Chess Secrets I Learned from the Masters

No need for me to hold forth at length, as others have reviewed the book with obvious care. I'll just cast my vote, as it were. Ed Lasker's love for chess is clearly evident throughout this, his finest book. Read it for the wonderful stories of his real-life chess experiences, told in a warm and intimate style. The story of his game with namesake, Emanuel Lasker, is exciting and lucid. This book provides light reading suitable for your nightstand, and the several games are nicely annotated. Not to be missed!

This is one magnificent chess book. Reminds me of some of the characters I remember when playing chess in my younger days. Lasker skillfully recounts his memories of famous and lesser known chess players of his period. Also contains game selection by those same players! A hard book to find, but worth the search!!

I must affirm Mr. Bervaldi's review; this is a brilliant chess book, that is equal parts history, great annotated games, and entertainment. All of Edward Lasker's books together make an entire chess library.

In this, his magnum opus, Edward Lasker (1885-1981) allows us to experience a bygone era. "I must admit," he confesses, "that chess has been directly or indirectly the source of much happiness to me, and I should probably be grateful for this to my great namesake, Emanuel Lasker. Had he not won the World Championship when I was a little boy of five, my father would hardly have thought of teaching me the game." Later on, the two Laskers would become close friends. How does one review a book like this? I can tell you that it is a thick book (428 pages). I can tell you that it was published in 1951. I can tell you that it has 32 drawings of the great and not so great masters (Pillsbury, von Bardeleben, Tarrasch, Bernstein, Nimzovich, just to name a few) by Kenneth Stubbs. I can tell you that there are 77 annotated games in descriptive notation. I can tell you it is a fascinating autobiography, but how do I convey the essence of this book? Certainly not by sterile statistics! What follows is meant to whet your appetite. Hopefully, I will succeed. These excerpts are suggestive, by no means are they complete. Let's begin with Kurt von Bardeleben: "One master on whose presence at the Cafe Bauer I could unfailingly count any evening, was Kurt von Bardeleben. He was an easy-going person, in his fifties. When he had any money at all, you could tell it by the bottle of Bordeaux on his table; he sipped one glass after another in the leisurely manner of the connoisseur." What was extraordinary about the shape of von Bardeleben's forehead? Why did his aristocratic family cast him off? These questions and more are answered by Lasker. Of his namesake, Emanuel Lasker, Edward makes the following observation: "The striking difference between him and the other masters was that he hardly ever spent any time at the chessboard...He seemed always preoccupied with problems of mathematics or philosophy." Which chess principle did Lasker claim was his "guide at every stage" of the game (p. 30) and which principle did he claim was "frequently violated in chess games...." (p. 144)? Why, Edward asks, did Emanuel Lasker draw up a document in which he confirmed that "[Ossip] Bernstein had irrefutably proved his status as chess idiot" (p. 79)? On a more personal note, Edward Lasker informs us that his "friends...no longer called [him] the 'chess player' but the 'chest player.'" How did he earn this dubious appellation (p. 250)? Finally, let's conclude with Edward Lasker's comments on Aaron Nimzovich: "There was a bizarre streak in Nimzovich's make-up, which manifested itself not only in his exotic behavior but in his writings as well. In the last analysis, this probably explains why he was unable to keep up with Alekhine and Capablanca, both of whom coupled a strong practical sense with their fine positional understanding. This practical sense Nimzovich lacked. He also lacked physical endurance." During the Hamburg Hauptturnier tournament, 1910, Lasker discussed his forthco