Tarrasch was Jewish, converted to Christianity in 1909,[1] and was a patriotic German who lost a son in World War I, yet he faced antisemitism in the early stages of the Third Reich.

Soon afterwards, in St. Petersburg in 1893, Tarrasch drew a hard-fought match against Steinitz' challenger Mikhail Chigorin (+9−9=4) after leading most of the way.

The story goes that when they were introduced at the opening of their 1908 championship match, Tarrasch clicked his heels, bowed stiffly, and said, "To you, Dr. Lasker, I have only three words, check and mate"—then left the room.

He finished fourth in the very strong St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament, behind only World Champion Lasker and future World Champions José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, and ahead of Marshall, Ossip Bernstein, Rubinstein, Nimzowitsch, Blackburne, Janowski, and Gunsberg.

This tournament was probably Tarrasch's swan song, because his chess career was not very successful after this, although he still played some highly regarded games.

[9] Tarrasch was a very influential chess writer, and was called Praeceptor Germaniae, meaning "Teacher of Germany."

He took some of Wilhelm Steinitz's ideas (e.g. control of the center, bishop pair, space advantage) and made them more accessible to the average chess player.

[10] His fourth major book Das Schachspiel (1931), was translated by G. E. Smith and T. G. Bone as The Game of Chess (1935, ISBN 048625447X).

[11] He was a target of the hypermodern school, led by Richard Réti, Aron Nimzowitsch, and Savielly Tartakower, all of whom criticized his ideas as dogmatic.

But the game was redeemed by the following startling combination:[15] 34.Rxd4 seems obvious, because 34...cxd4 allows 35.Bxd4 winning the queen.