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White to Play

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

This position from Capablanca-Thomas, Hastings, 1919, is yet another notorious case of double blindness. Capa, who was considered by many to be an error free chess machine, misses TWO winning continuations and plays one that saves Black, but Thomas resigns instead! Extra credit if you see the move Capa actually played and how Thomas could have won. First find one of the winning continuations!


Solution:

Capa played 1.Qa8 and Thomas resigned. He missed 1…Rxa2!, insuring him of an equal game. The winning lines were 1.Qb5 Rxb8 2.Qxb8 Rc1+ 3.Kf2 Rc2+ 4.Kf1 Rc1+ [4...Kg8 5.Qb3+] 5.Ke2 Rc2+ 6.Kd3 or 1.Rxe8 Qxe8 2.Qa4 winning the rook.

 


Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.

 

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