Chess Strategy and Tactics: Emanuel Lasker's Amazing Games
What you'll learn
- Ability to appreciate the strength and accuracy of Lasker
- Ability to make use of Lasker's openings and strategies and tactics
- Ability to see how Lasker's openings vary according to importance of tournament, simul or World championship event
- Ability to judge of Lasker was a "Poker Chess player" or just had a better understanding of opening theory than his peers
- Ability to improve classical opening knowledge as Lasker played 1...e5 a lot to 1.e4 and 1...d5 to 1.d4
- Ability to understand how to tradeoff structure for central control and development e.g. allowing Nxc5 giving bishop up
- Ability to see more Lasker's influence on Mikhail Tal and Viktor Korchnoi - especially as a fight - to win
- Ability to apply more Lasker's concept of the Truth in relation to it's contrast - e.g. Morphy provided contrast too
- Ability to improve understanding of the King's Gambit as Lasker played this quite a bit
- Ability to understand more why Mikhail Tal considered Lasker as the greatest of the champions
- Ability to understand more why Vladimir Kramnik considered Lasker a pioneer of modern chess
- Ability to appreciate that Lasker was also a master of the "meta game" making particular opponents feel uncomfortable in particular situations
- Ability to appreciate the Berlin defence old variation as a fantastic solid and potentially advantageous opening foundation for later play with the bishop pair
- Ability to appreciate the Berlin defence as often the bishop without counterpart advantage in exchange for some structural damage which is often not exploitable
- Ability to appreciate statistically anomoly of both Vladimir Kramnik and Emanuel Lasker actually having a positive win % with Black using Berlin defence
- Ability to improve endgames greatly from seeing amazing World championship titanic games getting a variety of endgame tips and strategies
- Ability to train your evaluation of chess positions through the rich experiences of the games and the underlying variations
- Ability to create evocative ideas and concepts and emotions from these games by gaining empathy from the insights and variations to use in one's own games
- Ability to appreciate Lasker on Chessmetrics best players ever 2 year period #2 behind Kasparov and 20 year period ranked #3 just behind Kasparov and Karpov
- Ability to appreciate the Evolution of chess style has an early link to modern chess in the form of Lasker who often had better tournaments than his successors
- Ability to see influence to World champion Capablanca taking defensive skill and endgame mastery as the specialist subset of Lasker's style
- Ability to see influence of Alexander Alekhine in terms of attacking chess and the art of Attack
- Ability to see influence to World champion Max Euwe in terms of tactical resourcefulness and solid opening variations
- Ability to see influence of World Mikhail Botvinnik in terms of professional preparation for events - e.g. kept lots of stamina in events and often won in end
- Ability to see influence to World champion Mikhail Tal in terms of being able to create complexity and win from seemingly bad positions
- Ability to see influence to World champion Tigran Petrosian in terms of logic, precision and strong tactical abilities
- Ability to see influence to World champion Bobby Fischer in terms of Universal style and chess as as fight- two cats that are very alike indeed!
- Ability to see infleunce to World champion Anatoly Karpov in terms of universal style and playing the position appropriately and the value of practical moves
- Ability to see influence to World champion Garry Kasparov in terms of exploiting the opponent's weaknesses in openings, middlegame style and personality general
- Ability to see influence of World champion Vladimir Kramnik in terms of solid aggressive dynamic style and sharing love of Berlin defence :)
- Ability to see influence of current World champion Magnus Carlsen in terms of chess as a fight - not a sport, science or Art - but a Fight primarily
- Ability to appreciate Albert Einstein's comments including Lasker "one of the most interesting people I came to know in my later life"
Requirements
- Knows how the chess pieces move
Description
Journey through the legendary games of Emanuel Lasker, the German chess genius who reigned supreme as World Chess Champion for an unparalleled 27 years (1894-1921). A mathematician and philosopher, Lasker's innovative strategies and tactics laid the groundwork for modern chess.
This course, meticulously curated by Kingscrusher, focuses on Lasker's most instructive games from 1889 to 1899, a period that witnessed his meteoric rise to the pinnacle of global chess. Kingscrusher's expert analyses of Lasker's games provide unique insights, revealing Lasker's groundbreaking approach to chess as a dynamic, multi-dimensional battle rather than a rigid game of set principles.
Witness the clarity of Lasker's ideas and marvel at his mastery over intricate chess maneuvers, tactics, and strategies. His profound influence extends to grandmasters of later generations, including chess luminaries like Mikhail Tal and Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik, in fact, has praised Lasker for discovering 'global' chess, where various positional elements interact and balance each other out, a stark contrast to the more one-dimensional strategies of his predecessor, Steinitz.
The course also highlights Lasker's remarkable accuracy even in simultaneous exhibitions, with many of his moves standing the test against modern, high-tech engines like Stockfish. Uncover the rich essence of Lasker's chess philosophy, which emphasizes the game as a 'fight' and incorporates psychological insights about the opponent into the game plan, aligning with timeless strategies outlined in Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'.
Delve into Lasker's pivotal matches against Steinitz, revealing his smart strategy to draw Steinitz into less familiar, queenless positions, leading to his spectacular victories. This course illuminates how Lasker's pursuit of credibility, coupled with his exceptional skills, made him one of the most respected World Chess Champions.
Join Kingscrusher on this fascinating exploration of Lasker's games and brace yourself for a treasure trove of chess wisdom and inspiration. Whether you're a beginner, an amateur, or an aspiring grandmaster, you'll find invaluable lessons and insights in every move of these timeless masterpieces.
Who this course is for:
- Beginner to Intermediate level players
Instructor
- 4.6 Instructor Rating
- 2,444 Reviews
- 11,692 Students
- 30 Courses
Tryfon Gavriel, also known as "Kingscrusher" on the Internet. I am a FIDE Candidate Master (CM), and British Regional Chess Master, and run a popular Youtube channel for many years with over 114k+ Subs as of 2021 and a Silver Button Award.
I have done many shows on commercial chess servers. I am also the Webmaster of the correspondence-style chess server Chessworld which emphasizes game quality and research.
Playing experience
Over 35 years of playing activity both online and offline. Peak ICC blitz rating of 2625 (18-Jun-1999). Peak ICC 5 min auto-pairing of 2383 (29-Jun 2012). ECF Grading peak classical: 212 (A) ECF. Peak Rapid rating: 217 (C).
Lichess marathon top 10 finishers in 4 marathons so far. Top 50 finisher in 7 marathons so far. Top 100 finisher in 4 marathons so far. And top 500 in 1 marathon so far. Won quite a few tournaments at lichess - in fact giving me 3rd rank overall behind Lance5500 and papasi in a recent detailed statistical blog analysis titled "Lichess Marathon Statistics".
One of my earliest Over-the-board achievements in Chess was winning the Lloyds Under 18 national UK tournament in 1989. My trophy was awarded to me by Grandmaster and Ph.D. Mathematician Dr John Nunn.
Teaching experience
I have done teaching in Schools and also have done teaching online with several Lichess students on a regular basis, and have a very good coaching rating at lichess.
Other experiences
Played twice in the main British Chess championship. Many of my Youtube viewers claim big rating increases after watching my videos.
Best skills
I particularly love attacking chess, chess tactics, and combinations, and it is probably no accident that my "Complete Guide to Chess Tactics" has been a best-seller shortly after its release here at Udemy.
In general, I will try and give you greater enthusiasm for the game and in particular the dynamic attacking, aggressive tactical aspects of playing chess. My favorite heroes are mainly Attacking style tactical players: Paul Morphy, Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal, Bobby Fischer, and Garry Kasparov. if you want to be a dynamic aggressive attacking style player, I may be able to encourage you and find you relevant resources on that path. The dynamic aggressive attacking players were particularly strong tactically and would often trade off pawn structure neatness and material to try and checkmate the opponent's kings. Checkmate does win the game :) They were masters of finishing combinations naturally as they sought to reduce the king's safety of the opponent in various ways including bringing the King out for often beautiful mating combinations.
Chess Openings
In terms of concrete openings to make use of potentially teaching here at Udemy through courses. I like Solid openings on such as the London System. I also like provocative openings like the Knight's Tango systems to encourage weaknesses from opponents. I am also at faster time controls especially, particularly fond of aggressive openings and gambits. For example, the Smith-Morra Gambit vs the Sicilian Defence, and other gambits can be used aggressively even with the black pieces such as the Albin Counter Gambit. Gambits vary of course in soundness and it is important to teach what "ticks many boxes" for use in various time controls. Also, I like surprising opponents with openings such as the Nimzo-Larsen attack, the King's Indian Attack, The London System, and Queen's Knight attack system 1. Nc3, all of which I have courses for here at Udemy.
In the search for the ideal courses to provide you, I like to search within myself for my core strengths and passions within the passion of Chess.
I truly hope you enjoy my courses and they improve your chess and your enjoyment of chess generally - and life generally :)