Advent calendar: December 3

The "other" Lasker: Edward Lasker

The history of chess knows several Laskers who were strong players. The best-known Lasker is of course Emanuel Lasker, World Chess Champion from 1894 to 1921. But Emanuel's brother Berthold was also an excellent player even though not assuccessful as his younger brother. Eduard, later Edward, is the third good chess player named Lasker.

Edward Lasker was born on December 3, 1885, in Kepno, a little village about 80 km east of Breslau which today is known as Kepno. Lasker studied mathematics and engineering in Breslau and Berlin. He finished his studies in 1910 and in 1911 began to work for the AEG in Berlin.

His career soon led him to London but shortly after the outbreak of World War I he emigrated to the U.S. He worked in Chicago as safety engineer but became more and more interested in the invention of electrotechnical equipment. His most successful invention was a mechanical breast pump which he developed between 1921 and 1923 and which helped him to become a wealthy man.

Lasker learnt to play chess when he studied n Breslau and his teacher was Arnold Schottländer. In 1909 Lasker won the City Championship of Berlin and in 1911 he published his first chess book, "Chess Strategy". In 1914 he won the City Championship of London and he later won the Open US-Championships five times: 1916, 1917, 1919, 1920 and 1921. Lasker also took part in the strong and famous tournament in New York 1924 but only finished second to last.

Apart from chess Lasker was also interested in other board games - in draughts but particularly in the game of Go about which he published a number of books. For five years he was even considered to be the best Go player of the West. Lasker founded the US Go Federaton and for some time was also president of the Marshall Chess Club in New York.  

Lasker's partner was the U.S. chess player Mona May Karff. Mona Karff played a number of times in the Women's World Championship, came from a wealthy family and liked to collect art.

Eduard and Emanuel Lasker

Edward and Emanuel Lasker were friends and knew that they were somehow related - even though they did not know how exactly. Later family documents revealed that they were third degree cousins. Eduard Lasker is also the uncle of Anita Lasker-Walfisch, a survivor of the girls' orchestra in Auschwitz.

In 1912 Lasker played a famous brilliancy against Sir George Alan Thomas:

And here's the ChessBase door for December 3: