Trying to figure out this move.
Sort:
[COMMENT DELETED]
Jun 6, 2016
0
#3
Is he keeping the Knights restricted while planning to play c5 to develop his LS bishop?
Lasker1900 wrote:
I'm certainly not good enough to tell you! And in any case, Lasker made a serious tactical oversight just a few moves later, losing the exchange. It would be interesting to see how the game would have gone in the absence of that mistake. One thing a6 does is to make it more difficult for White to play b4 and b5 in an effort to break up Black's queenside pawns and create weaknesses.
Yes...even Capa notes that Lasker's blunder was made in time trouble. I think otherwise the game is fairly even.
I looked at Capa's commentary on the game (which is a little too sparse for my opinion) and he notes that later Lasker plays to stop the ...b5 break, so maybe ...a6 is in preparation for that down the road (in part at least).
blastforme wrote:
Is he keeping the Knights restricted while planning to play c5 to develop his LS bishop?
I was looking at c5 as a possibility, but it just seems that ...c5 weakens the d5 square quite a bit and Black's king isn't too safe with say a knight on d5. However, if he does that Black could trade with a bishop say on e6. So perhaps it was partly his idea.
redtrucker wrote:
Could be a waiting move, while making b5 possible later. Capa's pieces look almost optimal, the bishop is the only piece that could probably be improved at this point, but only improvement for the bishop is getting it to the h1-a8 diagonal. Not something to do right away however, as c6 would hang and c5 would as was said, weaken the d5 square. However in the line 1...c5 2. Nf3 (2. Nf6 Bxf6 3. exf6 Rxe2 4. Nxe2, I think black is better) Nxe4 3. Nxe4 Bf6, the knight won't be able to get to d5.
Thanks. I don't know why I'm obsessing about it. I think with Capa's games I'm always looking for a "grand scheme" of things. I think I feel comfortable with everyone's responses and won't spend much more time thinking of it.
Thank you all for your responses!
Jun 7, 2016
0
#7
Ok.. I see.. d5 is very overloaded by white.. My tendency there (and it's probably bad - realize) would be to open the a8 diagonal for the bishop with c5 then b4..
redtrucker wrote:
stuzzicadenti wrote:
when in doubt just push a pawn
I strongly disagree with that. Most of my biggest mistakes are when I followed this thinking. I'm learning, don't push a pawn unless you are 100% sure it doesn't weaken your position. I'd rather shuffle my king than make a mindless pawn move.
I always thought he was joking.
Anyway I thing a6 is a slow improvement waiting move. The means black does not see a way to improve his pieces so decides to play a6. There are a few long term ideas with a6. As you mentioned, maybe Capablanca sees some ideas of a b5 push in the future. He could have a matority on the side of the board in some lines I guess. Also maybe capblanca sees some lines where his c pawn captus or is captured and plays this move to control b5 for that line (keeping a minor piece at bay).
There probably are other ideas in mind with that move (he is capablanca) . However I am pretty confident it was a slow waiting improvement move.
ChessOfPlayer wrote:
Anyway I thing a6 is a slow improvement waiting move. The means black does not see a way to improve his pieces so decides to play a6. There are a few long term ideas with a6. As you mentioned, maybe Capablanca sees some ideas of a b5 push in the future. He could have a matority on the side of the board in some lines I guess. Also maybe capblanca sees some lines where his c pawn captus or is captured and plays this move to control b5 for that line (keeping a minor piece at bay).
There probably are other ideas in mind with that move (he is capablanca) . However I am pretty confident it was a slow waiting improvement move.
I agree. There are also examples in his games (and others) where he makes a move without a "specific" idea especially for time control purposes. In any case, I think it is a good move, but just wanted to make sure there wasn't some subtle positional or tactical idea I was missing.
Hi,
I'm studying some of Capablanca's game (in Capablanca's My Chess Career) and came upon this position:
Black plays ...a6 in this position. My only thought is that he plans on playing ...b5 at some point and wanted the b5 square covered twice. But wondering if there is a deeper reason I'm not seeing.I don't really understand why this is played. Can anyone explain it to me?
Thanks!