October 13 1902
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Brooklyn, New York Monday, October 13, 1902
Chess Champion Lasker Here To Tour America
Famous Expert Likes This Country Well Enough to Make It His Home.
DISLIKES ENGLISH CLIMATE.
Will Remain Until January and Then Compete in Monte Carlo Tourney.
Dr. Emanuel Lasker, the chess champion of the world, arrived here this morning on board the Anchor liner Columbia. He was met by a reporter at quarantine and seemed to be pleased to see a friendly face before landing.
The champion said that he had had a pretty rough passage, but otherwise he found the trip rather pleasant. He intends making a professional tour of the United States and Canada, beginning at the Manhattan Chess Club, in this city, where he will fulfill a fortnight's engagement, playing five days a week.
Mr. Lasker stated that he had received a very flattering special invitation from Prince Dadian of Mingrelia to take part in the next international chess masters' tournament at Monte Carlo, and that he had accepted. He will, therefore, be obliged to limit his stay in the United States to about the middle of next January.
When asked why he hail resigned his professorship at Owens College, Manchester, England, where he had been teaching mathematics, he said that the English climate did not agree with him. He had much trouble with his health and was most reluctantly obliged to give up the position. Should he succeed in getting a similar position in this country he would be delighted to stay here altogether.
“The late Captain Mackenzie.” he added, “always used to say, after spending some time in Europe, that the country seemed small to him and that he always felt a longing to get back to America. I have a similar feeling, the more so as I have a great number of friends in New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans and in the West, whom I want to see again.”
Chess in Germany and England is, according to Dr. Lasker, at present making great strides and the game was never before so popular as now. This is due in no small measure to the American champion, Pillsbury, who is astounding everybody with his wonderful blindfold exhibitions, to the return of Tarrasch, who had absented himself for years from the active chess arena, and to the great many international and national masters' tournaments.
Asked his opinion on the exhibitions given by Pillsbury, he said: “His performance in playing against twenty-one strong players without sight of boards or men, as he did at Hanover, is simply phenomenal, but I am afraid that such extraordinary feats of memory must be hurtful, and it seems to me, that it would be wise for him to place himself in the care of a competent medical man for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not he is actually exerting himself beyond the breaking point. It would be an irreparable loss to the chess world if Pillsbury's health were to break down as a consequence of these exhausting efforts.”
The champion said further that he had not been challenged for the world's championship by Pillsbury, and that nothing had been said on the subject, when the two met last in Berlin, about a month ago.
In the course of his remarks he said that one of the most difficult questions of the match would be the matter of stakes, heretofore it had been the custom of amateurs to back a player, and in return that amateurs would get half the winnings, in addition to the amount put up by him. This is equivalent to backing his man at the odds of two to one, which is, of course, against all rules of sport.
A match between Pillsbury and Lasker should be of interest to chess players the world over, and if they are desirous of bringing about such a contest, the stakes should be subscribed for freely.
Another question should arise as to where the match should be played. It would then be in order for the club wanting the contest to put up a sufficient guarantee as an inducement to the principals.
When asked as to who he considered the eight greatest players of the present, Mr. Lasker unhesitatingly answered that Maroczy, Janowski, Pillsbury, Schlechter, Tarrasch, Atkins, Tschigorin and himself should be considered as such. He did not give the names of these men in the order of merit, but just as he recalled the names.
Napier and Marshall, he added, are highly talented, and, while the former cannot be properly judged from his work in the two tournaments in which he has played, it is a pity that Marshall is not sufficiently robust to always give a good account of himself.
When informed that Walbrodt of Berlin had died, he expressed himself as greatly shocked. Walbrodt, he said, was a very ingenious player. He had been ailing of late and he could not, therefore, devote himself with the same amount of enthusiasm to his studies as he was formerly accustomed to do.
The champion considers the recent death of the chess master, Rosenthal, of France, a great loss to the chess community. he was not only a brilliant player, but he deserves great credit for his talents as an organizer. He proved to be an excellent manager of the last Paris international tournament and, above all, it should be mentioned that it was due to his efforts that chess found favor in aristocratic circles at the French capital.
The visitor attributed the downfall of the British Chess Club, of London, whose amalgamation with the Pall Mall Club was reported last week, to the fact that it was primarily a social organization and paid too little attention to the encouragement or the development of the game at home, although it figured in several of the international events.
Dr. Lasker will rest a few days before opening his engagement at the Manhattan Chess Club. The exact dates for his early performance have not yet been given out.
