Positions to study from the old Masters

Capablanca - Paredes 1901 (a 13 year old Capa.)



Paredes is planning to thump his Knight on b5 with both the double attack on the Knight and the latent threat of Nb5 Nxb5 Bxb5 keeping White from castling.
1) is there an answer to these threats?
2) can Capa play g4 in this position?

now for the most efficient way to mop up


1)What is the strongest move for White
2)If Black responds by taking on g1 what is White's intermezzo?

Capablanca - Gavilan 1901


Does Capa play
a) dxe5
b) Nd2
c) exd5

Hey where did you first learn those games? Golombeck only has the two Corzo games from that era. Did you study those from a db or do you have another reference?

You can find the games in either cb mega 2008 or opening master's om 2.07.

Capa - Gavilan 1901 cont..


This one is a bit easier. Gavilan plays
Bd5?? How does Capa punish this?

Capa - Paredes 1901

Young Capa plays the Ponziani and falls into a trap



Capa has just played 0-0 how does Paredes punish this?

Capablanca - Sterling 1901 1-0

People often talk about chess style, but it's not so common that you have a position where you can really see it-



Capa to move identify
1) the materialist move
2) the positional move
3) the tactical attacking move

Taking a break from Capa for a moment...

Janowsky - Marshall 1916 0-1



Black to move

great idea for a thread, thanks. a cup of coffee goes well with it...

edit: thanks for the easy one, is good motivation to try the others (as in: found a move a gm found... a bit pathetic, but it works...)

Capa - Gavilan cont..
1....,Bd5?? 2.Bg4+ wins the rook

Capa - Paredes ponziani trap
1....Nxe5

Capa - Sterling
materialist 1.Nxd6,cxd6 2.Qxb7
positional I have no idea
tactical 1.Qh4

Janowski - Marshall
Knowing Marshall I'm sure it's 1....,Nxd4 2.cxd4,Qa5+ that looks very promising but it's difficult for me.There has to be some quiet move with the bishop.Those quiet moves always have me stumped.
Still working on it.

Reinfeld called the Marshall sac "a thunderbolt" as he clearly had it in mind a move or two before the position I posted and he had to see accurately as it will require a quiet move, and then another sacrifice to justify the sac.

a great position to setup on a board and live with for awhile. Then when you think you have it, try playing theme blitz vs fritz from the sac and see if you can still win.

on the Sterling game I would consider
1) Qxb7 is the materialistic move as it nets more material but leaves White with a somewhat awkward position
2) nxd6 is more positional as it creates a weak pawn before netting a pawn
3) Qh4 sowing the seeds for tactical destruction- although it appears that Black has defensive resources against this move. Easier said than done with the clock ticking.

ok, i thought we solve in secret 🙂

for janowsky - marshall i suggest qa5. it threatens the nxd4 or, if bf2 i think nb4 is not so bad...

edit: with your latest comments, i think i am wrong...

edit2: i still like: 1. .. Qa5 2. Bf2 Rxf2 3. Kxf2 Nxd4 4. cxd4 Qd2+

Capa - Corzo, E (not Juan) 1901 1-0



Capa has just played c4 Corzo in a tough spot has to find a move that doesn't just outright lose. Choices for Black

1) b6
2) Bxc4
3) Be4

To be fair to Corzo, give yourself no more than 5 minutes to find the least losing move here and save yourself the heckling from your club buddies by losing to a 13 year old prodigy.

Capa-Corzo,E
1....,Be4 2.f3,f4! 3.d5,b6
1....,Be4 2.d5,b6 3.dxe6,Rxd1+ 4.Kxd1,bxa5

Trying to beat fritz with Marshall's sac.Bloody hard!Best I got so far was an opposite color bishop ending me being a pawn up = draw

Tarkesh,I messaged my solutions for the first positions to nimzo.But if everyone's going to do that it's too much for him.Guess we just don't read other people's posts untill we tried ourself.

tharkesh - your Qa5 in the Marshall game is interesting- I think White might have time to play Qd1 defending the unprotected d4 pawn and maybe be able to grimly defend the position.

Without submitting the Knight sacrifice to hours of computer analysis I am satisfied that it is sound enough to be worth a go.