book: The Aesthetic Effect in Chess

Wherein we come to appreciate and, yes, understand the art, the

achievement, the value of chess. Chess becomes real, because the task,
finding the necessary, is a real task, with a real danger. For art articulates
the otherwise mute and frustrated feeling.
Thank you for evaluating
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