Siegbert Tarrasch: German Chess Master, Physician, and Theorist (1862–1934)

Early life and professional career

Tarrasch grew up in Breslau, then part of Prussian Silesia. In 1880 he left home to study medicine, and subsequently qualified as a physician. He spent many years living in Nuremberg in Bavaria, and later moved to Munich.

Personal background

Born into a Jewish family, Tarrasch converted to Christianity in 1909. He identified strongly as German; one of his sons was killed during World War I. In the final years of his life he was subjected to antisemitism as the Nazism movement gained ground.

Chess career

Tarrasch dominated tournament play in the 1890s, winning more major events in that decade than any of his contemporaries. He drew a notable 22-game match with the Russian master Mikhail Chigorin. In addition to his results at the board, he was an influential chess writer whose teaching and assessments summed up many of the strategic ideas of the time. Those ideas later provoked a reaction from the hypermoderns in the early 1920s.

World Championship matters and later play

Busy with his medical practice, Tarrasch never arranged a match with Wilhelm Steinitz. When the young Emanuel Lasker asked him for a match, Tarrasch declined; Lasker then challenged Steinitz and captured the world chess championship. Tarrasch later mounted his own challenge against Lasker, contesting the world championship in 1908, but was unsuccessful.

Although he was past his peak after 1908, Tarrasch continued to play for many years. His strongest late-career performance was at the 1914 St. Petersburg tournament, where he reached the final pool and finished fourth behind Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine.