AMarch 01 1921
The Sacramento Star, Sacramento, California, Tuesday, March 01, 1921
Lasker Is Doped To Win Back Chess Title
Caption: Dr. Emanuel Lasker (left) and Jose R. Capablanca (right.)
Win, lose or draw, Dr. Emanuel Lasker gets $11,000 for playing 24 games of chess with Jose R. Capablanca for the championship of the world at Havana, beginning March 10.
By the same token Capablanca gets $9000.
It took a $20,000 purse to bring these players together. [(Adjusted for inflation in 2022: USD20K has the same buying power as $301,327.92--therefore, the $125,000 prize money offered in the Spassky-Fischer 1972 match was not the 'greatest purse in history, as the Soviet Union wanted claimed in world media, as if Fischer were “in fault” for making demand for more money. In fact, it would take an offer of $150,000 to just reach a meager half of the purse split between Lasker and Jose R. Capablanca, 1921. Peanuts! said Fischer.)]
Lasker is a German. His home is in Berlin. He is 52.
Capablanca is a Cuban. Havana is his home. His age is 30.
Three thousand chess fans from all over the world will attend the games, it is estimated.
Fans to Attend
The players will be stationed in separate rooms during the match.
The moves of each will be registered on an enlarged chess board erected in an amphitheater for the benefit of the fans.
Only one game a day will be played.
Contestants will not play more than four games a week.
Lasker won his crown by defeating Wilhelm Steinitz in 1893.
Capablanca has vanquished all chess champions on this side of the Atlantic.
A few years ago the Cuban defeated the American champion, Frank J. Marshall.
Important Match
Chess devotees attach great importance to the coming match.
They are offering odds of 4 to 1 on Lasker.
The German chess star defeated Capablanca at Petrograd in 1908 in a match of two games.
Lasker won one and drew the second.
Six months ago Lasker “gave” his championship to Capablanca in a moment of disgust because no chess club would arrange the $5000 purse he demanded at the time for a series of games.
In spite of this Lasker is still regarded as the world's champion.
