The World Champions' Weirdest Pets - Emanuel Lasker and the King's Gambit

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Introduction

Emanuel Lasker, the second official world chess champion, was, in every sense of the term, a polymath. Not only was he the world chess champion for a record 27 years, but he was also a research mathematician, philosopher, and enthusiast and strong player in several other board and card games. He was known as a very non-dogmatic player who would continuously refine chess practice, as well as a "psychological player." Some people even went so far as to say that Lasker played bad moves on purpose to confuse his opponents, but that's another topic for another day. Lasker was also very much a student of Steinitz's positional school of chess, so it's not so surprising that he rarely deviated from "correct" openings. In this two-part series on Lasker, we'll only cover his adventures with the Vienna Game in part one and the King's Gambit in part two. Almost always, he only played these openings against weaker opposition or in simuls, so he was very much a proponent of the positional school of chess. However, he was a genius as well, and with genius comes creativity!

The King's Gambit

Note: The variations covered will only deal with those that were played in the games featured in this article.

Note 2: Since this opening appeared in "The World Champions' Weirdest Pets - Wilhelm Steinitz and the King's Gambit," the following text is taken from that article.

When one thinks of the Romantic era of sacrificial chess, one's mind is immediately drawn to one single opening: the King's Gambit! On just the second move, White breaks the symmetry imposed on the board and tries to sacrifice a pawn to get quick development and an open f-file for their rook. Nowadays, centuries of opening analysis and the advent of strong chess engines has made this opening a very rare guest at top level, but make no mistake - to this day, many top players have used the King's Gambit to great effect. Perhaps in correspondence chess the King's Gambit isn't sound, but, as GM John Shaw, the author of the definitive tome on the King's Gambit, says, "However, over the board it is clear that the King's Gambit is effective at all levels up to and including 2800+." Let's dive into the world of swashbuckling Romantic wonders!

A Crushing Victory

I scoured the dark lands of the Internet and...was not able to find anything about Mr. H K Walker, except that he was from the USA! That's very disappointing, to say the least. I'd appreciate if any chess historian has any information about him!

Lasker sacs queens like that for breakfast. While the sacrifice was quite intuitive, it was not at all clear how White should follow up. Even the mighty Lasker blundered on move 21, but, due to the extremely complicated nature of the position, he was still able to steer the game into safely victorious shores.

A Devastating Defeat

Ditto for T Jacks, who had the honor of defeating Lasker in a simul. Chess historians, I call upon you!

Lasker didn't even get a game! Could Jacks perhaps have been a professional King's Gambit–refuter?

A Slugfest

I think we know a thing or two about David Janowski! Many people may know Janowski as the namesake of the Jawowski Variation in the Queen's Gambit Declined. He also has a few other openings named after him. A Russian-French chess master, Janowski played against Lasker in a long match (which, contrary to popular belief, probably wasn't a world championship match) and was among the world's top players. Let's see how he faced Lasker's King's Gambit.

Lasker plays in Steinitz-like fashion with Ke2 and suffers from king safety issues as a result. Janowski had his chances to put away the White king, but, after the White king was able to survive, White's superior piece coordination netted Lasker a piece and, quickly, the game.

A Hard-Fought Draw

It's Janowski again!

Lasker again managed to drum up an attack but fell victim to the dreaded chess fortress. Unfortunately for Lasker, he had many opportunities to win the game with some well-known attacking ideas, but he missed all of them.

A Peaceful Game

Robert Raubitschek was an Austrian-American chess master who was known as a strong speed chess player. Let's see how speedily Lasker accepts the draw!

Raubitschek outplayed Lasker in the King's Gambit and should have played on to convert the position into a win. Unfortunately, he accepted the draw in a risk-free position and let Lasker off the hook!

Time for our test!

Test

Who dares come to g4?

Defense!

White's king sure looks a bit stuck...

The ante-check!

Make way!

Could the White king be safer than the Black king?

Morphy-style

Morphy-style, part 2

Conclusion

In conclusion, Lasker's King's Gambit outing, while respectable, was not as successful as it could have been. Perhaps Lasker the mathematician could never accept such an unruly and wild opening as the King's Gambit, for, even in simuls, sometimes he would struggle to get playable positions. Having said that, Dr. Lasker did win some really nice games in the King's Gambit. Indeed, every world champion must play the King's Gambit at least once in their career!