He played a match against Marco in 1893, drawing all 10 games. Their next match in 1893 was again a draw. Due to his tendency to agree to draws frequently, he used to be called as the "Master of Draw".

His style of play gave top priority to safety and suppression of counter-play during the middle game. He believed that with such consolidated positions, attacks could be prepared and ultimately accomplished.

The first tournament he played was 1895 Hastings. At 21 he was the youngest of the 22 participants. Although he only finished 9th, he scored a win against Harry Pillsbury, the eventual winner of the tournament. While Schlechter almost always placed well in tournaments, the ease with which he accepted draws kept him from winning many of them. Once during a tournament, Tarrasch with a very inferior position, complained to Schlechter that he was feeling ill. Schlechter readily agreed to a draw allowing Tarrasch to win the tournament by half a point!

But this should lead the readers to conclude that Schlechter was a boring or timid player. Though his chess style was prophylactic, it was by no means passive and often contained brilliant combinations.

Schlechter wrote a chess column for Allgemeine Sportzeitung in the late 1880's and even later contributed to various publications.

Karl Schlechter was a humble man - a gentleman. He was well liked both as a person and as an opponent. As one person explained: he was not looking for the extraordinary but was content with a simple life. He died in Budapest, Hungary on December 27, 1918.

The height of Schlechter's chess career was his match for the World Championship title with Emanuel Lasker. Lasker, a brilliant chess player, had been the World Champion for 16 years at this time and seemed invincible. The first four games were drawn. Game 5, Lasker faltered and Schlechter won. Games 6 through 9 were drawn. Going into Game 10, Schlechter led by a full point. In order to be the chess champion of the world, all he had to do was what he did better than anyone else - draw the final game!

Inexplicably, Schlechter decided to go for a win – and lost. Here is this historic game:

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Bd3 0-0 7.Qc2 Na6 8.a3 dxc4 9.Bxc4 b5 10.Bd3 b4 11.Na4 bxa3 12.bxa3 Bb7 13.Rb1 Qc7 14.Ne5 Nh5 15.g4 Bxe5 16.gxh5 Bg7 17.hxg6 hxg6 18.Qc4 Bc8! 19.Rg1 Qa5+ 20.Bd2 Qd5 21.Rc1 Bb7 22.Qc2 Qh5 23.Bxg6 Qxh2! 24.Rf1 fxg6 25.Qb3+ Rf7 26.Qxb7 Raf8! 27.Qb3 Kh8 28.f4 g5! 29.Qd3 gxf4 30.exf4 Qh4+ 31.Ke2 Qh2+ 32.Rf2 Qh5+ 33.Rf3 33...Nc7! 34.Rxc6 Nb5 35.Rc4 Rxf4? 36.Bxf4 Rxf4 37.Rc8+ Bf8 38.Kf2 Qh2+ 39.Ke1 Qh1+? 40.Rf1 Qh4+ 41.Kd2 Rxf1 42.Qxf1 Qxd4+ 43.Qd3 Qf2+ 44.Kd1 Nd6 45.Rc5 Bh6 46.Rd5 Kg8 47.Nc5 Qg1+ 48.Kc2 Qf2+ 49.Kb3 Bg7 50.Ne6 Qb2+ 51.Ka4 Kf7 52.Nxg7 Qxg7 53.Qb3 Ke8 54.Qb8+ Kf7 55.Qxa7 Qg4+ 56.Qd4 Qd7+ 57.Kb3 Qb7+ 58.Ka2 Qc6 59.Qd3 Ke6 60.Rg5 Kd7 61.Re5 Qg2+ 62.Re2 Qg4 63.Rd2 Qa4 64.Qf5+ Kc7 65.Qc2+ Qxc2+ 66.Rxc2+ Kb7 67.Re2 Nc8 68.Kb3 Kc6 69.Rc2+ Kb7 70.Kb4 Na7 71.Kc5 1-0