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Henry Atkins vs Jose Raul Capablanca
"Down by the c-side" (game of the day Apr-15-2015)
London (1922), London ENG, rd 11, Aug-14
Caro-Kann Defense: Advance Variation (B12)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Given 73 times; par: 129 [what's this?]

Annotations by Geza Maroczy.      [67 more games annotated by Maroczy]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
May-21-14  RookFile: Capa toyed with this guy.
Jan-07-15  Mating Net: I love pointing out this game to players who are addicted to Bishops.
Jan-07-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  OhioChessFan: 22. exf6 strikes me as a positional blunder, unnecessarily giving much scope to Black's DSB. I'm not sure why Maroczy thinks 22. f4 was mandatory. Black isn't going to play f4 himself any time soon. 22. Nc3 is fine.

I agree with <Balmo> about White's passive play. He looked like he was playing for a draw from the first move.

Apr-15-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: I'm sure Capa didn't find that too taxing.
Apr-15-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  tpstar: <April 15> Many happy returns!

Capablanca sure was eager to trade Queens in the opening, then he pulled off a very nice endgame.

Apr-15-15  morfishine: No doubt, Capablanca was unbeatable when his opponents played below strength. Here, the 7-time British Champion plays like he just learned the game
Apr-15-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  Honza Cervenka: What is the winning continuation of black, if white would have played 51.Be3? I don't see any working plan to strenghten the pressure and make any progress after that against reasonable defense of white.
Apr-15-15  morfishine: <Honza Cervenka> Good point
Apr-15-15  gars: <drummachine12>: This is game number 45 in Reinfeld's "The Immortal Games of Capablanca", number 35 in Chernev's "Capablanca's Best Chess Endings" and 52 in Euwe's "Ajedrez Inmortal de Capablanca", but which book by Horowitz you refer to? Thanks a lot.
Apr-15-15  gars: By the way, the Euwe book I quote is a trans lation of "Capablanca, das Schachphänomen: Eine Sammlung Von 175 Partien Mit 320 Diagrammen", by M.Euwe and L.Prins
Apr-15-15  Yuri Stremel: I smell some Led Zeppelin reference on this pun ;)
Apr-15-15  thegoldenband: Not Maroczy's greatest annotations ever, to say the least.
Apr-15-15  kevin86: The c-file seems to dominate until the very end when the a-file pawn decides the game.
Jul-21-15  Chessman1504: A nice crystal-clear positional game. White plays unambitiously and is duly crushed, but Capablanca's play is not too straightforward. It relies on a subtle sense of timing. Finding the right plan, as Capablanca does, is one of the most difficult things in chess.
Dec-19-15  reenareena: Great capablanca play with cool mind just taking cup of coffee
Dec-19-15  ChemMac: <Honza Cervenka; Morfishine> I'd answer 51 Be3 with 51.....h5. Now, what would White play? 52 Kc2 Rb4 53 Kc3 a4 ?
Dec-19-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <Honza Cervenka, morfishine, ChemMac> I'm not sure I understand how 51. Be3 changes much. What if Black follows a similar plan to the actual game, with 51...Rb4, followed in due time by ...Rc4+, ...a4, ...Na7, ...Nb5 etc.? What would White do to prevent that?
Dec-20-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <Honza Cervenka et al.> Oh sorry, I missed the tactical point you all must have had in mind with 51. Be3 Rb4 <52. Rxa5>.

<ChemMac> White's whole point must be to prevent <...Rb4> or <...Rc1> so 51. Be3 h5 52. Bf4.

It's close to zugzwang but I have not found any win for Black yet.

Mar-09-21  shahinrza: I wonder why 6. Nf3 wouldn't be as good as the game move, 6. Ne2, here.
Mar-09-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  samvega: From the opening explorer, it looks like Nf3 and Ne2 are about equally good and played with similar frequency. I suppose the idea of 6. Ne2 is to be able to play f4. And if white is expecting to play c3, then it may be convenient to leave f3 vacant for the queen's knight.
Mar-09-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <sam vega> <shahinzra>

4.Bd3 pretty much announces White isn't making any attempt to get an advantage. Black outscores White after either 6.Nf3 or 6.Ne2, not, I think, because either move is bad, but because the 4.Bd3 line is generally played by weaker players against stronger ones.

I think the idea of 6.Ne2 (apart from what sam vega already mentioned) is that, after 6....Qa5+ 7.c3 Qa6, White can move his queen off the a6-f1 diagonal without the Black queen blocking White from castling. But if White didn't want to trade queens so early, what's he playing lines like 4.Bd3 for anyway?

Mar-09-21  sudoplatov: It seems (to Stockfish, anyway) that 51.Be3 is well-answered by 51...Nb5 and of 52.Ra1 then 52...Rb4.
Jun-07-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: Capablanca did seem to make a mistake at move 49 with Nc6+

In theory with Kc3 White is about equal:

Henry Ernest Atkins - Jose Raul Capablanca 0-1 11.0, London London ENG 1922


click for larger view

Analysis by Stockfish 15 - 3 threads max:

1. = (-0.21): 50.Kc3 Rb8 51.Ra4 Rc8 52.Kb3 Ra8 53.Kc3 Nb4 54.Be1 g5 55.Ra1 Ra7 56.Ra4 h6 57.Ra1 Rc7+ 58.Kd2 Nc6 59.Kd3 Ra7 60.Ra4 Rb7 61.Ra3 Rb5 62.Ra4 Rb3+ 63.Bc3 Rb7 64.Be1 Nb4+ 65.Bxb4

There is a rather cute tactical idea which is crushing instead - Nd3+


click for larger view

It seems this leaves black on the brink of losing pieces after Ka4:


click for larger view

But Kc4 and Black is threatening Nb2 mate:


click for larger view

And say Rxd3 then Rb2 :


click for larger view

Whatever way it is cut or sliced black gets a massive advantage

Jun-19-22  tbontb: The game is close to equal for a long time, with Capablanca pressing as Black in typical fashion. After 51....Rc1+ Black has a perceptible advantage, so 51.Be3 was Atkins' last chance (as noted above) and does indeed seem to hold with exact play.
Jan-05-23  brimarern: Here I am thinking 42. d5 at least exchanges pawns (the d pawn for black's b pawn) but 42...ed 43.Bxb6 d4! traps the bishop with 44...Rb8 coming! Beautiful stuff. 👍
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