The history of the world chess championship is, naturally, written by the epic matches for the title, especially those where the title changes hands. Dr. Emanuel Lasker took the title in 1894 from the first world champion, Wilhelm Steinitz. He held the title until this match in 1921, losing it to the younger, coming man, Jose Raul Capablanca of Cuba. This match was much anticipated, as Capablanca had been burning up the chess world--up until the epic St. Petersburg, 1914 tournament where Lasker came from behind to pip Capablanca for first place, beating Capablanca in the penultimate round to close the gap. Then the war intervened, and the chess world got put in the deep freeze. Lasker played little, while Capablanca continued to play in--and dominate--the Americas. Finally this match began--100 years ago this year!

To the great disappointment of the chess world, Lasker was not in good form. After 14 games, four losses and ten draws, Lasker resigned the match.  There are great games in here, most notably the fifth game. The notes are by Capablanca himself, and they illuminate the games--see his comments on the fifth game, correcting the impressions of the entire chess world. Each game was hard fought.

Only 600 copies of this book are extant.

There is a question about the autograph, in pencil, in the book. It appears to be Capablanca's signature, but there are good reasons to doubt. For one thing, the signature is in pencil; usually autographs are done in ink. It is dated to 1923, which could be interpreted either way.  But then again, who would forge the signature of a chess champion? We have no provenance to prove that it is indeed Capablanca's signature, so we leave it at this--it is interesting if not probative.  The book itself, in the condition it is in, is valuable enough.

A bit of history that is worth every penny.

English language, English Descriptive notation. Hardback