Siegbert Tarrasch
German chess player, chess writer, and chess theoretician / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Siegbert Tarrasch (Breslau, now Wrocław, 5 March 1862 – Munich, 17 February 1934) was a German doctor, and one of the strongest chess grandmasters of the day.[1]
Tarrasch was born in Breslau, in Prussian Silesia. He left in 1880 to study medicine, and qualified as a physician. He lived most of his life in Nuremberg, Bavaria, and later in Munich. Tarrasch was born Jewish, and converted to Christianity in 1909.[2] He was a patriotic German, who lost a son in World War I, but he faced antisemitism in the early stages of Nazism.
Tarrasch won more strong tournaments in the 1890s than any other player, and drew a 22-game match against Mikhail Chigorin, the leading Russian player. Tarrasch was also an influential chess writer, who summarised the chess ideas of the 1890s. It was his ideas against which the hypermoderns reacted in the early 1920s.[3]p411
Occupied with his profession, Tarrasch did not challenge Steinitz, and turned down the young Emanuel Lasker's request for a match. This turned out to be a mistake, for Lasker then challended Steinitz, and won the world chess championship. Later Tarrasch unsuccessfully challenged Lasker for the world championship, in 1908. He was by then past his best, though he continued to play in tournaments for many years. His best result in later years was to reach the final pool in the strong St. Petersburg 1914 tournament. He came fourth, behind Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine.[4]