Invisible Chess: Culture Club #3

Lasker - Capablanca, St Petersburg 1914

When I asked about what qualifies a game to be considered one of the greatest, ChessHistorian responded simply, “high stakes”. It’s a good point.

If there’s something to be said against Bernstein - Capablanca (see: ICCC#2) it’s that it was an exhibition game and not played in a formal match or tournament. You can make a similar argument about Anderssen’s most famous wins (against Kieseritzky and Dufresne) - although brilliant both were casual encounters - andthe vast majority of Morphy’s gems.

Any amateur chesser knows the difference between a real rated game and some internet blitz battle that will be immediately forgotten if the genius combo turns out to have a flaw and gets refuted.

Pressure. It makes a difference.

In today’s game, at one of the leading tournaments of the time - indeed of all time - Lasker had to win. And win he did, ending up taking first place over Capablanca who finished half a point behind.

As a by the by, this game was played three months after Bernstein - Capablanca. I wonder if Lasker knew of the previous encounter and was inspired by the Cuban’s decision to leave a backward pawn and outpost on an open file.

NOTE:

This week’s game is 42 moves long. That’s 2-4 times the length of the games we usually have as visualisation exercises.

Don’t let the number of moves intimidate you, though. Use your Stepping Stones and take your time. Remember the goal is to get a gain memorised so we can visualise it any time we want at any point in the future. Break the game down into chunks, if that helps. It doesn’t matter if it takes several sessions to get the source material into our heads.

Emmanuel Lasker - Capablanca

St Petersburg 1914

1 e4 e5

2 Nf3 Nc6

3 Bb5 a6

4 Bxc6 dxc6

5 d4 exd4

6 Qxd4 Qxd4

7 Nxd4 Bd6

8 Nc3 Ne7

9 0-0 0-0

10 f4 Re8

11 Nb3 f6

12 f5 b6

13 Bf4 Bb7

14 Bxd6 cxd6

15 Nd4 Rad8

16 Ne6 Rd7

17 Rad1 Nc8

18 Rf2 b5

19 Rfd2 Rde7

20 b4 Kf7

21 a3 Ba8

22 Kf2 Ra7

23 g4 h6

24 Rd3 a5

25 h4 axb4

26 axb4 Rae7

27 Kf3 Rg8

28 Kf4 g6

29 Rg3 g5+

30 Kf3 Nb6

31 hxg5 hxg5

32 Rh3 Rd7

33 Kg3 Ke8

34 Rdh1 Bb7

35 e5 dxe5

36 Ne4 Nd5

37 N6c5 Bc8

38 Nxd7 Bxd7

39 Rh7 Rf8

40 Ra1 Kd8

41 Ra8+ Bc8

42 Nc5

1-0

So, why did Black resign?

No bonus questions this week. If you can play through a 40+ move game in your head and be sure you know where all the pieces are at the end, you’ve already put in your shift for the week.