[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: This Week's ChessBase Show: The Immortal Suffocation Game

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
This Week's ChessBase Show: The Immortal Suffocation Game
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1217400599.shtml


   An exaggeration? Maybe, but if it is, it's not much of one. But first,
   a little background.
   The year is 1929, the place is Karlsbad, and our protagonists are
   [1]José Raúl Capablanca, the third and then-recently deposed world
   chess champion;
   [260px-Capablanca3.JPG]
   and [2]Karel Treybal (1885-1941), a strong Czech master whose resume
   includes a tournament win over Alexander Alekhine.
   Treybal had an affection for Dutch Stonewall type positions (it was
   with such an opening that he defeated Alekhine), and that's what he
   used against Capablanca. Although it left him with left space and one
   of the worst light-squared bishops in recorded human history, the
   seriously locked pawn structure probably left Treybal relatively
   optimistic about holding the position. One would expect Capa to look
   for some way of blasting the position open: in the center, the
   kingside, the queenside - somewhere.
   Instead, the great Cuban kept locking up the board. Early on, he
   eliminated the realistic possibility of breaking in the center, and
   then he locked up the whole kingside and almost everything on the
   queenside. (Almost.) Only the a-file was open, and although White was
   able to achieve absolute ownership over it, it was far from obvious
   that he could achieve anything with it. That Capablanca knew that he
   could break through in due course, despite Black's ability to shift
   his cramped pieces to the danger zone, shows his legendary ability to
   think schematically.
   It's an impressive game, and one that's extremely picturesque. I first
   saw the game as a young child, and the strong impression it made on me
   then has stuck with me to the present day. I think you'll enjoy it
   too, so please join me tonight - Wednesday night - at 9 p.m. ET
   (that's Thursday at 3 a.m. CET) on the Playchess.com server. The show
   is free, and you can find full directions [3]here.
   Hope to see you then!

References

   1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ra%C3%BAl_Capablanca
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_Treybal
   3. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1114234449.shtml