Dr. Seigbert Tarrasch
From Robert Fischer’s Top Ten List of the greatest chess players of all time, this is the segment referencing Tarrasch. Interesting to note is that Fischer thought so poorly of Emanuel Lasker that Lasker didn’t even make it to this list. As you can see from his few asides to Lasker, it appears he placed him on the bottom of the trash barrel. Fischer was later heavily criticized for this, and recanted (slightly), but I suspect this opinion (below) was held onto firmly – like many of Fischer’s opinions. Lasker aside, this is a well thought out opinion/perception of Tarrasch.
Chess players generally may be said to fall into two main divisions; the ones who have rules, axioms and master plans and stick to them dogmatically; and the ones who know the rules and axioms but who are quick to take advantage of unforeseen developments on the board. The best players must be a combination of the two, while avoiding being either scavengers or opportunists. Tarrasch, is perhaps the prime representative of the German school, is much closer to the first category.
He was a rule-of-thumb player: Knights should only be on Bishop 3, Knights on Queen 3 were bad always, for example; or Bishops are better than Knights no matter what the position. This last rule may be sound nine out of ten time, but one must be alert to that tenth instance when it is not. Steinitz made many rules but considered himself above them, whereas Tarrasch always followed his own rules, but so brilliantly that he is among the greatest players.
Tarrasch’s play was razor-sharp, and in spite of his devotion to this supposedly scientific method of play his game was often witty and bright. He was a great opening theorist, vastly superior in this respect to Emanuel Lasker, for example, who was a coffee-house player: Laser knew nothing about openings and didn’t understand positional chess.
Tarrasch ridiculed Steinitz for such measures as bringing his Queen out early in the game, on the second or third move, even though in certain cases, like the Scotch Gambit, Fraser variation, for example, it might win a Pawn. Tarrach was 30 years younger than Steinitz, but lacked his depth. But in spite of the Germanic background that lay on him so heavily, he was a great chessplayer.