Chess Strategy
By Edward Lasker
As the first edition of Edward Laskcr’s CHESS STRATEGY was exhausted within a comparatively short time of its appearance, the author set himself the task of altering and improving the work to such an extent that it became, to all intents and purposes, a new book. I had the privilege of cooperating with him to a slight degree on that second edition and was, in consequence, able to appreciate the tremendous amount of work he voluntarily took upon himself to do; I say voluntarily because his publishers, anxious to supply the strong demand for the book, wished to reprint it as it stood.
I later translated this second edition into English for Messrs. Bell & Sons. Only a few months had elapsed, the Petrograd, Chester, and Mannheim tournaments had taken place, and several discoveries had been made. And it is the most remarkable testimony to Edward Lasker’s unwavering devotion to the Art of Chess. This is not a translation of the second edition but of what is practically a new book. It contains a new preface, a chapter for beginners, an introduction, and new variations. Furthermore, a large number of new games have taken the place of old ones.
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Edward Lasker
Edward Lasker (born Eduard Lasker) (December 3, 1885 – March 25, 1981) was a German-American chess and Go player.
Biography
He was awarded the title of International Master of Chess by FIDE. Lasker was a professional engineer and an author of books on Go, chess, and checkers. Born in Prussia, he emigrated to the United States in 1914. He was distantly related to World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker, with whom he is sometimes confused. Lasker was born in Kempen, Province of Posen, Prussia, German Empire (present-day Kępno, Poland), the son of Sigismund Lasker and Flora Bornstein. He studied in Breslau (now Wrocław) and Charlottenburg (now part of Berlin). Lasker earned undergraduate Mechanical and Electrical Engineering degrees at the Technical College of Charlottenburg, graduating in 1910. Before World War I he moved first to London and then, in 1914 shortly after the outbreak of war, to the U.S., the birthplace of his mother. He found a job in Chicago as a safety engineer for Sears & Roebuck. When the United States entered the war in 1917, he was sent enlistment papers, but with the right of exemption as a German.
He waived his right to exemption, which he said would grant his American citizenship more quickly; however, the war was over before he was called up to military service. In 1921–23, he invented a mechanical breast pump, which saved many premature infants’ lives and made Lasker much money, although it caused his friends to refer to him facetiously as “the chess player.”
Edward Lasker
