Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa
Encyclopedia
Tassilo, Baron von Heydebrand und der Lasa (known in English as "Baron von der Lasa", 17 October 1818, Berlin
– 27 July 1899, Storchnest
near Lissa
, Greater Poland
, then German Empire
) was an important German chess
master, chess historian and theoretician
of the nineteenth century, a member of the Berlin Chess Club and a founder of the Berlin Chess School (the Berlin Pleiades
).
His name is usually abbreviated as "von der Lasa", as this is how he signed his letters. However both contemporary and more recent writers have used other abbreviations, such as "von Heydebrandt" (which is a mis-spelling) and "Der Lasa". The Prussian King (later Emperor) William I made a joke out of the confusion by saying, "Good morning, dear Heydebrand. How is von der Lasa doing?"
Von der Lasa was born 17 October 1818 in Berlin
. He studied law in Bonn
and Berlin. From 1845 he was a diplomat in the service of Prussia
. His career took him to Stockholm
, Copenhagen
, and Rio de Janeiro
, among other places. He retired from the diplomatic service in 1864, and thereafter devoted himself to the world of chess.
He played several matches and defeated the strongest masters in the period 1843–1853. He won against Henry Thomas Buckle
2-1 (1843), Adolf Anderssen
4-2 (1845), Johann Löwenthal
6-1 (1846), John William Schulten
4-1 (1850), Anderssen 10-5 (1851), and Howard Staunton
7-6 (1853).
To the modern chess world he is known above all as the main author of the Handbuch des Schachspiels
(first published in 1843). His friend Paul Rudolf von Bilguer
, responsible for the original plan, had died in 1840, with the work still in the early stages. Von der Lasa took over, and, in a noble gesture of friendship, put his friend's name as author. In later editions of the Handbuch, in German commonly called der Bilguer, von der Lasa was named as co-author.
In 1850 von der Lasa published in the Deutsche Schachzeitung
(German Chess Magazine) a call for an international chess tournament, the first ever, to be held in Trier
. Instead the first such tournament was held in 1851 in London
. Von der Lasa did not play in tournaments, being usually busy as an organizer, but played well in off-hand games against such leading masters as Howard Staunton
and Adolf Anderssen
. He was also a renowned chess investigator and theoretician, publishing numerous articles in the German Chess Magazine and, in 1897, his great work Zur Geschichte und Literatur des Schachspiels, Forschungen (Researches in the History and Literature of Chess). In the course of his researches he traveled extensively (including a trip around the world in 1887–88) and accumulated a comprehensive chess library, to which he published a catalog in 1896. In 1898 the German Chess Federation saluted his tireless efforts and accomplishments by conferring on him its first honorary membership.
One of von der Lasa's last services was to encourage HJR Murray to pursue further researches into the early history of chess. Von der Lasa died on 27 July 1899 in Storchnest bei Lissa
, Greater Poland
(then in Prussia
, now in Poland). His library is still intact at Kórnik Castle
near Poznań
.
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
– 27 July 1899, Storchnest
Osieczna
Osieczna is a town in Leszno County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 2,106 inhabitants ....
near Lissa
Leszno
Leszno is a town in central Poland with 63,955 inhabitants . Situated in the southern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship since 1999, it was previously the capital of the Leszno Voivodeship . The town has county status.-History:...
, Greater Poland
Greater Poland
Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...
, then German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
) was an important German chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
master, chess historian and theoretician
Chess theory
The game of chess is commonly divided into three phases: the opening, middlegame, and endgame. As to each of these phases, especially the opening and endgame, there is a large body of theory as how the game should be played...
of the nineteenth century, a member of the Berlin Chess Club and a founder of the Berlin Chess School (the Berlin Pleiades
Berlin Pleiades
The Berlin Pleiades – a group of seven stars of German chess - Die Berliner Schule or Das Berliner Siebengestirn - in the 19th century.The members of the Berlin Pleiades were:...
).
His name is usually abbreviated as "von der Lasa", as this is how he signed his letters. However both contemporary and more recent writers have used other abbreviations, such as "von Heydebrandt" (which is a mis-spelling) and "Der Lasa". The Prussian King (later Emperor) William I made a joke out of the confusion by saying, "Good morning, dear Heydebrand. How is von der Lasa doing?"
Von der Lasa was born 17 October 1818 in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He studied law in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
and Berlin. From 1845 he was a diplomat in the service of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
. His career took him to Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, and Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, among other places. He retired from the diplomatic service in 1864, and thereafter devoted himself to the world of chess.
He played several matches and defeated the strongest masters in the period 1843–1853. He won against Henry Thomas Buckle
Henry Thomas Buckle
Henry Thomas Buckle was an English historian, author of an unfinished History of Civilization.- Biography :...
2-1 (1843), Adolf Anderssen
Adolf Anderssen
Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...
4-2 (1845), Johann Löwenthal
Johann Löwenthal
Johann Jacob Löwenthal was a professional chess master.Löwenthal was born in Budapest, the son of a Jewish merchant. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native city. In 1846, he won a match against Carl Hamppe in Vienna...
6-1 (1846), John William Schulten
John William Schulten
John William Schulten was a 19th-century chess master from Germany and the United States. In the 1840s and 1850s, he traveled widely in Europe and the United States to play some of the best chess players in the world — Adolf Anderssen, Alexandre Deschapelles, Daniel Harrwitz, Bernhard Horwitz,...
4-1 (1850), Anderssen 10-5 (1851), and Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton was an English chess master who is generally regarded as having been the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape—the Staunton pattern—that...
7-6 (1853).
To the modern chess world he is known above all as the main author of the Handbuch des Schachspiels
Handbuch des Schachspiels
Handbuch des Schachspiels is a chess book, first published in 1843 by Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa. It was one of the most important opening references for many decades...
(first published in 1843). His friend Paul Rudolf von Bilguer
Paul Rudolf von Bilguer
Paul Rudolf von Bilguer was a German chess master and chess theoretician from Ludwigslust, Mecklenburg-Schwerin....
, responsible for the original plan, had died in 1840, with the work still in the early stages. Von der Lasa took over, and, in a noble gesture of friendship, put his friend's name as author. In later editions of the Handbuch, in German commonly called der Bilguer, von der Lasa was named as co-author.
In 1850 von der Lasa published in the Deutsche Schachzeitung
Deutsche Schachzeitung
Deutsche Schachzeitung was the first German chess magazine.Founded in 1846 by Ludwig Bledow under the title Schachzeitung der Berliner Schachgesellschaft, it took the name Deutsche Schachzeitung in 1872...
(German Chess Magazine) a call for an international chess tournament, the first ever, to be held in Trier
Trier
Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....
. Instead the first such tournament was held in 1851 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Von der Lasa did not play in tournaments, being usually busy as an organizer, but played well in off-hand games against such leading masters as Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton was an English chess master who is generally regarded as having been the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape—the Staunton pattern—that...
and Adolf Anderssen
Adolf Anderssen
Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...
. He was also a renowned chess investigator and theoretician, publishing numerous articles in the German Chess Magazine and, in 1897, his great work Zur Geschichte und Literatur des Schachspiels, Forschungen (Researches in the History and Literature of Chess). In the course of his researches he traveled extensively (including a trip around the world in 1887–88) and accumulated a comprehensive chess library, to which he published a catalog in 1896. In 1898 the German Chess Federation saluted his tireless efforts and accomplishments by conferring on him its first honorary membership.
One of von der Lasa's last services was to encourage HJR Murray to pursue further researches into the early history of chess. Von der Lasa died on 27 July 1899 in Storchnest bei Lissa
Leszno
Leszno is a town in central Poland with 63,955 inhabitants . Situated in the southern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship since 1999, it was previously the capital of the Leszno Voivodeship . The town has county status.-History:...
, Greater Poland
Greater Poland
Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...
(then in Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
, now in Poland). His library is still intact at Kórnik Castle
Kórnik Castle
Kórnik Castle was constructed in the 14th century. The current neogothic design is the work of Tytus Działyński. Remodeling and renovation work on the castle was also done by his son Jan Kanty Działyński. After Jan's death, his brother-in-law Count Władysław Zamoyski received the castle in Jan's...
near Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
.