AJanuary 18 1897
The Standard, London, Greater London, England, Monday, January 18, 1897
The unequal contest between Lasker and Steinitz has been brought to a close by Lasker scoring his tenth win on Thursday. The history of the match briefly is this. In 1894 Lasker played a match with Steinitz for “the championship of the world,” and won it. Steinitz claimed a return match within a limited period, and Lasker being unable, or unwilling, to bind himself to a fixed date, Steinitz upon his own authority declared Lasker's right to the title void, and re-appropriated it himself. After the St. Petersburg tournament the Hastings and St. Leonard's Chess Club made the two players an offer to play a return match at Hastings; but Moscow having made a similar proposal with more alluring terms, the latter proposal was accepted. In the meantime, the Nuremberg International Tournament took place, in which Steinitz showed a deteriorated form compared with St. Petersburg; but the Moscow players, having settled the terms for a match between Lasker and Steinitz, had to adhere to the agreement, and the present encounter took place. Lasker may now be left in the undisturbed enjoyment of the title of champion, which he has so worthily gained, not only by defeating the champion twice, but also by gaining the first prize in the International Tournament at Nuremberg.
The result of the match is no surprise to anybody. Lasker has shown an undoubted superiority to the Steinitz of to-day, putting the case mildly. It is idle speculating how Steinitz's best would have compared with Lasker's actual strength. This much, however, may be taken as granted. Lasker's mathematically-correct style would have triumphed over Steinitz's crotchety method. That the latter persists, in spite of frequent reverses, in fads condemned by the best players, is evidence of a serious lack of judgment of position.
The first match between Lasker and Steinitz was played in 1894 in New York, Philadelphia, and Montreal. Of nineteen games Lasker won ten, Steinitz five, and four were drawn. The present match shows that Lasker has improved, whilst Steinitz has deteriorated, or, at any rate, remained stationary, the figures being—Lasker, ten; Steinitz, two; and five draws. In the two games won by Steinitz, Lasker relaxed somewhat his rigidly sound style, and if the match had been played under the usual conditions, seven games up—a sufficient test number—Lasker would have won it without losing a single game. In the whole series of the games Steinitz had only one chance of winning a game the fifth and this he missed; and a chance, perhaps, of drawing one of the Giuoco Pianos, of which he also failed to avail himself. Besides the two matches, Lasker has beaten Steinitz at Hastings; at St. Petersburg, three to one and two draws; and at Nuremberg, so that out of a total of forty-four games Lasker scored twenty-five, Steinitz eight, with eleven draws thus establishing his superiority in every encounter.
