Lasa Baron Tassilo Von Heyderbrand Under (17.10.1808 – 27.07.1899)

German Diplomat, chess historian, theoretician and one of the  famous member of the ‘Berlin Pleiades’ under Ludwig Bledow.

He never played in a tournament or in a formal match but in a serie of offhand games he beat Howard Staunton in 1844 and 1853, few times Adolf Anderssen between 1845 and 1850 and Johann Löwenthal in 1846.

Lasa was a Prussian diplomat and even an Ambassador at Vienna, Weimar, Brussels, Elbe Duchies, Rio de Janeiro, and in Denmark. He was forced to stop his chess career.

Lasa was also a chess book collector. His library, which contained 2,263 items with some antiques dated from the 14th century, was found in Kórnik Castle near Poznan, Poland in 1959. He wrote about 97 articles or books like Kurzes Verzeichnis der Schachbibliotheken von v.d. Lasa und R. Franz” (1857), Haag (1857),Verzeichnis meiner Sammlung von Schriften über das Schachspie(1887), Berliner Schacherinnerungen (1859), Zür Geschichte und Literatur der Schachspiel (1897), Erneutes Verzeichnis meiner Sammlung von Schriften über das Schachspiel (1896).