The International Chess Congress, St. Petersburg, 1909 [Paperback]

Emanuel Lasker (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1971

One of the Great Chess Tournaments of All Time! The Famous Tournament Book by the Second World Chess Champion The International Chess Congress at St. Petersburg was the premier event of 1909, by far the strongest chess competition held that year. Even today, St. Petersburg 1909 ranks high on any list of top tournaments, a trial of skill which produced more than a few "anthology" games. In February 1909, nineteen of the world's best chessplayers gathered in St. Petersburg to play in one of the most famous tournaments in chess history. World Champion Emanuel Lasker topped the list of competitors, which also included Akiva Rubinstein, considered by many to be Lasker's likely successor, Carl Schlecter, who would play one of the most infamous matches against Lasker a year later, and many other of the "greats" of the era Spielmann, Bernstein, Teichmann, Mieses and Tartakower, to name but a few. This is the official tournament book available for the first time in English in algebraic notation written by Emanuel Lasker. He annotated all 175 games in the clear, instructive style that would become his trademark. The great 1909 International Chess Congress has long since taken its place among the greatest chess tournaments of all time. Now you may experience this 21st-century edition of Lasker's terrific tournament book.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

German-born Emanuel Lasker is considered by many to be the greatest chessplayer of all time. He was the Second World Champion, holding the title longer than anyone, for 27 years, 1894-1921. He also established himself as one of the great chess authors of all time, with such classics as "Common Sense in Chess," "Lasker's Manual of Chess" and the tournament book of the great St. Petersburg 1909 tournament. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications Inc. (January 1, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486224414
• ISBN-13: 978-0486224411
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,448,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Lasker, March 31, 2010

By 

Parker Rose "Parker" (Casper, Wyoming) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The International Chess Congress St. Petersburg 1909 (Paperback)

I can't comment on the review of the Kindle edition that criticized the formatting. I can tell you that most everything ever written by Emanuel Lasker, the second world chess champion, is still considered topical and instructive. I have the hard copy (i.e., traditional book) version.

St. Petersburg 1909 was where Akiba Rubinstein was recognized by most as being the legitimate challenger to Lasker. He defeated Lasker in their individual encounter in this tournament (a very famous game in its own right). Lasker does not burden the reader with extremely deep notes; his style had always been when annotating a game to give clear guidance to the reader about the ebb and flow of the game. For players of less than master strength, his notes will be exactly what is needed.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this Kindle version of a great tournament book, October 21, 2009

By 

Gene "Retired, chess, computers, Moscow, text... (Agoura Hills, CA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The International Chess Congress St. Petersburg 1909 (Paperback)

I just returned this Kindle book to Amazon. It is badly misformatted in places. You see the discussion of a position starting with, say, move 15. Unfortunately, there is no diagram of the position at this point, no name of the game or who it is played between, no list of moves that have been made -- just a discussion of the moves! I found this in two places and had to return the book.

I eventually noticed that the games discussed were way further forward in the file. That is no excuse, and at least in the poorly formatted areas, the book is unreadable.

I own a copy of this book, just wanted to have it on my Kindle. Not this version! I hope this is corrected.

The diagrams that existed were fine, and I was otherwise pleased enough with the book. Most players would need a chessboard to follow the annotations -- they couldn't just read the book and follow the games -- there weren't enough diagrams to do that. I just opened SCID (Linux equivalent to Chessbase) on my computer and followed along. Till I got to the totally messed-up stuff.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars St. Petersburg 1909, August 1, 2010

By 

Brandão - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The International Chess Congress St. Petersburg 1909 (Paperback)

O que atrai neste livro, que não precisaria de nada além para atrair tendo em vista o autor, foi uma opinião de Alekhine: "Emmanuel Lasker tem sido meu mestre toda minha vida. Se não fosse por ele eu não seria o que sou. Seu livro sobre o torneio de San Petersburgo 1909 foi para mim uma espécie de catecismo ao longo de todos esses anos. Tenho estudado uma e outra vez cada uma das idéias que Lasker comenta neste livro, e durante anos o tenho comigo dia e noite. A idéia de xadrez como arte seria inimaginável sem Emmanuel Lasker" É certo que essa opinião de Alekhine foi por ele mesmo contestada, quando anos depois escreveu uma série de artigos para Pariser Zeitung. Mas o contexto em que isso se deu foge um pouco do presente assunto. A respeito do livro e do autor há muitas implicações que até hoje convergem na história do xadrez. Para quem tem interese em conhecer o status quo do xadrez contemporaneo, uma das vertentes obrigatórias passa por Tarrasch, Steinitz, Lasker. Neste livro será possível principalmente aprender xadrez e inevitavelmente, por tabela, aprender história do xadrez. Para mim, como estudioso do xadrez, tem sido um trabalho mais lento, mas nem por isso menos gratificante em termos de conhecimento, o fato de estar traduzindo do ingles para o portugues, para entender as idéias de Lasker, que se não foi o maior, foi certamente um dos maiores campeões da história do xadrez.