Canal - Capablanca, Budapest 1929

There was one other game that made a deep impression on me in Chernev's Logical Chess: Move By Move.  In Canal-Capablanca, Budapest 1929, it sure looked like Capa was in trouble.  (And indeed FireBird suggests a moment or two where White may have missed an opportunity for advantage.)

Chernev is silent on White's big mistake:

Canal-Capablanca, Budapest 1929

After 31...Ra1

White to move

Black's next couple moves are fairly easy to predict: ...a3, ...a2, ...Rook moves somewhere (with check or attack), and ...a1=Q.  

How can White interfere with this plan? 

Noah's Ark Trap

If you play the Sicilian on the Internet, sooner or later you'll run into someone who plays 1.e4 c5 2.Bb5?! a6 3.Ba4?? against you, losing the bishop after 3...b5 4.Bb3 c4. The Noah's Ark Trap in the Ruy Lopez (supposedly called that because of its antiquity) is a slightly more sophisticated version of this. The game below shows Endre Steiner falling into it against Capablanca at Budapest 1929. White's 5.d4 is considered inferior to 5.0-0, 5.c3, and 5.Bxc6+ if White is playing for a win. After Capablanca's 6...Nxd4! 7.Nxd4 cxd4, it is a little awkward for White to regain his pawn, as Steiner discovered to his chagrin. He could have done so safely with 8.Bd5 Rb8 9.Qxd4, or played 8.c3, when after 8...dxc3 he could choose between gambitting a pawn with 9.Nxc3!? and forcing a draw with 9.Qd5 (threatening both the rook and Qxf7#) Be6 10.Qc6+ Bd7 11.Qd5 Be6 12.Qc6+. Instead, poor Steiner fell into the trap with 8.Qxd4??, allowing Capa to trap his bishop with 8...c5! 9.Qd5 Be6 10.Qc6+ Bd7 11.Qd5 c4!

A famous Capablanca combination

To warm up your brain before watching the World Championship Monday morning! Game 7 begins 7 a.m. Chicago time.

 

Capablanca-Tanerow, New York 1910

White to play and win

Capablanca as movie star

Carlos Torre and Frank Marshall also make appearances.

The Back Rank Mate: Bernstein - Capablanca, Moscow 1914

The Cuban world champion José Raúl Capablanca is one of the best players for beginners to study.  His play is clear and logical, and although the games from the early part of his playing career are more than one hundred years old, they don't feel old fashioned.

Here's a position from his game as Black against Ossip Bernstein (Moscow, 1914):

Black to move played 24...Rc6-c7

Capablanca's 24...Rc7! looks like a mistake after Bernstein's reply 25.Nb5: the red arrows in the following diagram indicate attacks against pieces and the green arrows indicates defenses of a piece.

 After 26.Nb5: Black to move

Now the poor Black pawn on c3 is directly attacked twice, and indirectly attacked once by the rook on c1 supporting the rook on c2.  The knight on b5 is also threatening to win the Exchange (that is, win a rook for a knight or a bishop: an advantage worth somewhere between one and two pawns). 

Capablanca decided to save the Exchange with 26...Rc5, and White grabbed the c3 pawn with 27.Nxc3 Nxc3 28.Rxc3 Rxc3 29.Rxc3, reaching this position:

Black to play: find Capa's amazing move