World Chess Championship 1907

World Chess Championship 1907

	Defending champion	Challenger
	Emanuel Lasker	Frank Marshall
	Emanuel Lasker	Frank J. Marshall
	11½ Scores 3½ Game 1 1 ← 50 moves 0 Game 2 1 ← 52 moves 0 Game 3 1 ← 43 moves 0 Game 4 ½ 40 move draw ½ Game 5 ½ 41 move draw ½ Game 6 ½ 21 move draw ½ Game 7 ½ 49 move draw ½ Game 8 1 ← 69 moves 0 Game 9 ½ 46 move draw ½ Game 10 ½ 48 move draw ½ Game 11 ½ 51 move draw ½ Game 12 1 ← 46 moves 0 Game 13 1 ← 58 moves 0 Game 14 1 ← 21 moves 0 Game 15 1 ← 37 moves 0
	Born 24 December 1868 38 years old	Born 10 August 1877 29 years old

The 1907 World Chess Championship was a chess match contested between reigning world champion Emanuel Lasker of Germany, and challenger Frank J. Marshall of the United States, for the world chess championship. It took place in six American cities from January 26 to April 6. Lasker defended his title in dominant fashion, holding Marshall winless throughout the series, while winning eight games and drawing seven.

This was the first world championship since 1897, partly because Lasker had taken a break from chess to pursue his PhD in Mathematics. He made his return to chess in the London 1899 chess tournament, and after that, several players would try to challenge Lasker to the world championship, including Dawid Janowski, Géza Maróczy, Carl Schlechter and Siegbert Tarrasch. Each bid fell apart at some stage, however, with the latter eventually playing for the world championship in 1908. Frank Marshall had come ahead of Lasker in the 1904 Cambridge Springs International Chess Congress, and the discussion of the terms of a world championship match began in 1906, with the players agreeing to reduce the number of game wins for a match victory from ten to eight, a precedent that would continue in the next world championship.

As was widely predicted, the match was a walkover for Lasker, and it was believed that Marshall wasn't his most worthy challenger. This match was seen as a side show to the next year's championship between Lasker and Tarrasch. Marshall himself summed up the match in his autobiography in one sentence, saying, "Tedious play aimed at wearing down my opponent is averse to my nature."