Capablanca -- Lasker, Game 13

Perhaps I am out of step with most chess enthusiasts in my views, but I find a large number of draws--even short draws--a good thing in World Championship matches. The players respect each other and they know when a position merits the expenditure of energy seeking more than than half a point. If there was a boring draw in the Capablanca -- Lasker match of 1921, it was the 13th game. It lasted a mere 23 moves and was agreed drawn when knights and pawns remained. In an online blitz game, I would play this one out. With enough time on the clock--plus the level of skill exhibited by the word's best--there would be no point.

Despite the seeming simplicity of the game, Lasker attempted to complicate matters while Capablanca had no reason to take chances. In his comments on game 13, George A. Thomas suggested, "after the strain of the difficult twelfth game, both players were perhaps not sorry to avoid complications" (349).

This post is number 22 in a centennial recollection of the match played in Havana, Cuba in March and April 1921. Game 13 was played one hundred years ago today, on Tuesday 19 April 1921.

Capablanca,José Raúl -- Lasker,Emanuel [D63]
World Championship 12th Havana (13), 19.04.1921
[Capablanca/Lasker]

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Nc3 0-0 7.Rc1 Re8 8.Qc2 h6

"Not right away 8...c5 because of 9.cxd5 Nxd5 10.Nxd5 Bxg5 11.Nxg5 and wins" (Lasker). 

White to move

Here Lasker deviates from game 11, which did not go well.

9.Bh4 c5 10.cxd5 Nxd5 11.Bxe7 Nxe7

White to move

12.dxc5

"With 12.Bb5 the position would be more difficult. Black will then probably move 12...cxd4 and white should then 13.exd4. Then 13...a6 14.Bd3 Nb6 (14...Nf8 would be easier and healthier) 15.0-0 Bd7 16.Ne5 Nbd5 17.Bh7+ Kf8 18.Ne4 Bc6 19.Rfd1 Rc8 20.Qd2 A position full of deep problems. Incidentally, I am giving the above series of moves only as an attempt and by no means as the only possible one. I am giving it as an attempt to show that White's game can be laid deeper than Capablanca did" (Lasker).

12...Nxc5 13.Bb5

"Not best. The move 13.b4 was more energetic and perfectly safe" (Capablanca).

13...Bd7 14.0-0

"Happens here or before 14.b4 so the knight gives way 14...Na6 (Lasker); And if here 14.Rd1 then 14...Qc8 All such attacks are useless" (Lasker).

14...Qb6 15.Bxd7 Nxd7 16.Rfd1 Red8

White to move

17.h3

"Loss of time. 17.Qa4 at once was the proper move" (Capablanca).

17...Rac8 18.Qa4 Nc6 19.Qb5 a6 20.Qxb6 Nxb6 21.Rxd8+ Nxd8 22.Ne2 Kf8 23.Rxc8 Nxc8 ½-½

White to move

Capablanca 1:05 - Lasker 1:15

"Not much of a game. With three points to the good, I took matters too easy. My opponent, having the Black pieces, could not have been expected to do much" (Capablanca).

Sources

Capablanca, José Raúl. World's Championship Matches, 1921 and 1927. New York: Dover, 1977.

Lasker, Emanuel. Mein Wettkampf mit CapablancaBerlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter, and Co., 1922.

Thomas, George A. "Game No. 4,866." British Chess Magazine, vol. 41, no. 9 (September 1921), 349-350.