Hi there.
In this lecture, we see an iconic clash Capablanca against Alekhine in the 1927 World Championship
match round one.
So this is very, very interesting.
And I remember.
From alekhine even positional chess, and especially in this world championship match, Alekhine played
in a more positional manner, not taking too many risks.
That's the way he eventually beats Capablanca in this match.
And it was totally unexpected for the chess world because Capablanca just had a big plus score with
no losses against Alekhine prior to this World Championship match.
So in this epic round one we see Alekhine playing a French defense.
We have D4 D5 nine C3 bishop before now a delayed exchange variation, so there's only one shared file.
So you might think really someone's going to win from this position.
There's only one shared file we have Bishop de Frey.
So in terms of structural imbalances, when it's a symmetrical pawn structure like this, it increases
the frequency of drawing.
Generally we have Knight C6.
So this is interesting putting pressure on D4 like g E to now 97 why consoles?
And I'm trying to loosen white on the light squares a little bit.
We have Bishop takes F5 which kind of energizes the black position slightly Queen D3 This knight is
protected 91 Now Alekhine Castle is on the King's side.
On the Queen side, there's a kind of ready made attack with moves like C4 in B4.
Later you can imagine B4 later and you know, there's a kind of ready made attack but sometimes plans
with in the French defense do try and castle queenside to get some attacking prospects but that's not
the case here less less risks are taken we have no E3 knight takes E3 Bishop takes E3 and I rook f he
eight nine.
So for now, this is a slight target this point.
And in fact we see Bishop d6 here and I rook fe1 This is an inaccuracy.
Rook f1 y could play 1965 maybe one was concerned about Bishop takes H to check, but on the other hand,
where is Black's attack after C4?
White has succeeded in getting what looks to be a nice center and the king can be tucked back in bed
in safety.
And it should be an even position here.
So in fact Rook F1 leaving that knight as a target, a continual running target for forcing moves like
Bishop F4 is a bit of a risky proposition if circumstances change, especially now of the rook F1 Alekhine
is getting a very interesting position with this next forcing move.
Can you spot what it is?
There's not too many major forcing moves to work out here.
It's night before hitting the queen, so the queen goes to be free.
And this looks kind of interesting saying basically.
You know, it's putting pressure on the Knights.
So there are options for as well.
Based on that pressure on the knight, we have Queen five, which looks at the Knights, but it also
looks at C2 two.
And you might think, well, this is being pedantic.
Isn't that just Rook AC one?
Right.
And that's all good if c fre sure knights see to actually forking the rooks this position.
In fact Queen takes 35, Knight takes five would be absolutely terrible for white, but that doesn't
even need to take the rook immediately.
A rook can play actually C6 and the thing is, if four then knight takes one rook 61 bishop takes have
four.
So in other words, if Knight b4, then we've just improved on taking the rooks.
We're shattering white structure as well the exchange up.
So that's out of the question.
Basically C4, it's out of the question.
So Rook AC one can you spot a problem with White's position?
There is a default kind of downside.
When people constantly, they haven't made air for their king.
I mean, and it also depends on the activity of the pieces if this is exploitable as well.
But Black has slightly more active pieces here, funnily enough, and there is a combination based on
the back row.
So can you spot what that is?
If I give you 5 seconds to pause?
Video Blacks play.
It's an iconic move.
It's 1962 and it actually gives a small edge for black after rock seats.
So.
Well, maybe you could give a significant edge if Queen takes seats.
We're just taking on see to rock taxi to bishop takes that for with that nasty pin.
So just one pawn and that's that's nice.
So Rook takes it to his plate.
Queen takes F4.
This is the brilliant move which exploits the back row its first thing Queen takes to say it doesn't
give chances for wont to do much like take a pawn or something.
It's it's a pretty you know, it's inviting.
It has to create a response.
Queen takes a form so that's great.
So we have this response G4 And now Queen A5 which ties the Queen down to C to the Queen can't go taking
pawns.
The Queen's looking at C to hear the moves and now this B seven point is protected Queen B5 and now
H five giving some F for the king.
And also there's a potential attack with h four and H Red Queen F3.
Of course we have h for just to demonstrate that if a4.
H for this position, say Bishop f4 that's just bad Rook takes and then Bishop takes.
This is just it's going to be bad for, for white.
This is the most accurate it seems.
And then White's in big trouble here in this end game.
If we look at this again with H for if things are ignored here allowing a form pawn.
Yeah, we could install the form pawn and rook takes e to queen takes, you know, because this is looking
very dangerous for Queen F3 and Black's doing very well here as well as you might suspect so.
Okay.
So h four, which is a weakening move, basically.
So it's not just there for the king, it's actually provoking a weakness.
You can see these square weaknesses emerging and now rookie fall.
This is a really nice move putting pressure on D4 but also it has the option of Rook G4, which is interesting.
Sometimes we have Bishop D2.
And now Route 64 is played in this position.
There was an option for Rook.
I ain't there's nothing really to to fear here with Rook 8 to 8 if Queen takes this position to rooks
against Queen is no good in this case because Queen G4 looks at D4 and here there's a strong attack
with five of the bishops on duty there.
It can't really handle the impact of F4.
Black's going to be doing very well here, so Rook takes D4 though was played.
That's another option.
We have Bishop C3.
It leads actually to a possibility for white soon.
The way it's played Rook D3 isn't the most accurate it seems.
It seems Rook G4 was more accurate and more of an attacking perspective against Ptolemy, against the
King.
It's much more of an attacking perspective.
If King G2 rook this position C6 Queen six.
Rook eight If we look at this position of the rook on G4, funnily enough, it's really dangerous because
there's D4 coming up as well.
If Queen takes 874 and here Queen D five check.
And this is really getting to be big trouble if King Gee, one bishop takes Jeffrey crashing through
as example with queen afraid there's too many threats to handle her.
If Rogue One were cage free.
I mean, it's a disaster.
Basically.
If Rookie eight, there's no way once handling the king safety.
So it seems as though Rook G4 move 23 is an attacking improvement actually to rook d4.
It does seem to still attack G3 but rook g4 it's like pin rather than just hitting the opponents, pinning
that pawn with great options.
So anyway, we have Bishop E5 and now Rook the eight bishop takes d6, rook takes these six rook e5
and now Queen have free.
So, yes.
It's a it's an interesting position.
So.
Quinn afraid we have of distraction.
Rook takes 85 to try and get the pull back and pull back rather and we have check and now Queen 63 Queen
sex and here what goes wrong again basically at move 40.
It seems as though why it should have enough resource to hold the balance here but not with this move.
Queen D one This makes things a whole load worse.
Queen F3 The idea of Queen F3 is to keep some options of H five and if D four there's an option of Queen
eight sometimes.
So as example, if C six, H five.
This position black only has like a small edge here.
Speak of and if D for trying to push this path spawn H5 and this position, there's Queen Eights and
all of a sudden look at this.
The pawn is holding an escaped square g sex and white is threatening this.
And if g5h takes we lead.
It leads to a situation where there's going to be a funny position like this where that -- is about
to queen, but white can get in front of the -- and then it emerges that white can just take off that
-- at the right time to lead to a drawn position.
So yeah, a balanced position.
So yeah, fun stuff with Queen.
It does seem to technically hold the balance, but unfortunately Capablanca played Queen D1.
This is much more passive we have now instead of pushing the pawn, which might give similar kind of
counterplay ideas Queen free.
Maybe Capablanca is trying to be subtle about Queen Geoffrey, but the pawn wasn't pushed.
We have actually rookie e6 instead just trying to get full control.
We have rook eights so if rook takes E6 appetites, this is just better for black with these pawns to
be pushed and an extra pawn.
It's going to be a grind, but it's better for black.
So Rook eight though is played and this allows now rook e5 so offering it protects D5 and tries to get
control of the file.
If you can get control of a foe like this, then there's going to be like targets, juicy targets on
the seven eight Franks.
So we have Rook takes H7 C5, so this is kind of misplaced here.
It's not helping control this file.
So now full authority is achieved without either dropping defined or allowing Queen H five that's covered.
So we have Queen D free changes since rook dates and now D4.
And this opens up possibilities for the Queen on this diagonal.
And when the rook is not there d five but opens up possibilities A4 and now rookie one check and this
is quite a strong attack now Queen to say the least.
Queen C six check is played We have the afraid if King's to rook one on Queen H one is checkmate and.
Yeah.
It's looking very, very dangerous.
It's looking too precarious.
If Queen Afri, can you see what black would play here for ten points?
Classic Titanic.
Yeah.
Rogue one.
That's just a classic tactic to win the Queen.
So F4 is played.
So these weaknesses mean, you know, these pressure points are emerging now and in fact rookie fray.
So that's kind of painful looking queen holding onto F3 but now Queen is six and this seven franc is
so dangerous.
Now, this rook is not helping King's safety on the eight.
So white tries G4 if a5 just to demonstrate now so this authority on the file rook touching is kind
of crushing.
If King have won, what would you play here?
Yeah.
Just.
Just hold The king escaped squares without, you know, the rook being rook h too.
So we've got Queen H three that if eight Queen H three queen takes G3 and we're mating.
So G4 was trained by Capablanca Rook to shank King entry and now Queen E three looking at African Queen
H one.
This looks diabolical.
Queen are full.
Okay.
H five and now Rook have two.
And here Capablanca resigns the first time he's lost to Alekhine and it's in the world championship
match.
Yeah, Alekhine had been training, studying Capablanca like crazy, apparently trying to find his weaknesses.
And yeah, this is his first win.
It's an iconic win.
So I wanted to show you this game in general because it's such an iconic, important game for mankind
to become world champion, to be able to beat Capablanca this round one upset game.
Now, if it continued with age g six check the best is actually King G seven and say g tanks have seven
rook and free Shaq.
And if King G two queen G free is mating.
Otherwise giving up the queen doesn't really help matters.
That's losing for weight.
So yes an iconic game and I felt the major attacking thing was the use of that file that authority felt
breakthrough to get to the king here.
So it was attacking in the end.
And maybe, just maybe a slight inaccuracy at move 23, this crucial move, 23.
Well, not so crucial.
I mean, black still won anyway, Rook G4 has some interesting points to it as well.
It's a variant of the game where Black is getting a strong attack potential here in various ways.
I mean, King H3 doesn't seem too clever because of things like Queen F3.
It just looks very, very dangerous.
So that rook on G4, you know, here for example, Rook takes H for Queen G4.
So yes, that seems to be a key improvement as well.
So yeah, it's a, it's a fascinating game, tense game and getting full control here with rookie sex.
So not being tempted to give bouncy roads of attack to Black's king because D4 Yeah queen of free ideas
look dangerous for for some of the variations as mentioned where there could be battery ideas.
So anyway so that was the temptation of was avoided with this rookie sex which was start of a campaign
to control both D5 and H5, try and use the fold authority to get a kingside attack.
So fascinating stuff.
And yeah, works so well here.
So yeah, I hope you enjoyed this game.
I mean, they're both absolute legends.
I love Capablanca as well.
Check out my Capablanca courses, but the contrast for me is made clearer in studying Blanc.
His preference is not to treat chances, just an ordinary game.
It's like more of a science, a technical science, and where you have the slight advantage to try and
simplify and exploit that advantage in endgames as needed.
So Capablanca was very much simplifying.
He didn't really treat chess as a kind of necessarily fun game in the same way that Alekhine game,
you know, seems to be more born out of combination.
According to Laska, you know, he loves his tactics and combinations, has dreams about them.
Capablanca more kind of simplifies games and likes winning based on pawn structure, more in end games,
more in general, But they're both amazingly tactical players and Capablanca is also amazing at attack
when the position demands it more, when the possession demands it.
So anyway, an iconic epic game between them.
I hope you enjoy this one.
Nice rematch.