A classic

A hundred years ago, from March 15 to April 28, the 1921 World Chess Championship match between Lasker and Capablanca was played in Havana, Cuba. Conversations about organizing a match began in 1911, but the players could not agree on the terms. In the end, Capablanca won the match by a score of 9-5 (4 wins, 0 losses, 10 draws).

Today, Daniel shows the tenth game of this match, a fine win by Capablanca.

In this game Capablanca played what has rightly been hailed as a positional masterpiece. But at this moment, Lasker missed a chance. What should he have played here? White to play.

Seven years before the match, in 1914, Capablanca and Lasker published a study together. In their book "The Unknown Capablanca" from 1975 Hooper & Brandreth write:

"A joint composition by Capablanca and Lasker which was first published in Lasker's chess column in the Berlin newspaper Vossische Zeitung on the 26th July 1914 ... A week or so earlier these two masters had met in Berlin, where they played a rapid-transit match of ten games. Capablanca won 6.5-3.5, and afterwards Lasker is alleged to have said 'It is remarkable: you make no mistakes'. The study did not occur in these games, but a position from one of them suggested the idea."

White to play and win

And here a number of nice two-movers. The first one is by Henryk Grudzinski. White to play and mate in two.

The following trio of two-movers by Alex Casa was published in 1995. In each case it is White to play and mate in two.

This week

Power Play 13 - The squeeze

What is a squeeze? When you take control of a game, deprive your opponent of counterplay and slowly squeeze the life out of your opponent. The motto of the squeeze could be: “To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” from The Art of War, Sun Tzu, Chinese general, born c. 500 BC This DVD will help you to recognise when a squeeze is possible and how to execute it.

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Daniel King is the prolific author of the Power Play series which numbers 28 volumes to date.  The Tactic Turbo for the King’s Gambit is the subject of his most recent DVD.

Here’s a teaser:

Power Play 28: Tactic Toolbox King's Gambit

Daniel King presents 50 puzzle positions in video format, all arising from the King's Gambit. They feature typical tactics from the opening, so this is a great way of becoming familiar with the tricks and traps that you can set your opponent.

Links

• More PowerPlay shows
• All Daniel King video series