I was stunned at seeing the number of instructive themes that Karsten Müller was able to extract from a short endgame played by Jose R. Capablanca as part of a simul. The lesson appears as part of the Fritz Trainer DVD, Master Class 04: Jose Raul Capablanca (2015). Then tracking down Müller's reference to Edward Winter revealed a fascinating history of the position as well, including some debate within Chess Notes that spanned more than a decade (see Edward Winter, "Capablanca v. Kalantarov", Chess Notes [updated 17 December 2019]).
Winter's story begins in 1988 with Chess Notes 1715. Ken Neat brought to Winter's attention a position that appeared in Isaak Linder, and Vladimir Linder, Kapablanka v Rossii (1988).* Linder and Linder reference an account by Peter Romanovsky that was published in Shakhmaty v SSSR (1959). Winter published Neat's translation. One of the later additions to Winter's notes present Romanovsky's entire article in three images. Those who read Russian might enjoy it.
Note 1715 inspired Rene Olthof to use the position in one of his training sessions, and he then sent in a note, which Winter published. Olthof found the position "nothing special". The first two notes were republished in Winter, Chess Explorations (1996) under the title, "Knight Ending" (25-26).
Twelve years later, Müller offered a refutation of Olthof's idea (Chess Notes 2402). As noted in the sequence of notes published by Winter over several decades and collated in the article, "Capablanca v. Kalantarov", Müller has published his analysis in The Chess Cafe Puzzle Book (2004). Encyclopedia of Chess Endings, vol. 5 (1993) also contains the position and some analysis, but not a key refutation of an error. Pal Benko also analyzed the ending in two issues of Chess Life.
The analysis begins with this position. We know from Winter that Capablanca's opponent was Kalantarov, about whom little is known, and that it was part of a thirty board simul in St. Petersburg in 1913. Capablanca scored +26-3=3. Romanovsky's story suggests that he and others were assisting Kalantarov.
The game concluded 46.Kf7 Ng5+ 47.Nxg5 fxg5 48.g4 Kh7 49.h4 Kh6 50.Kf6 Kh7 51.h5 a5 52.Ke5.
White wins because he has a protected passed pawn and his king is in the square of Black's passed pawn.
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| Müller's Diagram, Black to Move |
Müller carries the analysis another twelve moves to show how White employs triangulation (although he omits this term) to regain the opposition and reach the point where outflanking will win Black's g-pawn.
Along the way, he presents several unplayed variations that lead to checkmate, even in one case allowing Black to promote first, but white plays a check, promotes with check, and then has the option of skewering the king to pick up Black's queen, or checkmate (the better option, of course).
After the move that Encyclopedia of Chess Endings missed, White also gets a supported passed pawn and stops Black's a-pawn. However, in this case, Black is able to maintain the distant opposition to keep the White king on the queenside, while at the same time staying in the square of the passed h-pawn.
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| Müller's Diagram, White to Move |
Had Capablanca missed 48.g4, he could have lost the game because Black's outside passed pawn takes his king too far away and Black has time to round up White's pawns.
The DVD contains Müller's brief historical background, the note that with correct play Black should have drawn the game, and then finding 48.g4 is the first exercise. I made the same error as Olthof because I underestimated the complexity of the position. Following that error, however, I was able to play through the lesson and choose the correct answers. Capablanca's entire idea beginning with the surprising 46.Kf7 is an instructive breakthrough idea.
Inn addition to video lessons on the endgame by Müller, the DVD includes video lessons on strategy by Mihail Marin, tactics by Oliver Reeh, and openings by Niclas Huschenbeth. In addition to the videos, there are 103 games with training questions, and 14 endgames analyzed by Marin. The collection is enhanced by a biography of Capablanca with links to important games, and a database of 1223 Capablanca games. There are also opening trees for White and Black based on Capablanca's play.
*An English edition was published in 2009 under the title, Jose Raul Capablanca: Third World Chess Champion.
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