Capablanca, Jose Raul2736–Tartakower, Saviely25461–0A85New York6New York23.03.1924
The Players José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942) is one of the
legends in chess history. Born in Cuba, he learned chess at the age of four
and gave due notice of his talent when, barely a teenager, he defeated Corzo,
who won the national championship in the same year, in an informal match.
Capablanca was educated in America, and spent much of his free time playing
masters at the Manhattan Chess Club. Even in his younger days it was obvious
to everyone that Capablanca was a natural-born chess player. Positionally and
in the endgame he had no equal, but as his countless wins against other
tacticians show, he was also at home in highly complex positions. At one stage
of his career Capablanca lost only one tournament game in ten years, which
gave him an aura of invincibility. It came as absolutely no surprise when, in
Havana during 1921, he finally met with Lasker and took the world title,
without losing a single game. Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956) was born in
Rostov-on-Don, but he left Russia in 1899 and settled in Vienna. He had
already become a leading player before the First World War, winning matches
against Spielmann and Réti, but it was in the 1920s that his career reached
its peak. In 1924 Tartakower moved to Paris and in the subsequent six years
won a number of tournaments. While he was undoubtedly one of the top ten
players during this period, he was not generally regarded as a potential
challenger for the world title. During the 1930s his results slowly tailed off,
although he remained a strong and active player until 1950. Tartakower’s
playing style is hard to define. He would often experiment in the openings,
and he seemed to love paradoxical ideas. His best games are absolutely
first-class, but sometimes his love of the eccentric cost him valuable points.
Tartakower’s writings are highly regarded, although little has been
translated into English. His two-volume My Best Games of Chess is an excellent
games collection, containing not only very fine analysis but also some humour.
The Game Tartakower employs the Dutch, which we have already seen him using to
such devastating effect. Capablanca responds with straightforward development,
rather than getting embroiled in a theoretical dispute in his opponent’s
territory. Capablanca gets the better of a tense middlegame, and evolves the
plan of a positional attack down the h-file. Although the queens are exchanged,
this plan is effective in the endgame too. Tartakower tries to counterattack
on the queenside, and indeed he appears to have made a good deal of headway.
However, Capablanca turns out to have everything worked out. A series of
brilliant moves, sacrificing two pawns with check, sees Capablanca’s king
penetrate into the heart of Tartakower ’s kingside, to add its support to a
passed pawn. The small but superbly coordinated army of king, rook and pawn
generates deadly threats against the black king, and this leaves Black
paralysed. Capablanca can then regain his pawns with interest. It is an
extremely instructive ending. Rook on the 7th Rank In this game Capablanca
provides us with a magic formula for conducting Rook and Pawn endings: seize
the seventh rank with your Rook, and advance your King to the sixth. Once
there, his King and Rook keep the adverse King busy warding off threats of
mate, and leave him no time to defend his Pawns. 1.d4 e6 2.f3 f5 3.c4 f6 4.g5 e7 5.c3 0-0 6.e3 b6 7.d3 b7 8.0-0 e8 Customary strategy in
the Dutch Defence: Black intends to attack on the King side by 9... Qh5 and 10.
.. Ng4. 8...a6= 9.e2! Better is 9.xf6 xf6 10.e4 9...e4 Tartakover changed his mind 10.xe7 xc3 The position is equal. 10...xe7 is interesting. 11.ad1 d6 12.xe4 fxe4 13.d2 d5 11.bxc3 xe7
Now Black could play an unwelcome intrusion move 12... Qa3, but after 12.a4! it is not possible anymore. xf3 13.xf3 c6 14.fb1 ae8 15.h3
After this move Black cannot free himself by 15... e5; 16.Bxf5. White prepares
16.f4, which will assure him the control over e5 square. f6 16.f4!
Now the Queen could move back. a5 17.f3 dominating the long diagonal. d6 18.e1 to support a break by 19.e4. d7 19.e4! White
opens the position to give his pieces more scope. . White has good play. fxe4 20.xe4 g6 21.g3 White prepares an attack on the King-side by h4 and h5,
but with g3 he stabilizes the position. f8 22.g2 f7 23.h4 d5 23...c5= 24.cxd5 exd5 25.xe8+ xe8 26.xe8+ xe8 Endgame
KRB-KRN 27.h5 f6 28.hxg6 hxg6 29.h1 f8 30.h7 c6 31.g4 31.d7± 31...c4 Black activates his Knight. 31...b3= remains equal. 32.g5 White should play 32.d7± 32...e3+ 33.f3 f5 33...d1=
keeps the balance. 34.xf5!± gxf5 KR-KR 35.g3! With his Rook at
the 7th rank and the g passed Pawn, Capablanca decides to send his King to the
f6 square. He must have planned this many moves before. xc3+ 36.h4! f3? Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Jose Raul Capablanca X Saviely Tartakower - New York 1924
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