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Akiba Rubinstein vs Jose Raul Capablanca
"If You c1 You've Seen Them All" (game of the day Jun-22-2015)
San Sebastian (1911), San Sebastian ESP, rd 13, Mar-13
Tarrasch Defense: Rubinstein System (D33)  ·  1-0

8
7
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5
4
3
2
a
1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
Notes by Jacques Mieses and Dr. Savielly Tartakower. *** Tartakower: In a game overflowing with the finer points of positional play, the outstanding feature is perhaps the problem-like turn 17.Qc1, by which White very elegantly saves all his unguarded pieces and remains with an extra pawn.Tartakower: First introduced by Schlechter (against Dus-Chotimirsky, Prague 1908), systematized by Rubinstein, this positional maneuver has all but refuted the Tarrasch Defense.Tartakower: Too dogmatic. Black devotes too much attention to the queenside.Mieses: A good move but not the best. Beyond any doubt, with 13.e4! White achieves an advantage; for example, 13...d4 14.Nd5 exd5 15.Bxc8 dxe4 16.Qb3! or 13...dxe4 14.Bg5 O-O 15.Nxe4, etc.Tartakower: Too late, and yet - as the storm now breaks - not late enough. Better would be 13...Rd8.Mieses: A mistake. In his calculation Capablanca has overlooked the opponent’s 17th move. The right continuation was 14...gxf6. *** In "Chess Fundamentals" Jose Raul Capablanca states that he overlooked 16.Kg2! and not White’s 17th move giving the following combination: 16.Bg2 (the move Capablanca expected) 16...Ne5! 17.Nf4 (if 17.Rc1 Qxc1!! 18.Qxc1 Bxf2+ and wins) 17...Ng4 18.h3 (18.Nh3 Bxf2+ and Black wins the exchange) 18...Nxf2 19.Rxf2 Bxf2+ 20.Kxf2 g5 and Black wins.Tartakower: Having cleverly won a pawn, White shows that he also can hold what he has gained.Mieses: Black cannot avoid the exchange of the queens: 20...Qxb2 loses a piece after 21.Rbf1, and if 20...Qb4, then 21.Rfd1 followed by Be6+.Mieses: I don’t like this move. The best seems to be 24...Kf7. *** Tartakower: Very cleverly Black obtains some counterplay which will bring in a pawn on the Q-side. All annotators agree on 38.Bc4! being better. All annotators agree on 38...Rxa2 being better. According to Vladimir Vukovic White still wins with 39.Rh8! b3 40.h5! Ra1 (if 40...Nb4 41.h6! or 40...Rc2 41.h6! b2 42.Ba2 etc.) 41.Bxc6 Kc7 (not 41...Kxc6? 42.Rb8 Kc7 43.Rb4 and wins) 42.Be4 b2 43.d4 a3 44.Rh7+ Kd6 45.Rb7 a2 46.Rxb2 Rg1+ 47.Kxg1 a1=Q+ 48.Rb1 Qxd4 49.Bf3, and White’s position is still winning. Tartakower: The result of very precise calculations. 39.Bxb3 is another way to win.Mieses: This paradoxical capture is now feasible; e.g., 40...a2 41.Rb5+ Ka6 [41...Kxc6 42.Ra5] 42.Rb8!, etc.1-0

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
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Given 65 times; par: 70 [what's this?]

Annotations by Jacques Mieses.      [4 more games annotated by J Mieses]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 8 OF 8 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jun-22-15  morfishine: It takes a Rubinstein to pull something off like this against Capablanca. At least for me, I have great admiration for Capablanca's fighting spirit when caught in an adverse situation
Jun-22-15  kevin86: White can force the rook to a6 and stop the pawn.White's 17 ♕c1!! is one of the most subtle and brilliant moves of all time.
Jun-22-15  visayanbraindoctor: One of the rare games where Capablanca got out-calculated. In this game Rubinstein saw more than him.

Capablanca typically does not go down without trying something concrete, and goes for an active defense. He attacks Rubinstein's Queenside and tries to force passed pawns of his own. The ending becomes asymmetrical, potentially a dangerous race of pawns. We lesser mortals can learn something from this. When down in material with no compensation, better go for an active defense, and aim for sharp asymmetrical positions.

A lesser player than Rubinstein might actually have let the slippery Cuban out of the hook. But this is the Akiba that we're talking about, and he reels the victory in.

Jun-22-15  john barleycorn: If I remember correctly Capablanca in his own annotations said that he overlooked 16.Kg2.
Jun-22-15  Howard: It was because of this game, by the way, that Rubinstein was actually one of the few players back in the day to have a plus score against Capablanca.

This was the first encounter between them, and by winning, Rubinstein thus had an instant plus score. Their next several encounters were all drawn.

Then, in 1928, Capa finally evened the score.

Jun-22-15  samikd: <amarande> Oh the skewer ! Thank you very much
Jun-22-15  RandomVisitor: 14.Nxd5! exd5 15.Bxc8 Rxc8 16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qxd5+ and black has problems.
Jun-23-15  RandomVisitor: After the curious improvement attempt 15...Bxf2+

"Capablanca typically does not go down without trying something concrete, and goes for an active defense."


click for larger view

Rybka 4.1 x64:

<[+0.24] d=28 16.Kh1> Qh6 17.Kg2 Rcd8 18.Qc1 Qg6 19.Nf4 Qe4+ 20.Kxf2 e5 21.Bg2 Qb4 22.Kg1 exf4 23.Rxf4 Rxf4 24.Qxf4 Qxb2 25.Qc4+ Kh8 26.Rf1 h6 27.Be4 Re8 28.Kh1 Qd4 29.Qxd4 Nxd4 30.Bxb7 Nxe2 31.Rf7

[+0.01] d=27 16.Kg2 Qe5 17.Rxf2 Rxf2+ 18.Kxf2 Rd8 19.Ne7+ Kh8 20.Qb3 Nxe7 21.Qxe6 Qd4+ 22.Kg2 Nd5 23.Kh1 Ne3 24.Rg1 h6 25.b3 Rf8 26.Bg2 Nxg2 27.Kxg2 Rf2+ 28.Kh3 Qc5 29.Qe8+ Kh7 30.Qe4+ Kg8 31.g4

May-08-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  Dionysius1: A nice little spoonerism: "Mieses: Black cannot avoid the exchange of the queens: 20...Qxb2 loses a piece after 21.Rbf1" should read "...21.Rfb1"
May-11-17  User not found: From move 30 with Btp he must have thought he could see 15 moves ahead (GM's can calculate 15 moves, right?) but made a mistake. He was never going to sac his king side pawns and promote his a or b pawn before white could do the same with his f2,g2 or h2 pawns... White had a powerful bishop on the a2-g8 diagonal defending both c3 and a2, the blunder is missing 30..Re2 because if white checks with the rook on f7 you can play Re7 and offer the exchange.. Even If the offer wasn't taken black should have scraped a draw.


click for larger view

Dec-08-18  brimarern: Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL game! This is high level chess.
Apr-12-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  Honza Cervenka: 38.Rf5 was winning easily. If 38...Rxa2, then 39.Bxa2 b3 40.Rf4 Kb5 41.Bxb3 axb3 42.Re4 etc.
Sep-14-20  zenwabi: Capablanca annotates this game at p. 83 of his CHESS FUNDAMENTALS, Everyman Chess edition.
Sep-14-20  SChesshevsky: Seems the Tarrasch defense was a Capablanca choice through this tournament. But then not again by the cg database.

But an early...Be6 appears not best. Here Rubinstein goes after it not very subtly with Ng5 and Bh3. Then Capablanca misses or underestimates the Nxd5 trick.

Appears the early...Be6 goes out of favor in the 1920s. Probably rightfully. Not sure if this game had a part in Capa dropping the Tarrasch but probably didn't add support. A 2007 post by Judah relates some of his notes on this opening.

Apr-29-21  nezhmet: Looks like 38...Rxa2! would save the game for Capa. There is a hole in the quoted Vukovic analysis.
Apr-29-21  nezhmet: Specifically 41...Kxc6 is ! not ? and then 42.Rb8 Re1! and it is white who must be careful to draw.
Apr-29-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: <brimarern: Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL game! This is high level chess>

Does Capablanca think that this is a high level chess game?

Apr-29-21  nezhmet: The Kg2 & Qc1 combination was a very nice tactical trick. Then everything went smoothly and at a high level but then Rubinstein gaffed with 38. Bd5? which was a very serious miscue. The correct move, 38. Rf5! was very deep (Rf5-f4 to eye the a-file). Once he gaffed, Capablanca had a miracle save along the lines of what I pointed out which is a surprising miss by all the analysts for all these years. However since Capablanca did include this game in a book we can conclude he was impressed by the tactical tricks that netted white the extra pawn. It is probably the case that neither player saw the 38...Rxa2! save in its entirety.
Apr-29-21  nezhmet: Update! Paul Littlewood has found 38...Bxa2! 39. Rh8 b3 40. h5 Ra1 41. Rc8!! (what a move!) and now 41...b2 42.Rxc6+ Ka5 43.Bc4! Rg1+ 44.Kxg1 b1=Q+ 45.Kh2 Qe1 46.Kg2 and white should convert. Of course 38...Rxa2 should have been tried. So Vukovic was correct in the overall result but not correct in the specific lines, because his 41. Bxc6?? tosses away the win.
Feb-11-23  Messiah: What a terrible pun.
Mar-09-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: Blimey as well as being a high profile game, there seems to be a wealth of resources for both sides in the variations. A very interesting early Rubinstein system vs the Tarrasch with the fianchetto.
Mar-15-23  AlekhineSyndrome: am just here sitting in awe and the choice of words by Tartakower
Jul-21-23  generror: In my kibitz to Rubinstein vs Lasker, 1909, I joked that Rubinstein liked winning by moving his queen to the c-file. Well here he does it again with <17.Qc1!>, the exact same move that won in that game. GM Ben Finegold should create another rule: Always play Qc1.
Jul-11-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  louispaulsen88888888: Still not the greatest pun.🙃
Nov-18-24  Mathematicar: Mieses is right about 13. e4 being the best, but the safer option for White is 13...d4 14. Nd5 Qf7 15. Nf4! Nd8 and 16. b4 practically wins the game.
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