Siegbert Tarrasch

Siegbert Tarrasch (March 5, 1862 – February 17, 1934) was one of the strongest chess players of the late 19th century and early 20th century. He took Wilhelm Steinitz's ideas (control of the center, bishop pair, space advantage) to a higher level of refinement. He emphasized piece mobility much more than Steinitz did, and disliked cramped positions, saying that they "had the germ of defeat".

Related Topics:
March 5 - 1862 - February 17 - 1934 - Chess - Wilhelm Steinitz

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Tarrasch stated what is known as the Tarrasch rule that rooks should be placed behind passed pawns — either yours or your opponent's. He wrote several books, including Die moderne Schachpartie and Three hundred chess games.

Related Topics:
Tarrasch rule - Rook - Passed pawns

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Tarrasch may have been the best player in the world in during the early 1890s. He scored heavily against the aging Steinitz in tournaments, (+3-0=1), and drew a hard-fought match against his challenger Mikhail Chigorin in 1893 (+9-9=4). Tarrasch also won four major tournaments in succession: Breslau 1889, Manchester 1890, Dresden 1892 and Leipzig 1894.

Related Topics:
Mikhail Chigorin - Breslau - Manchester - Dresden - Leipzig

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However, after Emmanuel Lasker became world chess champion, Tarrasch could not match him. When Lasker finally agreed to a title match in 1908, he beat Tarrasch convincingly +8-3=5.http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/08lt$wix.htm However, Tarrasch was still very powerful during Lasker's reign, demolishing Frank Marshall in a match in 1905 (+8-1=8), and becoming one of the five original grandmasters by becoming one of the five finalists at the very strong Saint Petersburg tournament of 1914.

Related Topics:
Emmanuel Lasker - World chess champion - Frank Marshall - Grandmasters - Saint Petersburg

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He was a great target of the hypermodern school, led by Richard Réti, Aron Nimzowitsch and Savielly Tartakower, who considered his ideas dogmatic. However, many modern masters regard Tarrasch's actual play as not he annotated his victory on the Black side of the Advance French against Paulsen (Nuremberg 1888),http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1341053 and after 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 c5 4 c3 Nc6 5 Nf3 Qb6 6 Bd3, Tarrasch gives his next move 6 ... cxd4 an exclamation mark, and points out that 6 ... Bd7 allows 7 dxc5 with a good game. However, most accounts credit Nimzovitch with such anti-dogmatic hypermodern inventiveness he played this against Salwe almost a quarter of a century later (Karlsbad 1911).http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1000795

Related Topics:
Hypermodern - Richard Réti - Aron Nimzowitsch - Savielly Tartakower - Nuremberg - Karlsbad

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A number of chess openings are named after Tarrasch, with the most notable being:

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• The Tarrasch Defense, Tarrasch's favorite line against the Queen's Gambit.
• The Tarrasch Variation of the French Defense (3.Nd2), which Tarrasch considered refuted by 3...c5.

Tarrasch was Jewish, and a patriotic German who lost a son in World War 1, but lived to suffer under the early stages of Nazism.

Related Topics:
Jew - German - World War 1 - Nazism

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