The Originater of the Blumenfeld and Volga Gambits

A long time ago I read some book where the writer explained how Benjamin Blumenfeld, an excellent Russian player between the First and Second World Wars, took the idea of his gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5!?) from the famous game Nimzowitch-Capablanca, St Petersburg 1914. There, about Capa’s eighth move (8…g6!?), a lot of comments have been written, since some players think it was a slip of Capa and others believe (including Kasparov himself!) it was “… Capablanca’s very profound concept, which was truly amazing for the beginning of the 20th century. But today any strong player will know that the combined pressure on the a- and b-files, as well as on the e4 pawn, supported by the super-powerful bishop on g7, at least guarantees Black full compensation.”

Today I wish to briefly review two games from the legendary Capa who felt chess with the fingers and would play almost any new position without prior understanding! Although the second game is not exactly the idea explained above, it has contacts points.

Let us enjoy the art of Capa, when Chess was on the table!