The moves that led to this position are at "Lasker -- Capablanca, Game 10" and "Lasker -- Capablanca, Game 10 (continued)". The conclusion of this game is part 18 in a series of posts commemorating this historic match.
Perhaps, as Lasker said in his annotation to Capablanca's 31st move, these moves speak for themselves and require no explication.
Lasker,Emanuel -- Capablanca,José Raúl [D61]
World Championship 12th Havana (10), 08.04.1921
[Capablanca/Lasker/others]
Black to move
64...e5
"This was my sealed move and unquestionably the best way to win" (Capablanca 1921, 22).
In Capablanca: Move by Move, Cyrus Lakdawala asks the student at move 57 to create a step-by-step plan to bring home the win. The first step is transferring the king to the d-file. Step two, achieved with this move, is creating a passed d-pawn. Step three is pushing the pawn.
65.Rd3
"If 65.Ne2 Nd2+ 66.Kf2 e4 67.Rc3 Nf3 68.Ke3 Ne1 69.Kf2 Ng2 and White would be helpless.
If 65.Nf3 Nd2+ exchanging knights wins" (Capablanca 1921, 22).
65...exd4 66.Rxd4
"66.Ne2 Kc5 67.Nd4 is no improvement since 67...Kc4 68.Rd1 Nc3 wins the knight" (Burgess, 103).
66...Kc5 67.Rd1 d4
White to move
68.Rc1+ Kd5 0-1
"There is nothing left. The Black pawn will advance and White will have to give up his Knight for it. This is the finest win of the match and probably took away from Dr. Lasker his last real hope of winning or drawing the match" (Capablanca 1921, 23).
The lessons of this game, according to Burgess:
1) If you have an isolated queen's awn, it is necessary to play energetically and aggressively. Otherwise the pawn is liable to become a static weakness that could easily cost you the game.2) "a weakness is not a weakness unless it can be attacked"3) When the opponent's position is paralysed on one wing, see if you can take advantage of this by making additional gains in other parts of the board before undertaking decisive action.4) In a winning ending don't give the opponent any more counterplay than you have to--and ideally stamp out his activity altogether. Then bring your king up and promote a pawn. (103)
On 30 April 1921, after the match was concluded, Lasker wrote:
Kasparov wrote:
Works Cited
Thursday's post has a longer list of resources consulted while studying game 10. Here, I list only those quoted in today's post.
The external conditions were admittedly unfavorable, but Capablanca's chess offered me real problems. His games are clear, logical and powerful. There is nothing hidden or artificial or contrived about them. His thought flows through his moves, even when he wants to be cunning. Whether he is playing for a draw or a win or is afraid of losing, his move announces aloud what he feels. With all this, its features, although transparent, are by no means obvious, and are often deep. (30)This game exemplifies Lasker's praise.
Kasparov wrote:
This heavy defeat with White was the last straw for the champion. Of course, Lasker did not play as well as he could have done, but he had not previously encountered such an iron grip. Others used to give Lasker chances, but not Capa! And Lasker, that great psychologist, had to become accustomed to this sort of play, and to try to find an antidote to it. But in his condition during the match in Havana he was unable to find the solution to this problem. (271-272)The critical point was Lasker's move 17 in what may have seemed an innocuous position. The transition from the opening to the middle game at that point gave the endgame its character. The rest would prove to be a matter of technique. Today's grandmasters possess this technique because they have Capablanca's games in their textbooks. When this game was played, ideas concerning the isolated queen pawn were yet in their infancy.
Works Cited
Thursday's post has a longer list of resources consulted while studying game 10. Here, I list only those quoted in today's post.
Burgess, Graham, John Nunn, and John Emms. The World's Greatest Chess Games. New York: Carroll and Graf, 1998, pp. 96-103.
Capablanca, José Raúl. World's Championship Matches, 1921 and 1927. New York: Dover, 1977, pp. 20-23.
_______. A Primer of Chess. New York: Harcourt, 1977, pp. 208-216.
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, pp. 268-271.
King, Daniel. "Majestic" YouTube (7 April 2021), https://youtu.be/rZwtcJ8mpSs.
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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