Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa

Infobox chess player
playername=Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa


caption=Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa
birthname=Tassilo, Baron von Heydebrand und der Lasa
country=GER
datebirth=birth date|1818|10|17|df=y
placebirth=Berlin, Germany
datedeath=death date and age|1899|7|27|1818|10|17|df=y
placedeath=Storchnest bei Lissa, Germany
title=
worldchampion=
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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, then Germany) was an important German chessmaster, 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. [See for example the letter he wrote following Howard Staunton's death, which was published in cite journal
journal=The City of London Chess Magazine
title=(title unknown)
date=November 1874
author=von der Lasa, reproduced at cite web
url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz49.txt
title=A History of The City of London Chess Magazine (Part 2)
accessdate=2008-07-20
author=Harding, T.] However both contemporary and more recent writers have used other abbreviations, such as "von Heydebrandt" (which is a mis-spelling) [Notes on a game Von der Lasa vs G. Nielsen at Copenhagen, in "The City of London Chess Magazine": cite journal
journal=The City of London Chess Magazine
title=(title unknown)
date=1874
author=William Norwood Potter, reproduced at cite web
url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz49.txt
title=A History of The City of London Chess Magazine (Part 2)
accessdate=2008-07-20
author=Harding, T.] 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?" [ citation
title=Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie | author=Uhl, W. | volume=50 | location=Leipzig | date=1905
page=297
url=http://mdz10.bib-bvb.de/~db/bsb00008408/images/index.html?seite=299
chapter=Heydebrand und der Lasa, Tassilo von | accessdate=2008-07-21 .]

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.

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, now in western Poland. His library is still intact at Kórnik Castle near Poznań.

Notes

References

*HJR Murray's "A History of Chess"
* Vlastimil Fiala (Ed.): "Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa and his chess collection: international conference of chess historians, September 16-18" (2003). Biblioteka Kórnicka, 2003. ISBN 83-85213-38-4

External links

*chessgames player|id=15952
* [http://www.chesscafe.com/text/spinrad07.pdf Jeremy P. Spinrad: Baron von Heydebrand und der Lasa (2006)] ChessCafe.com