Customer Reviews

Lasker's Manual of Chess

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"Lasker's Manual of Chess" is my favorite chess book. Unlike many chess players, I only own a few.

It begins with the elements of chess: the pieces, how they move, and the essential advantages and disadvantages of positions the player will likely find himself in. Curiously, Lasker discusses the square. All of chess revolves about going from one square to another, and Lasker presumes (rightly so, i believe) that to know the end well, the player must see the very beginning at its core.

He goes on to explain the why and what-fors about openings. He presents the opening concept both as a theory to muse over, and as a practical matter of setting things in such a way as to increase your likelihood of winning. He explains "Sortez les pieces" (Get the pieces out), and other 'rules' of chess.

Like a Mark Twain book review, he feels in complete candor permission to question 'compilers', those players who memorize every variation of boardplay and win by the ability to study. He contrasts these players with those with natural talent, who he apreciates much more.

Lasker walks through each step of the major openings in a clear manner, unlike some of the fuzzy chess primers written by modern masters.

If fencing is played like chess, it could also be said chess is played like fencing. Lasker comments in the next section about the combinations, and suggestion chess is replete with violence, countered effectively by more violence, all brutal and seething with imminent danger. He provides, among others, an example of a check to the queen by a pawn.

In the combinations section, he looks at variation predicaments great players he has encountered have wandered into, and how they pulled out these situations victoriously.

Later, he goes through various positions, even the aesthetics effects of chess.

"Lasker's Manual of Chess" by Emanuel Lasker is a great book for a high school level or above player to explore. I fully recommend it.

Anthony Trendl

This classic book was actually written by E.Lasker (not Dvoretsky, as suggested by the tag), world champion for 27 years. This edition is edited by Taylor Kingston. Mark Dvoretsky supplies a foreword.

This is a lovely modern re-publication of a classic work on chess, using modern chess notation, and containing many photographs and illustrations from Lasker's era. It is published by Russel Enterprises, which explains the wonderful period photos, obviously supplied from 'The Russel Collection' (Russel was a major consultant for the movie 'Searching for Bobbie Fischer', and supplied most or all of the historical chess photos used in that film).

The format, layout, font, and illustrations used in this publication make it worth buying, even if you have an earlier version. I have a Dover edition of this work, and the Russel version is much to be preferred, in my opinion.

Highly recommend. Very easy to understand and utilize on the playing field. Well written. I will be wrapping my brain around this one for some time. thanks

This is a great beginning chess book because it starts with the basics but is an excellent tool for all levels of chess players(Canadian GM Kevin Spraggett considers this book the most valuable in his library). A cool fact I found in Lasker's match record is that he never beat Capablanca(He went 0-4-10).

Anyway, this book is a must have in any chess library.

This may be the best chess book ever. I glance over my shoulder at a pile of 50+ chess books that I've purchased over my two year affair with the game of chess. Of these, only a few stand out as being truly worth the time and money. One offers such an exceptional value that I suggest it to everybody: Lasker's Manual of Chess. The prose is stilted and out of date, the section on the openings is wanting, and it starts out with directions for how to play...BUT the sections on combination, positional play, and the model games have few equals. I love endgame studies and this book is full of them. This book never fails to get me out of a rut. BTW, take the positional advantage diagrams and play them out against your chess computer for a fun lesson.

If you love chess, do yourself a favor and pick up this, Tarrasch's Game of Chess, Nunn's Understanding Chess Move by Move, Howell's Essential Chess Endings, and Kotov's Art of the Middlegame. They may be all the chess books you ever need.

Emanuel Lasker was world chess champion for 27 years but chess was not his only calling. He was also a philosopher and a mathematician. But this book is about chess from beginning to end. Literally taking you from the blank 64 squares of the chess board, all the way to the original minds full of creative chess ideas. And Lasker does it one sure step at a time and in a gentle and genial manner. On the one hand, this book is for beginners who want to learn the game. On the other hand, this book is an interesting tome on the history of chess ideas up until Lasker's time, so even an advanced player would be fascinated by this book. There you have it, chess top to bottom

Lasker was probably the greatest player ever. Fischer is compared to him but that is probably more a compliment to Fischer
than to Lasker. This is not at all your typical English chess book. It is a take-off by Lasker of his earlier book he wrote in
German, but it retains the German "Handbuch" style of that era
which should make it more interesting to the American reader.
It is definitely of the Old German Empire since it discusses the
Breslau variation. I don't think this name is used anymore since
Breslau is now a city in Poland with a Polish name.

This book is a bargain at any price for serious and intermediate chess players.

Lasker provides lots of examples, plenty of explanation, and great introductions to every chapter of this book. Lasker clearly explains his theories by guiding the reader from basic principles, like "get knights into action before bishops," to advanced concepts of time, distance, and proportion.

Lasker's "Common Sense in Chess" is a great compliment to this book.

The longest reigning World Chess Champion of all time (28 years) Dr. Emanuel Lasker presents numerous ideas and theories on how chess should be played, along with his advice on openings, giving 68 pages out of the 340 on that subject. The book is rather dated (mine has the original published date as 1947) and is done in descriptive notation, but i found it to be entertaining and i can gather that Lasker genuinely adored the game. Lasker expounds on the original ideas of William Steinitz, and displays his own originality, versatility and his abilty to take solid calculated risks. His tournament record from 1889-1936 was 192 wins, 34 losses and 99 draws (73.1 percent). You can't argue with those numbers facing top competition. Beginners and novices should hold off on this book until they gain more expereince.

I read this book as a schoolboy back in 1978 and recently went over parts of it. It is a great and profound book from a champion thinker. The exposition of Steinitz's ideas is superb. The English prose is a bit dated, but it is also part of the charm of this book. This book is real chess literature - not like those senseless opening monographs!