Lasker's Manual of Chess

Lasker's Manual of Chess is a book about the game written in 1925 by Emanuel Lasker, who had been World Chess Champion up to that point. Lasker acknowledged that his thinking was most shaped by the ideas of Steinitz and by Staunton's The Chess-Player's Handbook, and he conceived the work as a combination of basic instruction and the analysis of real games.

The book is divided into six sections. The first, 'The Elements of Chess', covers the board, the rules, the relative values of the pieces, the basic checkmates, and the descriptive notation used throughout. The second, on the theory of the openings, explains the general principles of the early phase and how it shapes the middlegame and endgame, surveying the main openings with sample games and analysis. The third deals with combinational play: common motifs, ways of countering combinations, piece sacrifices and passed pawns. The fourth turns to position play, which Lasker sets in contrast to combinations, stressing the need for a clear plan and the features that define a position's strength, such as pawn structure and piece coordination. Here he also criticises the hypermodern school for neglecting accepted principles. The fifth section examines the aesthetic effect in chess and includes famous games such as the Immortal Game and the Evergreen Game. The sixth gathers illustrative games, each with thorough commentary.

The book closes with brief 'Final Reflections', in which Lasker comments on education and the difficulties players face in learning, and speculates on the mathematics of chess and on the soundness of Steinitz's theories. The work remained influential for decades, and an updated edition with a foreword by Mark Dvoretsky appeared in 2008.