An Interesting Episode.
I was going over another game from the Capablanca book, today. I never cease to find some amazing moments when I bust open these old books and pour over the moves.
In 1906 Capablanca was still at Columbia University studying Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, when he played this game against A.W. Fox of the Manhattan Chess Club. I thought of the lament I heard somewhere about how many geniuses the sciences lose to this game of chess; how many discoveries have been lost to the lure of the chessboard, like Sirens calling their maddening cry, inspiring some to throw themselves off the ship of sensible possibilities into the wine-dark sea of chess, where its said that mosquitoes can drink and elephants can drown.
After the main moves of the Spanish Game they get this position:
Fox - Capablanca, 1906
With Black to move, Ne5 is not the move I would’ve thought of, for these days most players immediately conserve the “good bishop”, which here would be the Bishop on d7 for Black. But behold! He plays none other than 10…Ne5. The light squared Bishops are traded and White plays f4. What next? The knight on g3 lands on f5, and then after the dark square Fool retreats to f8 first thing I’d be thinking of is how to get rid of the violator.
I was expecting maybe Ne7 to challenge this audacity. But no, it was 14.Qd3, Rad8! Then I see it. Capablanca is thinking of nothing except pushing the d-pawn. 15.Bd2, d5!
No fear at all of e5 being played. Paradoxically, he is not getting crushed by these center pawns, but rather his own center pawns will be the heroes of this battle. That is quite interesting when you think about how it looks now. And he never even bothered about the horse on f5.
16.e5, Bc5+ 17.Kh1, Ng4.
Nd1 must be played, but Capablanca is like Bruce Lee: “Be water, my friend.” 😄 He just slips right through the cracks.
18.Nd1, f6 19.h3, Nf2+ 20.Nxf2, Bxf2 21.Re2.
And now…Black to move!
I thought for sure Bb6 would be played.. but that’s just lame..
It was none other than 21…fxe5! sacrificing the Bishop on f2. Yep, 21…fxe5 22.Rxf2, e4. And now you see how his infantry throws down.
The Queen moves and he takes the knight on f5. But that’s not what happened; instead the knight contemptuously checks on h6 to cause some damage to the pawn structure, but it doesn’t matter. White lost.
Capablanca won this game some moves later on account of the power of these center pawns.
Definitely an interesting episode.
