| Jun-11-03 | | aulero: A tipical Lasker performance.
Worth of note are the tactical complications that follows "20.f5" and above all the trap where Alekhine falls into: I wonder when Lasker saw "40... d5 and 41... d2" forcing Alekhine to give the exchange. |
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Jun-11-03
 | | Calli: 41.Re4 or Re1 and the game is equal. Unlike Alekhine to miss a one move threat. Time pressure? It is impressive after that for Lasker's conversion of the advantage. Especially with only two pawns remaining on the board. |
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| Jun-11-03 | | aulero: When I wrote "I wonder when Lasker ..." I only meant that Lasker had to foresight this extraordinary resource in order to tactically defend his very weak 7th rank. |
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| Jun-11-03 | | aulero: By the way,
after 41.e4 c3+ 42. c2 xe4 43.xb3 xg5 44.xg5 f7 the position is equal, but after 41.e1 I think that White is better because he should be able to increment the pressure on  g7. |
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| Jun-11-03 | | mdorothy: Endgame wizardry... otherwise known to me as insane.. I don't understand some of it (most of it actually) |
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Jun-12-03
| | Calli: <aulero>
On 41.Re1 Nc3+ 42.Kc2 Rab8! looks like a draw after 43.Kc1 Na2+ 44.Kb1 Nc3+ 45.Kc1 etcBlack can try 43.Re8+! Rxe8 44.Kxb3 Nd5 45.Ne6 Rb8+ 46.Ka2 Kf7 47.Rxg7+ Kf6 but can't hold the pawn 48.Rg5 Nc7 Quite an interesting tactical position! |
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| Jun-13-03 | | aulero: <Calli>, very good variant. I rarely analyze deeply positions because it takes too much time and I haven't, so I rely on general consideration. After 47...f6, White can play 48.g2 keeping a very slight advantage. The extra pawn is only temporary and in any case not sufficient to win. |
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Jun-13-03
| | Calli: Agreed, white can try to move the rook to the C-file and pressure the C pawn, but with so little material left, Black should be okay. |
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| Jan-02-05 | | penarol: Please, can someone tell me why Alekhine resigned in this position? Thanks!! |
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Jan-02-05
 | | Benzol: <penarol> White is unable to avoid the exchange of his Rook. Black will play either 90...d5 or e5 and after the exchange according to Tarrasch the win is easy. |
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| Jan-03-05 | | penarol: Thank you, Benzol!
I did not know that a rook against a knight (with one pawn each) was so easy, but in any case I wanted to make sure I was not missing something "big"... |
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Jan-03-05
 | | tpstar: <penarol> Perhaps easy in the sense that the stronger side can return the exchange to reach a winning K&P endgame. For example, 90. Kd3 Rd5+ 91. Kc3 Rxd2 92. Kxd2 and now the pin gives Black 2 free moves = 92 ... Kb5 93. Kd3 Rxe2! 94. Kxe2 Kb4 with a book win. (Play it out to prove it.) So White would probably try 90. Nd4, then Black would play 90 ... c5 hitting the Nd4, then maybe 91. Ne6 Rxd2+ 91. Kxd2 Re5 92. Nf4 Kb5 again aiming for a chance to trade R for N favorably. This is all quite tricky given the Knight's forking ability, yet legends of the game like Lasker and Alekhine would know how to convert the win here. |
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| Jan-04-05 | | penarol: Thanks again, now to tpstar!! |
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Jan-04-05
 | | Pawsome: Another defensive try for white might be 90. Nc4 Rc4+ 91. Kd1 Rg1+ 92. Ke2 Rg4 93. Rg2 Rh1 94. Nd3 Rh2+ 95. Nf2 Rf5 96. Ke3 Kb5! ( Black needs a tempo as 96...Rf2 97. Rf2 Rf2 98. Kf2 Kb5 99. Ke3 draws) 97.Nd3 Rb2 98. Nb2 Kb4 99. Nc4 Kb3 100. Nb6 c5 101. Ke4 Rf8 102. Nd7 Re8+ 103. Kf5 c4 wins. If white plays 102. Kd5 then Kb4 103. Ke6 Rd8 104. Ke7 Kb5 and wins. As tpstar says, all of this stuff must have been crystal clear to two of the greatest endgame players of all time, but most of us have to hurt our heads (and shuffle a lot of wood) to come up with the win. |
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Aug-13-05
| | iron maiden: Does 39. Rb2 do any good? |
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| May-01-06 | | penarol: These 2 players were really magicians of chess: they played the Keres variation even before Keres was born! (Or perhaps Keres was so great that he created this variation before coming to life...) |
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May-01-06
 | | Gypsy: <40...Nd5! 41.Rd7? Rd3!> The sudden and surprising appearance of the tactical motive from Lasker here is the kind of stuff that later made Alekhine famous -- a stunning deux-ex-machina type of a tactical motive suddenly materializing in an apparently fairly sterile position. |
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| Nov-02-08 | | Fanacas: Lasker obvious was a better player then alekhine |
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| Jul-21-11 | | okaspi: can anyone please explain me why did W sacrificed his rook for N on 42.? |
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Jul-21-11
| | Calli: <okaspi> the threat is Nc3+ winning the Rook at d7, but if the Rook moves then 42...Rd1+ 43.Kc2 Ne3+ wins the other Rook at g2. |
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| Jul-22-11 | | okaspi: that's a nice combination! thank you calli for unraveling it for me |
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| Nov-16-12 | | SaVVy66: doesnt this game should be 50 moves draw... if alekhine can sucessfully play 7 more moves he could draw.. or this rule wasnt there at that time... confusion..! |
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Nov-16-12
 | | paulalbert: Move 78 b3ch was a pawn advance restarting 50 move count, so 50 move rule possibility was a long way off when Alekhine resigned. |
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Feb-23-13
| | RookFile: It sure looked like white was close to some sort of defensive fortress at the end. |
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Feb-23-13
| | Benzol: Alyekhin's own notes about Alekhine vs Vidmar, 1931 shed some light about this game. "According to the general opinion, I succeeded, against Vidmar, in finding the shortest and most instructive winning method, and I owe, in a great part, this achievement to a practical lesson that I received in the beginning of my career ( in St Petersberg, 1914 ) from the great end-game artist, Dr Lasker. That lesson cost me a full point, for I happened to be the man with the Knight! Dr Lasker, to the general suprise, demonstrated that even with one Pawn on each side ( and not a passed pawn ) the stronger party is able to force the decisive exchange of Rooks". |
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and 
buttons, but it's much easier to simply use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.