Lasker - Chess secrets I learned from the masters

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Chess:

The Complete Self-Tutor

Edward Lasker

Algebraic Classics Series

Series Editor: Dr John Nunn GM

B. T. Batsford Ltd, London

Published by

Batsford

10 Southcombe Street

London W14 0RA

An imprint of Anova Books Company Ltd

Volume copyright Batsford

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

First eBook publication 2014
ISBN 9781849941723

Also available in Paperback
ISBN 9780713481600

This book can be ordered direct from the publisher at
www.batsford.com, or try your local bookshop.

Contents

Preface

In writing this book, my aim has been to put together a series of lessons for the chess amateur who wants to improve his game but does not have the opportunity to take a personal course of instruction from a chess master. For a book to rival the effectiveness of such a course is not an easy matter. In personal lessons, the teacher can put up positions on the board to illustrate a procedure he has discussed, and he can ask the student to propose a continuation which seems to him appropriate. If his answer shows that he has misinterpreted an explanation, the teacher can add explicit information on the point his pupil has not fully understood.

Chess books have tried to approximate this method of teaching by asking the reader questions at the end of each chapter and printing the answers on a later page, but this does not sufficiently elucidate the point missed by a student who has failed to find the correct reply. Besides, test questions are often skipped by readers eager to go on to the succeeding lesson. The result is that many of them finish a textbook without getting much benefit from it.

However, research into the design of automatic teaching machines has led to an entirely new technique of self-instruction which overcomes these disadvantages. Programmed instruction has proven so successful in the machines employing it that it has been adopted in a series of books called TutorTexts, which deal with a variety of subjects formerly considered appropriate only for study with expert teachers.

The new technique discusses the subject matter in a way resembling conversations between a tutor and his pupil. After a point has been explained, the readers understanding of it is tested by a pertinent question. Several answers are suggested, and he is asked to pick the one he thinks is right. If his selection is incorrect, the page discussing his reply proceeds to clarify the point at issue and asks him to make a different choice. Only the page dealing with the proper answer tells him where to continue reading. In other words, he cannot skip any questions. He must find the correct replies before he can finish the book.

In perusing several TutorTexts, it occurred to me that their technique of instruction was eminently suited for teaching chess. I felt that it particularly lent itself to training a faculty which, more than any other, distinguishes the expert from the average player. This is the understanding of positional play, the placing of the men on squares from which they are likely to contribute most toward the success of the strategic plan conceived by the player.

With the development of this ability in mind, I have changed the order in which the three phases of the struggle opening, middlegame, and endgame are commonly treated in chess books. A player can fully understand the principles governing the proper conduct of the opening only after he has learned what line-up of the pieces is best suited to lead to their effective co-operation in the middlegame, for it is the latter phase in which the outcome of a game is usually decided. I have therefore dealt with combinative play, the essence of the tactical middlegame struggle, before discussing opening strategy. Likewise, I have placed a lesson on endgame tactics before the chapter concerned with middlegame strategy, because the latter must be guided by the players correct evaluation of his prospects in an ending, which an inconclusive middlegame manoeuvre would bring about.

The practical application of the strategic principles and tactical schemes discussed is illustrated by examples from master games. Many different opening methods are cited in conjunction with these examples, but the reader need not attempt to memorize them. What he should continuously keep in mind are mainly the general principles of play expounded in the lessons. They will help him to find his way in any opening with which an adversary may confront him, and they will also indicate to him in middlegame and endgame situations what goals he can reasonably expect to reach and what plans he should dismiss as over-optimistic.

I am confident that the reader who heeds this advice will find that he can take the measure of many an opponent who formerly had little trouble in defeating him.

Edward Lasker

New York City 1970

1 The Rules of the Game

Chessboard and Men

The origins of chess are shrouded in mystery, but it was almost certainly conceived as picturing the warfare of the day. The games inventor provided elephants, horses, and chariots, in addition to foot soldiers, to do battle for the king, who had a counsellor by his side to plan his strategy.

Centuries went by before the game reached the Western world. The Moors brought it to Spain at about the same time the Italians learned it from the Saracens, and it penetrated throughout Europe with remarkable speed. The carved chess pieces which the Moslems brought with them included towers or castles (called rooks in English) in place of the chariots, which had long ago become obsolete in war. The elephants were represented by short upright pieces deeply split on top, symbolizing the tusks of the animals. This shape was erroneously interpreted as a fools cap in France and as a bishops mitre in Portugal. To this day the piece is called bishop in English-speaking countries and in Portugal, Brazil and Iceland, and fou (fool) in France. The Spanish continued to call the piece alfil, the Arabic word for elephant, and this term is also used in all South American countries apart from Brazil. The Italians made alfiere out of alfil, meaning standard-bearer. Possibly this explains the name Lufer (Courier) given to the piece by the Germans, who learned the game from the Italians.

The counsellor was replaced by a queen in Europe, where women did not play the subordinate role assigned to them in the Orient. The horse became identified with the rider on horseback knight in English,