Monokroussos on Lasker vs Schlechter

Dennis Monokroussos writes:

The first ever drawn world chess championship match, between Emanuel Lasker and challenger Carl Schlechter (picture left), was also the shortest (not counting the FIDE k.o. finales) and one of the scrappiest. Not to mention one of the historically most controversial, as debate has endured as to whether Schlechter needed to win by two games. My understanding is that current research rejects that theory, but not everyone seems to be convinced. Lasker, world champion for an astounding 27 years (1894-1921), and Austrian great Schlechter put on a great ten game show, with Lasker saving his title by winning the last game.

Games 5 and 10 (the players' sole wins) are both worthy of attention, but we'll take a slight deviation from the norm and look at game 7. Schlechter, with White, immediately goes after his opponent, but Lasker quickly and willingly joins the brawl. The battle centers around the White pawn that quickly makes its way to e6: is it a strength or a weakness? Both players go to great lengths in the fight for the initiative; both simultaneously attacking and defending and striving for the win. Neither fully succeeds, ultimately, but complex, fighting draws like this are worth more than many a routine win, as I think you’ll agree if you watch the game. Enjoy!

Dennis Monokroussos is 38, lives in South Bend, IN (the site of the University of Notre Dame), and is writing a Ph.D. dissertation in philosophy (in the philosophy of mind) while adjuncting at the University.

He is fairly inactive as a player right now, spending most of his non-philosophy time being a husband and teaching chess. At one time he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S., but quit for about eight years starting in his early 20s. His highest rating was 2434 USCF, but he has now fallen to the low-mid 2300s – "too much blitz, too little tournament chess", he says.

Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for seven years now, giving lessons to adults and kids both in person and on the internet, worked for a number of years for New York’s Chess In The Schools program, where he was one of the coaches of the 1997-8 US K-8 championship team from the Bronx, and was very active in working with many of CITS’s most talented juniors.

When Dennis Monokroussos presents a game, there are usually two main areas of focus: the opening-to-middlegame transition and the key moments of the middlegame (or endgame, when applicable). With respect to the latter, he attempts to present some serious analysis culled from his best sources (both text and database), which he has checked with his own efforts and then double-checked with his chess software.

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