CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13846, 4 September 1908, Page 5

CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP.

LASKER V. TARRASCH. By Telegraph —Press Association.—Copyright. London, September 2. In the match between Emanuel Lasker, the holder, and Dr.? Tanrasch, the challenger, for the/World's chess championship and £200 a-«jide, Lasker has won four games and Tarrasch one. The first to win eight games takes the title and stakes. As will be seen by our cable, live games have already been played in this most important match. The venue is Dusseldorf, and the first to win eight games {draws excluded) is to be the winner. This'meeting has been unavoidable for years. The chess world could not have two such suns any more than Asia two kings. Both masters have wonderfuL performances to their credit, but, after all, it is due to the fact that they are swat-masters in duels that the chief interest of the meeting lies. It is recognised that a tourney with, say, ten or a dozen competitors, demands quite a different style of play to a set match with one antagonist. In the' former one can never win by not losing, paradoxical as it may sound. By this is meant '.that drawn' gr-mes put a player out of the running for first prize, since the score for a draw i.« only half a point, and to win usually requires an average of quite three-qusrtens. Of course, to draw is better than to lose, but players often try to win in obviously drawn positions rather than submit to losing the only chance of a prize. In duels, however, - quite a different set of considerations prevail, especially ' where drawn games, as here, do not count. Not to los« is to be far on the road to winning. No chances are to be taken, no risks run, and mathematical accuracy completely overshadows spasmodic brilliancy. It is precisely for this reason—that both players are standing exemplars of the German school of safety before everything, though on occasion magnificently brilliant, —that the contest is exciting such interest. It was felt that if anyone could lower Lasher's colours it was the somewhat, didactic Nuremburg doctor, but apparently lie is not going to do it.