Köhler: The chess tournament in St. Petersburg 1895/96 and Lasker’s position as world champion

Autor: Dr. Kurt Gerhard Köhler
Verlag: Edition Young
Erscheinungsjahr: 2005
Sprache: German
Buchumschlag: book
Seiten: 204

This first German-language book about the tournament in St. Petersburg in 1895/96 presents not only the chess games but also a piece of chess history. It mainly concerns Dr. Emanuel Lasker's path to the world championship. References to his achievements as a former world champion and his further personal fate round out his path as a chess player.
Part I deals with the history of the St. Petersburg tournament.
Part II provides general information about the tournament and its outcome. Lasker emerged as the winner of the tournament.
The focus of Part III is on the 18 rounds of the tournament with 36 games. Each round consisted of 2 games. At the beginning of each round, the content of each game is briefly summarized. The games themselves are provided with 89 diagrams of the most important or interesting positions, while the notes are at the end of each game to enable distraction-free replay. Where possible, the notes take into account not only alternatives but also the tension of the tournament, previous encounters and personal events. Under these circumstances, the games are combat games with their mistakes. However, the players' decisions in any game or phase of the game were made under tournament-like, physical, subjective and psychological conditions.
In Part IV, after the tournament, the period of chess history and its current issues are dealt with in various chapters. The most current was undoubtedly that of the World Championship. The various chapters after the St. Petersburg tournament provide information on how the "public" reacted in the form of tournaments and competitions and how Lasker, as world champion, resolved the issue.
An overview of all inserted comparison games and a photo index are provided in Part V.
The book "The St. Petersburg Tournament of 1895/96 and Lasker's Position as World Champion" concludes with references in Part VI.

204 pages, paperback, 1st edition 2005