AThe Times, Shreveport, Louisiana, Sunday, June 07, 1959
There are two interesting chess books on the market now. One is the life and games of Emmanuel Lasker, the other is the games of chess Bobby Fischer has played.
No two grandmasters could be more different.
Bobby Fischer, now 16, was the youngest grandmaster of all time. Seeming to have no other interest, he's still going strong in his bid for the world championship.
Lasker, on the other hand, was a philosopher, mathematician, poet and, though he intensely disliked the game, was for 28 years (from 1894) the world's chess champion.
As different as the chess players are the books. Fischer's annotated by himself, is about his own meteoric chess career (May 1955 to May 1958): the games themselves with the author's comments at strategic moves. The book about Lasker is both a biography of his personal life and its relation to his life of chess, including more than 100 of his greatest games. Written by Dr. J. Hannak (in German) and translated by Albert Einstein, it is considered the standard work on Lasker. (Unfortunately there are an annoying number of typographical errors in the text).
Fischer is obviously a brilliant chess player; Lasker was brilliant in many ways. Readers primarily interested in modern chess motifs will want Fischer's book; those interested in the lives of the important and near-great men will want the book about Lasker. Both make valuable additions to chess libraries. — KC
