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Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch, unspecified date as circa 1920. Source
Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch in latter years. Unspecified date.
February 19 1934
Evening Sentinel, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, Monday, February 19, 1934
Doctor Siegbert Tarrasch, the famous chess player, has died at Munich, aged 72. He represented Germany from 1890 to 1910 in all the international chess tournaments.
February 22 1934
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Thursday, February 22, 1934
Chess World Mourns Death of Tarrasch After Long Career
By Hermann Helms
On the death of Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch at Munich on Sunday at the age of 72 the chess world was called upon to mourn the loss of one of the most conspicuous figures in the modern development of the ancient game, an international master of the first rank, popular author and tireless publicist. Active until the very last, his keen enthusiasm for the hobby, of which he made a life study, never wane, as was plainly evidenced by the fact that, at 70, he started Tarrasch's Schachzeitung, a venture that would have given pause to many a younger man.
Born at Breslau on March 5, 1862, Dr. Tarrasch was the dean of the great chess masters and would have celebrated his 72nd birthday very soon. He learned chess in his school days at the age of 16, but did not permit it to interfere with his studies at the Universities of Berlin and Halle, where he gained his physician's diploma. Making his home in Nuremberg, he established a practice there and, as the Sage of Nuremberg, became known throughout the far-flung chess playing world.
In later years, while still remaining active, Dr. Tarrasch naturally could not keep pace with the younger generation but never lost his love for a hard fight. He engineered several of the great European congresses, notably that as Baden-Baden in 1925. Thereafter much of his time was devoted to literary activity and analytical research. The books by which he will be best remembered are his “300 Schachpartien” and “Die Moderne Schachpartie.”
March 05 1934
Evening star, Washington, District of Columbia, Monday, March 05, 1934
NEWSPAPERS report the death Of Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch at Munich, at the age of 72. He was for years one of the most conspicuous figures in the chess world, always at the top or near the top in tournaments; a master of the first rank, and author. At Hastings in 1895, when Pillsbury gained his great victory, he finished fourth. Pillsbury and Tarrasch tied for first place in the Vienna tournament of 1898, and in the play-off Tarrasch defeated Pillsbury. He practiced medicine at Nuremburg.
March 11 1934
Buffalo Courier Express, Buffalo, New York, Sunday, March 11, 1934
The world of chess lost a master in the recent death of Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch, at Munich, Germany. Although he never held the world's championship he was twice a challenger and lost both times. Dr. Tarrasch was 72 years old.
April 23 1934
The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Monday, April 23, 1934
Death of Tarrasch
Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch, the great German chess master, has died, at the age of 72. At the beginning of the century Tarrasch had for some years to be ranked second in the world (Lasker being first), and for 30 years he was right in the top rank (1885 till the war). Between 1889 and 1907 he won seven first prizes in international master tournaments.
In 1908 Tarrasch played a match against Dr. Lasker for the world title, and lost by 8 games to 3, with 5 draws. After the match Lasker made this extraordinary pronouncement:—“If chess were made of glass, Tarrasch would be unbeatable!”
The pithiness of the verdict will be appreciated when the full gist of it is explained. In style, Tarrasch was a model of logic. His ideal was correctness, and he would have scorned to play to the psychological weakness of an individual opponent. Chess was an art to him, and he played his games as a great artist paints a picture. Consequently, if he did not make any tactical miscalculation, his perfect strategy would make him unbeatable. But in practical play there is a time limit and some positions are so complicated that complete calculation is impossible; that is, chess is not “made of glass.”
Now Lasker was a player whose only idea was to win, and he played the opponent as well as the board. In his match with Tarrasch he set out with the deliberate idea of creating extremely difficult positions; he was willing to play second-best moves deliberately, provided they brought about positions which could not be fathomed without great expenditure of time; he had studied Tarrasch's games and discovered the type of position he handled least well. These tactics succeeded Tarrasch either miscalculated or else he got short of time, which caused him to blunder later in the game. The result was a match which was full of mistakes on both sides, and which greatly disappointed the chess world as well as Tarrasch.
In the English Davis Cup team that came out here after the war there was a magnificent driver, Arthur Lowe. He would return drive for drive with anyone in the world, but in the semi-final of the Australian championship Dr. Pockley led him with high-bounding soft shots, and defeated him in a match that looked almost B-grade. It was a parallel.
Tarrasch was the chess world's schoolmaster. He wrote about nine books, covering all phases of the game. Astoundingly enough, none of these have been translated, and this is one of many reasons why British chess has never reached the level of the Continental game.
Tarrasch had a mordant wit. His attention was once drawn by a horrified bystander to the fact that an onlooker was asleep. Tarrasch crossed over the game in progress—and merely remarked, “Ah, an acute critic.”
Comparing modern scientific chess with the crude old “brilliancies,” he summed up the latter in the words, “Schach, schach, schach!” Mouth this out in the proper way, and you will see that the sounds convey a beautifully contemptuous effect which is quite lost in the translation [Check, check, check!]. The remark of his that we like most of all—if we may be forgiven for quoting it now—was made about 1907; “There are now two chess masters, the other is Lasker.”
Tarrasch was a man of tremendous energy and ability. Besides turning out book after book, and beating the flower of the chess world in tournaments, he found time to practice his profession of medicine at Geroldgrun, Oberfranken, Nuremberg, and finally at Munich.
In his declining years he brought out a chess magazine, “Tarrasch's Schachzeitung,” and he died in harness.
Tarrasch never kept his researches in the openings and the end-games to himself, but broadcast them all over Europe. Through him the general standard of play was raised enormously.
The chess world mourns a great player, a great friend to the game, and a man of the highest type, whom chess must be proud to own.
The name is nearly always mispronounced. The accent is on the “Tar.”
