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Carl Schlechter
The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between
4pm and 10pm
at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI.
Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'.
Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!
The first LCCC Dice Chess Championship will conclude this coming Monday. Tom V will take on your humble scribe. Don’t tell my opponent, but I have been rolling dice all week to get ready for this match.
Meanwhile he is probably doing something silly like having a life and playing chess to get ready. We will see who’s preparation was better.
Now for another installment of: Great Chess Players You Probably Never Heard Of
Carl Schlechter
This man had the World Championship in the palm of his hand. Why he failed to grab the glory we will see in a minute.
He was a shy, timid man, but was lucky enough to be born Viennese. And the Vienna Chess Club was proud of their grandmaster. And another member of this chess club was Baron Rothschild, and he was not the only wealthy member of this club.
Back in those days, not only did you have to win the right to challenge the current champion, but the challenger had to find the sponsors to pay for the match and prize fund. This was no problem for Schlechter.
The length of the match was debated for some time. Carl was know as the “draw wizard”, so a match to a certain number of wins (like 8 wins as was the condition for the last championship) scared the sponsors and the older Champion Lasker.
Finally, it was decided that the 1910 Chess Championship would be a ten-game match. The first five in Vienna and the last five in Berlin.
Schlechter’s nickname was well founded. To get a draw from Carl was very easy to do, even in a losing position. And he offered draws to opponents who looked out of sorts or sickly. If his opponent was late to the board, he would subtract that amount of time from his own clock. Bu he was also the most resourceful defender the chess world had ever seen.
With this match being of such a short variety, it was expected that a single win could decide the winner.
Game 1 and 2 were both draws but neither were timid games. And it was actually Schlechter taking the risks and putting on the pressure.
Games 3 and 4, were all Lasker. The champion, always a slow starter in matches or tournaments, now seemed to find his form. But Schlechter, as was his reputation, was nearly impossible to defeat. These games too ended in draws.
Then the last game in Vienna, for once Lasker got a solid advantage and held the winning advantage. But on move 54, maybe from fatigue, the World Champion made a rare blunder and Schlechter seized the opportunity. Later deep analysis showed that a crazy queen sacrifice from Lasker would of made a draw, but instead he ended up in a mating net.
So, as they moved to Berlin, most thought the world had a new champion. Surely the King of Draws could conjure up five more.
Games 6, 7 and 8 were draws, but fighting draws as Lasker threw every surprise and attacking idea he has at Schlechter, but Carl held firm as always.
Then came Game 9. And for the second time in the match, Lasker had a real strong advantage. But in a time-crunch for both players, it was Lasker who slipped, and the edge disappeared into another draw.
The tenth and final game lasted through two adjournments, 71 moves and took 3 days to finish. This was the most dramatic chess game in history to that point and may still be.
With only needing a draw, for some reason it was Carl Schlechter going all out to win. He could force draws better than anyone in the world. But instead, it was he that went into very deep waters in the opening with a daring pawn push.
At the first adjournment, Schlechter had the advantage. The next day at move 34 he had a forced draw by choosing a line of play that traded down the material. Carl had to have seen it, but didn’t play it.
Instead, he played the better move. One that would bring him closer to a win. But two moves later, Carl missed the winning line. With that, Lasker wriggled out of mortal danger. Five moves after that, another forced draw line appeared for Schlechter and again he made the more aggressive move right before the 2nd adjournment.
The next day, Schlechter did not play like Schlechter, but Lasker played like Lasker and crushed Carl. The match ended in a tie and the title stayed with Lasker.
A proud and gallant man had the Chess World Championship in his hands and let it slip thru.
Do you want to know how he died just 8 years later at age 44?
He died of starvation and exhaustion in the last year of World War One. There was very little money to be made by chess players in those times. He was much too proud to ask for help from anyone. One cold winter day he was found dead in his room with no coal in his stove and no food or money anywhere in the room.
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