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Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Age Catches Up With Edward Lasker

    
It’s probably not possible to drive the 11,600 mile trip from New York City to Mar del Plata in Argentina, but by air the10.330 mile trip takes 16 hours. In 1949, it was different and when the 64-year-old Edward Laske accepted his invitation to the tournament in Mar del Plata, he had to take a two month leave of absence from work and make a flight that too twice the time it does today 
    The travel and the five hour playing sessions over 16 rounds proved too much for him and he found himself exhausted after 4 hours into the games. As a result, he ruined a lot of games by making outright blunders as seen in his game against Rossetto. After showing this game it's only fair to call attention to his most famous game against Sir George Thomas that is presented on YouTube HERE
    Edward Lasker (1885-1981, 95 years old) was born in a part of the German Empire which today is a part of Poland. Before World War I he moved to London, England, but after the outbreak of the war he left for the United States. When America entered the war, he was sent enlistment papers, but with the right of exemption as a German. He waived his right hoping it would expedite his request for American citizenship; however, the war was over before he was called. He was a distant relative of the more famous Emanuel Lasker. 
     Lasker was never greatly appreciated as a player, but Chessmetrics assigns him 1 high rating of 2583 in 1923. That does not seem too high today, but in 1923 it placed him at #21 in the world.
 
   
     Hector Rossetto (1922-2009, 86 years old) was born in Argentina. Awarded the GM title in 1960, he was Argentine champion in 1942, 1944, 1947, 1961 and 1972. He was also Champion of South America in 1963. A game that I liked (Fritz 17)
[Event "Mar del Plata"] [Site ""] [Date "1949.04.02"] [Round "15"] [White "Edward Lasker"] [Black "Hector Rossetto"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C05"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "62"] [EventDate "1949.??.??"] {C06: French Tarrasch Variation} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 {Com[ared to 3.Nc3 the advantages of this move are that the d-Pawn can be supported with c3 and all lines where the N is pinned by ...Bb4, especially the Winawer Variation, are eliminated. The disadvantage is that tje N obstructs the B and there is a possibility that black can start operations against the d-Pawn.} Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Bd3 c5 6. c3 b6 {The idea of exchanging his bad B for wite's good one by playing ...Ba6. The usuakm and probably better plan is 6...Nc6 putting pressure on the d-Pawn.} 7. Qe2 {While this hinders ...Ba6 it seems preferable to continue his development with 7Ne2.]} Nc6 {More exact is first 7...cxd4 followed by ...Nc6-b4} 8. Ndf3 {This move took Lasker 45 minutes thought; he intends to sacrifice a P for the sake of development.} (8. Ngf3 cxd4 9. cxd4 Nb4 10. O-O Nxd3 11. Qxd3 {Black has full equality. Antunes,A (2445)-Arencibia Rodriguez,W (2425) Santa Clara 1990}) 8... cxd4 9. Bb5 {There was no reason to give up the e-Pawn with this move. Simply 9.c3 would have resulted in complete equalty. Now blaclk has slightly better prospects.} Qc7 10. Nxd4 {The point of giving up the e-Pawn is that black must now lose a good deal of time with his N and white can use the time to further his development. Still, black has no weaknesses in his position and a P is a P.} (10. cxd4 Nb4 {threatening ...Nc2+ and white has a difficult position.} 11. Kf1) 10... Ncxe5 {Fundamentally white has no center which just does not look right.} 11. f4 Nc4 {Well played!} 12. Ngf3 {Note that white has the potential for a N sacrifie on e6, but it's not good at this time nor does the opportunity to play it ever materialize, but such things are good to take note of.} (12. Nxe6 fxe6 13. Qxe6+ Be7 {and white has no way of continuing the attack.}) 12... Be7 (12... Bc5 {was stringer, White's best continuation would be} 13. f5 e5 14. f6 gxf6 15. b4 Bxd4 16. cxd4 a6 {Black is holding all the cards.}) 13. O-O a6 14. Ba4 b5 {[%mdl 32]} 15. Bc2 Nf6 {Here or on the next move black should castle.} 16. a4 b4 17. b3 Na5 { Black has managed to lose time with his N and here it's out of play so the centralizing 17...Nd5 was better. Now things are looking up for white.} 18. f5 {The most active.} (18. cxb4 {After the game Najdor spent some time analyzing this move, bit he correctly concluded that 18.f5 was the best move.} Bxb4 19. Bb2 O-O 20. Ne5 Ne4 {Black is in no danger at all.}) 18... e5 {[%mdl 2048]} 19. Nxe5 {Offering the trade of Qa with 19.Qe5 would have been safer. Lasker had now consumed more than two hours and had been sitting at the board for nearly four hours. He confessed that as a result fatigue begam setting in at a time when the complications were growing.} O-O 20. Nd3 {This retreat is fault. 20. cxb4 followed by 21.Nef3 was correct.} bxc3 21. Bf4 Bd6 22. Qf2 Nc6 23. Rad1 { The last few moves were played at blitz speed and black has emerged with a considerable advantage.} Bb7 24. Nc5 {Lasker was getting short of time and insterad of playing it safe he unwisely went for complications with the result that his position has completely collapsed.} (24. Bxd6 $17 Qxd6 25. Qf4 Qxf4 26. Rxf4 Rfc8 27. Nxc6 Bxc6 28. Rd4 {Black is clearly better, but white can at least play on.}) 24... Ng4 25. Qg3 {He could still have stayed in the game with 25.Bxd6. Instead he makes a terrible blunder. It's black to play and win.} Nxd4 26. Qxg4 Bxf4 27. Nxb7 Be3+ {Excellent.} (27... Qxb7 {is the wrong path.} 28. Rxf4 Nxc2 29. f6 g6 30. Qg5 Qb6+ 31. Kh1 Ne3 32. Qh6 Qxf6 33. Rxf6 Nxd1 { The situation is unclear. White has a Q vs. R+N+2Ps and anything can happen.}) 28. Kh1 Nxc2 29. f6 {This is not dangerous to black because the Q can't reach h6.} g6 30. Qe2 Qxb7 31. Qxc2 d4 {White resigned. White's lack of a center is clearly evident in the final position.} 0-1

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