German, Soviet, and later American citizen Emanuel Lasker was born in Barlinek on 24 December 1868. He moved to Berlin with his brother when he was 11 years old, who taught him to play chess. His peak World Ranking was 1st (in 292 different months between June 1890 and December 1926). He was considered to be one of the ten best chess players between 1914 and 1928. According to Chessmetrics his highest rating is 2878. He did not participate in any Chess Olympiads.

He won his World Champion title in 1894 and held it until 1921. In the World Championship in 1894 Lasker, who was only 25 years old , won by 10-5 against 58 years old Wilhelm Steinitz, who had already held the title for 8 years. In the re-match in 1897 Emmanuel Lasker defended his title very convincingly by 10-2. The 1907 World Championship was a match between Lasker and Frank Marshall. Lasker won that match easily by 8-0. In 1908 he was challenged again by Siegbert Tarrasch, but Lasker defended his title for the third time in a match that ended 8-3. In 1910 there were two challenges. He defended his title against Carl Schlechter in a draw, and defeated David Janowsky by 8-0. He defended his title five times. In 1920 he resigned his World Champion title. A year later, in 1921, Lasker challenged Capablanca – who was the defending champion then – but lost that match by 9-5 and thus Capablanca defended his title.

He had a great influence on chess theory. He had a very innovative approach to opening games, middle games and end games as well. There are several opening variations named after him: Lasker’s Defence to the Evans Gambit, Lasker’s Defence to the Queen’s Gambit, Lasker Variation in the McCutcheon Variation of the French Defence.

He died on 11 January 1941 in New York