La Mecca - Chess Encyclopedia

Tarrasch, Siegbert

Birth	Mar 5, 1862 Breslau, Poland.
Death	Feb 17, 1934 Munchen, Germany.
Nationality	GER - Germany

Images	6
Last update	Apr 14, 2002

Biographical data

German player and author.

Biography by A.J. Goldsby I
Siegbert Tarrasch was one of the greatest chess players who ever lived. ("He was one the four best players in the world, for over 20 years." - The Oxford Chess Encyclopedia.) He won several (5) international tournaments in a row (Breslau, 1889 to Leizpig, 1894.).
During his lifetime, he won dozens of tournaments and matches. During the period 1892-1894, Anne Sunnucks says he was playing better than anyone else in the whole world. He drew a match with the great Russian, Mikhail Tchigorin when he was probably at the height of his chess-playing abilities. He was scheduled to play a match for the World's Championship with Lasker in 1903, but he fell and injured himself in a skating accident. When Lasker refused to postpone the match, it was canceled.
Tarrasch belongs to a very small group of players (the others are: Pillsbury, Rubinstein, Fine, Flohr, Keres, and Korchnoi.) who were easily World Championship strength, but a match failed to materialize at the proper time.
Thus the great Tarrasch was denied a real shot at the title.
In Ostend (1907) the organizers created a quadruple round-robin tournament which Tarrasch won. This tournament was supposedly for "The Tournament World's Championship", but Lasker scoffed at Tarrasch's claims (No one else really recognized them either). In 1908, Lasker played Tarrasch, but Lasker won a decisive victory. There were many factors for this, poor Tarrasch was recovering from a long illness; but it is highly possible Emmanuel Lasker was simply the stronger player at this point.
(Lasker was also one of the greatest players who ever lived. Lasker may deserve the title as the all-time best tournament player.)
I consider Fred Reinfeld's book of Tarrasch's games to be one of the best collections of ANY player, and also one of the best books for the aspiring student to learn from.
Trivia
by Bill Wall
He had the lamest excuse in history for losing a world championship match. After losing to Lasker, he blamed his loss on the influence of sea-air. The match began at Dusseldorf, 100 miles from the coast. In 1918 he won a chess match in which the prize was a kilogram of butter. Tarrasch was a medical doctor specializing in hypnosis. Tarrasch lost two sons in the early days of World War I.

Chess Career

  
     
    MATCHES
     
    Opponent           Place         Year    W   L   D
    -----------------------------------------------------
    S.Taubenhaus       Nrnberg      1891    6   1   1 
    M.Chigorin         St.Petersburg 1893    9   9   4 
    K.A.Walbrodt       Nrnberg      1894    7   0   1 
    F.J.Marshall       Nrnberg      1905    8   1   8 
    E.Lasker           Dsseldorf    1908    3   8   5 
    C.Schlechter       K”ln          1911    3   3  10 
    J.Mieses           Berlin        1915    0   1   1 
    J.Mieses           Berlin        1916    7   2   4 
    E.Lasker           Berlin        1916    0   5   1 
    -----------------------------------------------------
                          Total games 108   43  30  35
     
     
    TOURNAMENTS
     
    Year Place               Standing Points
    -------------------------------------------
    1885 Hamburg              2 - 6    11,5 
    1887 Frankfurt            5 - 6    12 
    1888 Leipzig              7         2 
    1888 Nrnberg             1         6 
    1889 Breslau              1        13 
    1890 Manchester           1        15,5 
    1892 Dresden              1        12 
    1894 Leipzig              1        13,5 
    1895 Hastings             4        14 
    1896 Nrnberg             3 - 4    12 
    1896 Budapest             8         6 
    1898 Wien                 1        27,5 
    1902 Monte Carlo          5 - 7    12 
    1903 Monte Carlo          1        20 
    1905 Ostende              2 - 3    18 
    1906 Nrnberg             9 - 11    7,5 
    1907 Ostende              1        12,5 
    1910 Hamburg              9 - 10    8 
    1911 San Sebastian        5 - 7     7,5 
    1912 San Sebastian        4        11,5 
    1912 Breslau              4 - 5    11 
    1914 St.Petersburg        4         8,5 
    1914 Mannheim             8 - 9     5,5 
    1918 Berlin               4         1,5 
    1920 G”teborg             4 - 7     7,5 
    1920 Berlin               5 - 7     4,5 
    1922 Pistyan              9 - 11    8,5 
    1922 Haag                 1 - 2     3,5 
    1922 Mannheim             1         3,5 
    1922 Hastings             5         4 
    1922 Teplitz Sch”nau      11 - 13   5 
    1922 Wien                 4 - 6     9 
    1923 Amsterdam            4         0,5 
    1923 Karlsbad             11        8 
    1923 M„hrisch - Ostrau    7 - 8     6,5 
    1923 Triest               4         7 
    1924 Meran                10        6 
    1925 Baden - Baden        16 - 17   7,5 
    1925 Breslau              10        3,5 
    1926 Semmering            6 - 7    10 
    1927 London, L„ndert.     -         8,5 
    1928 Bad Kissingen        11        4


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