The eleventh game of the 1921 World Chess Championship between José Raúl Capablanca and Emanuel Lasker concluded one hundred years ago today. It began, as so many others of the match, with the classical variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, but Lasker then played an unusual seventh move. The game up to the point of adjournment is at "Capablanca -- Lasker, Game 11".
This post is number 20 in a centennial series on the match. As with game ten, this game has been annotated by many commentators, but I favor Capablanca's instructive approach in A Primer of Chess (1935) supplemented with annotations from his book on the match (1921), and Lasker's relatively light annotations in Mein Wettkampf mit Capablanca (1922).
Capablanca,José Raúl -- Lasker,Emanuel [D66]
World Championship 11th Havana (11), 13.04.1921
[Capablanca/Lasker/]
32.Nd2
"This was my sealed move and unquestionably the only move to keep the initiative" (Capablanca 1921, 24).
32...Nf8
"Better 32...Rc3 33.Qa1 Nf8 34.Ne4 Rc7 Black gains an important tempo" (Lasker, 25).
Some commentators have suggested 33.Qd6 in reply to 32...Rc3, but Capablanca offers 33.Qa1 as White's reply both in the book on the match (24) and in A Primer of Chess (221). Kasparov suggests the line after 33.Qd6 would likely draw; the ChessBase DVDs give Qd6 a question mark.
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| Analysis diagram after 32...Rc3 33.Qa1 Nf8 34.Ne4 Rc7 |
How does White play? Kasparov suggests 35.g3 when White has a "marked advantage" that is still less than in the game (273).
33.Ne4
"The White knight stands in a very commanding position. Black's game is far more difficult than appears at first glance and I believe that the only good system of defense would have to be based on f5 after h6, driving back the White knight" (Capablanca 1921, 24-25).
33...Qd8 34.h4
"There is much more than meets the eye in this position. This is a crucial point in the game. Apparently there is not much on either side, yet if Black can save the game it must be done at this point, and the chances are that the only move that may save the situation is h6, threatening to drive the knight away with f5. 34...f5 at once would not do because of 35.Bg5 Rc7 36.Ng5 Re7 37.Bc4 and Black would be helpless. The situation is most interesting and will repay study" (Capablanca 1935, 222).
34...Rc7
"This might be said to be the losing move. Black had to play h6 in order to continue with f5, forcing the White knight to withdraw" (Capablanca 1921, 25).
"A natural enough move, yet it will be seen that Black seems lost from now on" (Capablanca 1935, 222).
35.Qb3
"White's plan consists in getting rid of Black's powerfully posted Knight at d5, which is the key to Black's defense" (Capablanca 1921, 25).
35...Rg7
Capablanca notes in A Primer of Chess that this move induces g3 so as to deprive White's queen of using that square to harass Black's king (223).
36.g3 Ra7
"It is already too late to counterattack f6-f5-f4. The loss of tempo now reveals its effect" (Lasker, 25).
37.Bc4 Ra5 38.Nc3 Nxc3
"Leaving the knight on d5 and here to exchange it would lead to a long and difficult game for Black" (Lasker, 25).
After this exchange, "Black's weaknesses will be indefensible" (Kasparov, 274).
39.Qxc3
39...Kf7 40.Qe3 Qd6 41.Qe4
41...Ra4
"Neither one of us had very much time left at this stage of the game. Black's alternative was Ra7, which would have been met by 42.d5, leaving Black with what in my opinion is a lost position" (Capablanca 1921, 25).
"Suicide! Starting from here, Black plays very passively. Better Ra5-a7 to keep close the game after d4-d5, e6-e5" (Lasker, 25).
42.Qb7+ Kg6
43.Qc8
43.h5+ leads to a clear win.
Here Kasparov again faults Capablanca's "inclination towards play on general grounds," suggesting that would hurt him in the match with Alekhine (274).
43...Qb4 44.Rc1 Qe7 45.Bd3+ Kh6 46.Rc7 Ra1+ 47.Kg2 Qd6
And an exercise for my students, as Lakdawala makes it one for his readers.
48.Qxf8+ 1-0
Capablanca 3:00 Lasker 3:05
After eleven games, Capablanca leads 3-0 with eight draws.
Works Cited
Capablanca, José Raúl. World's Championship Matches, 1921 and 1927. New York: Dover, 1977.
_______. A Primer of Chess. New York: Harcourt, 1977.
Chess Base. José Raúl Capablanca: Master Class, vol. 04 (2015). DVD.
_______. Emanuel Lasker: Master Class, vol. 05 (2015). DVD.
Kasparov, Garry. My Great Predecessors, Part 1, trans. Ken Neat. London: Everyman Chess, 2003.
Lakdawala, Cyrus. Capablanca: Move by Move. London: Gloucester, 2012, Everyman ebook.
Lasker, Emanuel. Mein Wettkampf mit Capablanca. Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter, and Co., 1922.
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