Other World Champions have taken a different view. Garry Kasparov said Lasker had an enormous natural gift for chess and while he was a follower of Steinitz's positional theory, his understanding was deeper.
Mikhail Botvinnik said that over his lengthy and brilliant career, Lasker was not only a player, but also a chess researcher.
Former World Champion Vladimnir Kramnik wrote that he believed Lasker was the discoverer of modern chess because when you look at many of his games they could have been played by any modern player.
Lasker’s contemporaries appreciated his expertise. Nimzovich wrote, “We can appreciate how far ahead of his time lasker was...There is no master, living or dead, whose maneuvering ability approaches that of Laker.
Reti said that Lasker was neither dogmatic nor mystical; he relies on healthy common sense. Of Lasker, Spielmann said his games “...his games are more profound than those of any other player.” And, Tartakower opined that, “It (was) characteristic of Laker's philosophy of life that he was the first to demonstrate that in chess not only a brilliant combination or a methodical system, but (and chiefly!) a knowledge of the opponent’s personality, his weak and strong points, is an important element in obtaining victory.”
If you are looking for a good book on Laker’s games I can recommend Lasker’s Greatest Chess Games by...Fred Reinfeld. I know, Reinfeld’s chess books are pretty bad, but this one (originally titled Dr. Lasker’s Chess Career) was first published 1935 and it was during the time Reinfeld was writing good books and before he discovered the real money was in writing pot boilers. Also, the annotations are by both Reinfeld and Reuben Fine. The period covered is 1889-1914.
Let’s take a look at the defeat Lakser handed Capablanca at St. Petersburg in 1914. The game is well known, but it’s pretty impressive and worth playing over again.
The tournament was divided into two stages. The first stage was a round robin and the top five were seeded into the finals, a double round robin. The scores from the preliminaries were carried over to the final. The front runners were expected to be Lasker, Capablanca and Rubinstein, but Rubinstein failed to qualify for the finals.
It was this tournament that the Czar of Russia declared the five finalists to be Grand Masters.
Examining this old game with Stockfish 15.1 turned up some resources that were not seen by annotators of old...as is usually the case. Nevertheless, it doesn’t detract from the game at all; it was still a masterpiece by the alleged coffee house player.
Emanuel Lasker–Jose R.Capablanca1–0C68St. Petersburg18.05.1914Stockfish 15.1
Ruy Lopez: Exchange Variation 1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.b5 a6 4.xc6 The
idea of this move is to bring about a Queenless middlegame in which white has
a K-side P-majority and while black's Q-side P-majority is somewhat balanced
by the fact that the Ps are doubled. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
Lasker had great success with the Exchange Variation. Since then, black has
developed better defenses, but the variation had a resurgence of popularity
when Bobby Fischer played it against Lajos Portisch and Svetozar Gligoric at
the both played at the 11966 Chess Olympiad in Havana. dxc6 5.d4 exd4 6.xd4 xd4 7.xd4 d6 Black's idea is to castle K-side because it will be needed
to oppose the advance of white's K-side Ps. Capablanca made the observation
that if now all the pieces were exchanged white would practically be a P ahead
and would therefore have a won ending. 8.c3 e7 This is the natural square
for the N because here it does not to obstruct black's Ps and also, depending
on the situation it may go to g6.or d4 via c6 after ... c5. 9.0-0 9.e3
is the other main option. d7 10.0-0-0 0-0-0 11.b3 b8 12.f4 f6 13.f5 b6 14.d2 e5 15.c4 xc3 16.bxc3 c5 17.f4 c8 18.g4 b5 19.xd8+ xd8 20.d2 e8 21.h4 c6 22.g5 a5 23.gxf6 ½-½ (23) Karpov,A (2660)-Furman,S
(2540) Madrid 1973 9...0-0 10.f4 At the time this move was was not
unknown, but it was considered weak and even after this game Capablanca still
believed that it left the e-Pawn weak, unless it could advance to e5. Also, 10.
f5 makes it possible for Black to pin the N by ...Bc5. e8 This move
threatens 11...Bc5 12.Be3 Nd5. At the same time it prevents 11.Be3 because of
11...Nd5 (or 11...Nf5). Lasker's play was so impressive that commentators
tried to improve black's play at an earlier stage, but Kasparov agred with
Capablanca that in this position black had little to worry about. Stockfish
agrees! 10...f6 11.e3 c5 12.f3 c6 13.ae1 e8 Black is slightly
better. Bierkens,P (2128)-Kaufman,L (2347) Arlington, VA 2013 10...f5
was suggested by Tarrasch and it leads to equality after 11.e5 b4 12.ce2 11.b3 This prevents ...Bc5 f6 Capa is preparing ... b6, followed by ...
c5 and ... Bb7 in conjunction with ... Ng6 which would put white in great
difficulties to meet the combined attack against the two center Ps. 12.f5
It has been wrongly claimed that this wins the game, but I would like nothing
better than to have such a position again. It required several mistakes on my
part finally to obtain a lost position. b6 13.f4 b7 Capalayed against his
better judgement. He was correct in saying the right move is 13...Bxf4 13...xf4 14.xf4 c5 15.d1 b7 16.d7 ac8 with a completely equal position. 14.xd6 cxd6 15.d4 Capa wrote that it was "a curious but true fact that I
did not see this move when I played 13 ... Bb7, otherwise I would have played
the right move 13 ... Bxf4. Actually, there is absolutely nothing wrong with
his position at this point. ad8 Capa, wrote. "The game is yet far from lost,
as against the entry of the Knight." Nevertheless,, `5...Rad8 is a slight
inaccuracy. keeps the position equal after 15...d5 16.exd5 xd5 17.xd5 cxd5 16.e6 d7 17.ad1 Capa strated that here ge suddenkly became
ambitious and thought he could play his next move and later on sacrifice the
exchange for theN on e6 winning a P for it, plus white's e-Pawn would still
weak. c8 Here he toyed with the idea of playing 17...c57...c5 to be
followed by ...d5, which he thought would give him a draw. He was correct in
that 17...s5 was best because after the move played white gains the advantage. 17...c5 and white mist resort to positional maneuvering . For example... 18.f3 18.d5 doesn't lead anywhere. xd5 19.exd5 b5 with equality. 18...d5 19.g3 g6 20.fxg6 d4 21.gxh7+ h8 22.g7 Wgite is slightly
better. 18.f2 The aggressive 18.g4 was worth considering. b5 18...xe6 Turns out to be a very bad idea. 19.fxe6 e7 20.e5 xe6 20...dxe5 21.d8+ mate next move 20...fxe5 21.df1 e8 22.f7 is winning. 21.exd6 xd6 22.e2 f7 23.xe6 xe6 24.a4 d7 25.xb6+ with a won ending. 18...d5 This is the correct move. After 19.g4 d6 20.b3 f7 the position
is roughly equal. 19.fd2± de7 20.b4 f7 21.a3 a8
Capa wrote, "Once more changing my plan and this time without any good reason."
21...xe6 is playable, but white is better after 22.fxe6+ xe6 23.d4
but black probably has aqequate defensive resources. 22.f2 a7 Capa's
plan is to advance the a-Pawn which turns out to be rather pointless. 23.g4 h6 24.d3 a5 25.h4 axb4 26.axb4 Black has a very cramped position and
there is no way he cam make use of the a-file he has just opened up. In fact.
white's position is approaching being a winning one. ae7 Rather aimless,
but there is really nothing better. According to Capa white's next two moves
were weak because the white K does nothing on f4. 26...xe6 still does not
work out well after 27.fxe6+ xe6 28.e2 e5 29.d4 Now, of course, black
must not play xe4 30.e6 and mate next move. 27.f3 g8 28.f4
Actually. Capa was wrong because Lasker's last two moves have not hurt his
position one bit according to Stockfish. g6 Capa recommended28...g5+ and
added thgat after black missed this chance white has it all his own way, and
finishes the game most accurately and black becomes more helpless with each
move. 28...g5+ There are several other moves black could play, but because
white already has what amounts to a decisive advantage there is no point in
playing passively. Stockfish evaluates this position as three Ps in white's
favor, a clearly decisive advantage, but the further you look into the
position, the more difficult the win would become , especially over the board! 29.g3 gxh4+ 30.xh4 xe6 Faced with a passive defense this is the best
practical chance. 31.fxe6+ xe6 32.f3 e7 33.df1 g6+ 34.h5 e5 35.xf6+ e7 36.xh6 xg4 37.g6 xg6 38.xg6 e5+ 39.f5 Now allwhite has
to do is bring his R to the 7th rank. b7 40.g1 d8 41.g7 c8+ 42.f4 c4 White's nest step is to imptove the position of his N. 43.e2 e6 44.d4 d7 45.f3 c7 46.e5 dxe5+ 47.xe5 b6 Niw he must improve the position of
his K. 48.e4 d6 49.g6+ c7 50.d4 e8 51.h6 d7 52.h7 d6 53.c4 bxc4 54.xc4+ xc4 55.xc4 White has a theoretical win. g4 56.h6+ e5 57.c5 e2 57...f3 58.xc6 e2 59.b5 etc 58.xc6 etc. 29.g3 29.g5 is more incisive. hxg5+ 30.hxg5 xe6 This is still worth a try! 31.fxe6+ xe6 32.gxf6 xf6 33.e5+ dxe5+ 34.e3 g5 35.e4+ e7 36.d7+ e6 37.c5+ f5 38.f1+ White will eventually win because black's position is just
too passive. 29...g5+ Once again, sacrificing the exchange might have been
worth s shot. 29...xe6 30.fxe6+ xe6 31.gd3 g5+ and black is still
kicking. 30.f3 Very good! 30.hxg5 is much weaker because after hxg5+ 31.f3 h8 and suddenly black has counterplay; perhaps even enough that he
can avoid defeat! 30...b6 30...xe6 Yes, this is still worth trying! 31.fxe6+ xe6 32.hxg5 hxg5 33.h3 g7 and white still has a lot of work to
do! 31.hxg5 hxg5 32.h3 Prevents Rh8. d7 33.g3 e8 34.dh1 b7 35.e5 The penetration of the other N forces the win. dxe5 36.e4 d5 37.6c5 c8 38.xd7 xd7 39.h7 f8 40.a1 White threatens Ra8+ and mate. d8 41.a8+ c8 42.c5 Capablanca resigned. White has a forced mate! 42.c5 e7 43.e6+ d7 44.xf8+ c7 45.xe7+ d6 46.ea7 d5 47.xc8 d4 48.xc6 e3 49.d6 e2 50.a1 e4 51.a3 e3 52.g2 e1 53.xe3# 1–0
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