page_title: Emanuel Lasker
section_title: Match against Schlechter
hierarchical_section_title: Emanuel Lasker / Life and career / Chess competition 1894–1918 / Match against Schlechter
context_page_description: Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years.
  In his prime Lasker was one of the most dominant champions, and he is generally regarded as one of the strongest players ever. He finally lost the title to Capablanca in 1921.
  Lasker demanded high fees for playing matches and tournaments, which aroused some criticism. He had seen how Steinitz's life had ended in poverty, and was determined to avoid this fate.
  The conditions which Lasker demanded for World Championship matches in the last ten years of his reign were controversial, and prompted attempts to define rules for championship matches.
  Lasker was also a talented mathematician, and his Ph.D. thesis is regarded as one of the foundations of modern algebra. He was a first-class contract bridge player and wrote about this and other games, including Go and his own invention, Lasca.
context_section_description: Lasker won first prizes at very strong tournaments in St. Petersburg 1895–1896, Nuremberg 1896, London 1899, Paris 1900. As time passed, there arose two great players, Akiba Rubinstein and Capablanca. Both deserved a match for the world championship, but as it turned out, the chance came to another fine player, Carl Schlechter.
  Lasker arranged the World Chess Championship match against Schlechter in January–February 1910. Schlechter was a modest man, who was generally unlikely to win the major chess tournaments by his peaceful inclination, his lack of aggressiveness and his willingness to accept most draw offers from his opponents (about 80% of his games finished by a draw).ᵖ⁴⁰⁴ 
  The conditions of the match are still debatable, because they were never published.ᵖ³⁵⁷ Some claim that Schlechter accepted especially unfavourable conditions. Giffard says he would need to finish two points ahead of Lasker to be declared the winner of the match, and he would need to win a revenge match to be declared World Champion.ᵖ⁴⁰⁴ This opinion is not proven.
  The match was originally meant to consist of 30 games, but when it became obvious that there were insufficient funds (Lasker demanded a fee of 1,000 marks per game played), the number of games was reduced to ten.
  In the fifth game Lasker had a big advantage, but made a mistake which cost him the game. Schlechter was now a point ahead. The score before the last game was 5–4 for Schlechter. In the tenth game Schlechter tried to win and took a clear advantage, but he missed a win on his 35th move, and finished by losing.ᵖ⁴⁰⁶ Hence the match was a draw and Lasker remained World Champion.
  At St. Petersburg 1914 he overcame a 1½ point deficit to finish ahead of the rising stars Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine.
caption: Carl Schlechter: might have taken Lasker's world title.
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