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I have just received my complimentary copy of an important new book strongly connected to go.
It is Volume 2 of "Emanuel Lasker", published in Germany (Exzelsior Verlag) but written in English.
Volume 1 appeared in 2018 (the 150th anniversary of Lasker's birth) and is essentially a biography of Lasker - a fascinating and outstanding man, world chess champion and distinguished mathematician.
This new 2020 volume 2 deals specifically with his interest in games: chess, of course, go, draughts and bridge, plus game theory. He ranked go above chess, incidentally, as a game for the mind.
There is no author as such. This has been a major multi-disciplinary project, combining multiple authors with the work of separate researchers, translators, editors, indexers and proofreaders. I had a minor role answering questions of go history. I had previously enjoyed the Linder Russian biography of Lasker, but this new project is many, many, many levels above that. It is utterly comprehensive, scholarly yet entertaining. And the go chunk, profusely and well illustrated, is over 60 pages of a 450-page book, with masses of new information, not just about Lasker but about the go scene in Europe. Even the portions not about go are relevant to go players because they show a great mind approaching many other board and card games in similar fashion.
The authors that matter for us are Theo van Ees, who occasionally pops up on this forum, and Hans-Christian Wohlfarth. I know (and admire) Theo. I don't know Wohlfarth, but he was once the strongest go player in Germany. They begin their chapter by pointing out that even as great a polymath as Lasker "was in fact overawed by the game from Asia." They thus set themselves the unenviable task of demonstrating why. I think they have succeeded splendidly. I have yet to read the rest of Volume 2, but on the basis of Volume 1 and an animated perusal of what else lies in store in Volume 2, I am confident the same can be said of all the other authors. In fact, I can honestly say I am "overawed by the book from Berlin."
I have no financial interest in this book at all. My complimentary copy is my sole connection. The ISBN is 978-3-935800-10-5.
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John Fairbairn
