Emanuel Lasker | ‘The ancient game of chess’, autograph manuscript in English

Emanuel Lasker

Autograph working manuscript entitled "Ye ancient game of chesse", in a notebook

discussing rules, strategy, and philosophy of chess, with chapters on such subjects as “The values of play”, “The code of chess”, values of pieces, openings, endgames, errors, and “Chess and life”, with exercises and model games, including c. 41 diagrams of chess positions pasted into the notebook, extensive revisions and additions throughout including some text in different hands, chiefly on rectos with additions and revisions on facing versos, c. 134 pages, plus blanks, 4to (235 x 190 mm), n.d., marbled paper boards, binding worn, c. 5 leaves loose in the notebook

“…In this way the happenings on the chessboard are an allegory for the events in human life, for though the pieces are dumb they speak to him who understands their meaning. Let us now listen to what the pieces say to each other. Let us pay attention to their conduct. Perchance they might give wise counsel and set meritorious conduct…”

A WORKING MANUSCRIPT ON CHESS BY ONE OF THE GREATEST PLAYERS OF ALL TIME. Emanuel Lasker (1868–1941) was probably the greatest player in the world from the mid-1890s to the mid-1920s. He was also a mathematician and philosopher with a keen and curious mind. Although this is an introduction to the game of chess that was written to be accessible to the beginner (as is shown, for example, by his diagrammatic representation of games rather than relying solely on notation), Lasker ranges far beyond outlining the rules and basic tactics. He begins by praising the value of play to a well-lived life and concludes by taking the game of chess as a model of life itself. This manuscript is presumably an early draft of “A Course of Instruction in ye ancient game of chesse”, which was serialised in Lasker’s Magazine (1904–1909).