Monday, March 11

Ed. Lasker-Gunsberg match announced

Word has reached us of a match of six games' duration to be contested in London between Herr Edward Lasker, newcomer to the English chess scene, and veteran campaigner Isidor Gunsberg, an encounter promising a fascinating clash of youthful vigor versus seasoned experience.  A brilliant victory by Lasker recently appeared in our pages; the name of Gunsberg, we suspect, may be less familiar to some of our readers, in particular the younger ones, as in recent years the old Master has rather limited his active participation in chess events, devoting himself in the main to journalistic and literary efforts in the service of our royal game.  Let us recall, therefore, that Gunsberg in his day was capable of defeating any player in the world, and once mounted a campaign to wrest the title of Champion from Steinitz himself, an effort in which he suffered a narrow and honorable defeat.  We present a small selection of games won by Gunsberg against  Masters of world class; those against Tarrasch and Blackburne, taken from the Hamburg tourney of 1885, were played several months before Herr Lasker was born.


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