Capablanca vs. Lasker endgame

I believe the game was a rapid game in which both players got five seconds at most for their moves, which if true, would make the winning combination 5613290 times more impressive to me than it already is.

capablanca was the master of endgame theory, so seeing this combination was not that difficult to him, probably a few moves earlier he was allready thinking how to exchange those pieces in a way to keep the winning king pawn ending.

i think that this position was even in one of his few writen books.
i remember solving this puzzle a few years ago

that is a draw why did capablanca win that`s game is so very nice game capablanca lost that game

If the pawns were in the middle of the board you'd be right, but after they've advanced that far it doesn't matter who has opposition, as long as you win the pawn on the 6th you win no matter what (unless it's a rook pawn)

This puzzle resembles a position I reached in a blitz game recently -- I instinctively made a losing move when there was only one way to draw.  You can look at the move list for what I actually played and lost.

The 2nd move in this puzzle is the only time you have a choice between equally good moves, both draw.  The other moves are only moves.

It appears that, with pawns on b4 and b5, and Kings on c6 and a6, the White wins also. Is it because his King gets to be in front of the pawn ?

Usually if you can get the opposition, even if the enemy king is ahead of his pawn it's a draw (the exception being as in the Capa endgame where the pawns are too far advanced).

So looking at the position you describe, we can find a way to draw as long as black can get (and keep) the opposition.  Notice the key move available here that Lasker did not have is when the king steps backwards on move 5, because Lasker's king would be on the 8th rank, there was no way to step back, and no way to draw.

Before this becomes second nature, a trick to remember is to notice if the pawn advancing to the 7th rank is going to check you, then you're safe, you can draw.  If the pawn advanced to the 7th without check (as in the variation) then you're going to be dead lost.

It's useful to see though, that if you can get ahead of your pawn to where you have a tempo to spare (your pawn can move up behind your king) then it's impossible for the enemy to keep the opposition and you can win no matter what.

You are right, Kb8 is the move that saves it.

1000 thnx. A very nice Zugzwang combination. I used your information for mine 'Winning with stalemate #2'. Where did you find it? I don't find the position in the databases of Chess Lab and chessgames.com. I found on 'Yet another chess problem database' this position, but without source or solution. And I found this one and this, both related to your position. According to 'Yet another chess problem database' they were published in Vossische Zeitung (1914) and composed by Capablanca and Lasker.

I am very curious about your source

Here I found more information about this position:
https://chesscomposers.blogspot.com/2012/11/november-19th.html
It was not really composed by them. Apparently it arose during the analysis of a game

Also here is another interesting discussion about the origins of this position with a direct mention to Garry Kasparov and his "My Great Predecessors" volume 1:
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=54111&kpage=1
See comments dated March 25, 2007.

Can anyone who has the book confirm?

Another source:
https://www.chessproblem.net/viewtopic.php?t=400
This one also mentions the original position is a composition of the two great champions.

And more information (see entry #7) involving a chess stamp from Cuba released for the centenary of Capablanca's birthday on July 15th, 1988
https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/diary_1.htm
The chess stamp is presented here under #440:
http://www.tri.org.au/chess/catalogue.html

3. Ka6! (3. Kc6? - wastes time) 

3. Kc6? Ka7

4. Kc7 Ka8 

5. b6? Stalemate 

so 3. Ka6! - better than that