My Chess Career (Newsletter Edition), Part II, by Jose R. Capablanca
"The play for position preparatory to an attack is one of the hardest taxes upon the mind of the master player."
I have put a lot of work into this week’s newsletter and I have made a YouTube video in the last section where I look at some key variations from the game. I hope you will enjoy the game, I definitely did.
- Game 1
GAME No. 2
(The Last Game of the Match.)
J. R. Capablanca vs. J. Corzo, 1-0
Link to Lichess study
Year: 1900
Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening.
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 c5 3. e3 Nc6 4. b3 e6 5. Bb2 Nf6 6. Nbd2 cxd4 7. exd4
When I see this game to-day I feel surprised at the good general system of my opening moves. I remember that I always played d4 with White, because in that way Mr. Corzo could not take such great advantage of my weakness in the opening. In this game I played very well so far.
7... Bd6 8. Bd3 O-O 9. O-O Nh5 10. g3 f5 11. Ne5 Nf6 12. f4
12… Bxe5 13. fxe5 Ng4 14. Qe2 Qb6 15. Nf3 Bd7 16. a3
To prevent Nb4 and also to prepare the advance of the Queen-side Pawns. To-day I would have followed the identical plan.
16... Kh8 17. h3 Nh6 18. Qf2 Nf7 19. Kg2 g5 20. g4 Ne7 21. Qe3 Rg8 22. Rae1 Ng6 23. gxf5 Nf4+ 24. Kh2 Nxd3 25. Qxd3 exf5
The play for position preparatory to an attack is one of the hardest taxes upon the mind of the master player. To-day, very likely, I would have done better, but nevertheless, all things considered, I did well, and now, in the deciding moment, I conceived a very excellent combination.
26. c4 Qe6
I thought he would make this move, although Qh6 would have given him a better chance.
27. cxd5 Qxd5 28. e6
28… Bb5
It is evident that if Bxe6, Rxe6
29. Qxb5
To-day, very likely, I would simply have played Qd2 and won also, but at the time I could not resist the temptation of sacrificing the Queen. At any rate, the text move was the only continuation which I had in mind when I played e6.
29... Qxb5 30. d5+ Rg7 31. exf7
31… h6
31... Rf8 would have been better. The game would then have proceeded as follows: 32. Nd4 Qxd5 (best); 33. Re8 Qxf7 34. Rxf8+ Qxf8 35. Nxf5 and White should win.
32. Nd4
32…Qxf1
Best. If 32... Qd7 33. Nxf5 Qxf7 34. Bxg7+ Kh7 35. Re7, winning the Queen as Black cannot play 35... Qxd5 on account of 36. Be5+ Kg6 37. Rg7+ Kh5 38. Ng3+ Kh4 39. Rf4+ gxf4 40. Rg4#
33. Rxf1 Rxf7 34. Rxf5 Rxf5 35. Nxf5+ Kh7 36. Ne7 Rf8 37. Kg2 h5 38. d6 g4 39. hxg4 hxg4 40. Be5 Kh6 41. d7 Rd8 42. Ng8+ Rxg8 43. Bf6 Kg6 44. d8=Q Rxd8
45. Bxd8
The rest is easy. One remark I must add before closing that epoch of my career: considering my age and little experience this game is quite remarkable, even the end game was very well played by me.
45... b5 46. Kf2 Kf5 47. Ke3 Ke5 48. Kd3 Kd5 49. Kc3 g3 50. Bh4 g2 51. Bf2 a5 52. b4 Ke4 53. Bb6 Kd5 54. Kd3 Kc6 55. Bg1 Kd5 56. Bh2 Kc6 57. Kd4 a4 58. Ke5 Kb6 59. Kd5 Ka6
60. Kc5
Resigns.
If 60. Kc6 g1=Q 61. Bxg1 Stale mate.
The Post Mortem
This concludes the second game of the book. After each game, I will collect interesting insights by collecting other resources on the games and highlight any computer insights in the annotations.
Before the game arrived at the decisive mistake by Black Capablanca lost his advantage with 21. Qe3 that allows 21… Bd5 is trading off the LSB’s. 21. a4 would have been the best stopping Bb5 and making it possible to play Ba3.
Corzo lost the game with 26… Qe6??), but he could have kept his advantage. Watch the Youtube-video where I go over the key moment in the game:
I hope you enjoyed the video. Remember to like and subscribe if you havnt’t already done so since it will help reach more chess fans.
In the next episode, we jump forward to 1906.
/Martin
Excellent! Thank you for your work. A good game for us, the amateurs, to study.
Just a tiny correction: Juan is pronounced (Huan) and not (Iuan).