World Championship 1910: Lasker – Janowski
Ten months after Schlechter nearly dethroned him, Lasker defended again — this time against David Janowski, and won without losing a game. Lasker's eight wins to none remains the most lopsided result in the history of the World Championship.
◈Janowski's backer
The brilliant, erratic Dawid Janowski was a fearsome attacker but a notoriously poor defender — and his championship bid was underwritten by the wealthy art patron Pierre Nardus, who admired him. The two players had already met in exhibition matches in 1909; the longer of those is sometimes miscalled a title match, though the crown was not actually at stake.
This time it was, under the now-standard first-to-eight-wins rule.
◈A record that still stands
Janowski never came close. Lasker won eight games, drew three, and lost none — a final score of 9½–1½ that stands as the most one-sided World Championship match ever played.
It would be Lasker's last title defence for over a decade. When he finally sat down again for the crown, in Havana in 1921, it was to lose it to José Raúl Capablanca.
◈Cross Table
1 win · ½ draw · 0 loss — click a game number to replay it.