"Yes, yes, some of the time."

"Are there rocks ahead?"

I never read the book but The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies of all time.

"If there are, we'll all be dead!"

Inigo: You are using Bonetties Defense against me, ah?

Man in black: I thought it fitting considering the rocky terrain.

Inigo: Naturally, you must suspect me to attack with Capa Fero?

Man in black: Naturally...but I find that Tibal cancels out Capa Fero. Don't you?

Inigo: Unless the enemy has studied his Agliepa...which I have.

[They continue to exchange attacks and parries]

Inigo: You are wonderful!

Man in black: Thank you. I've worked hard to become so.

Inigo: I admit it, you are better than I am.

Man in black: Then why are you smiling?

Inigo: Because I know something you don't know.

Man in black: And what is that?

Inigo: I am not left-handed!

[Inigo switches to his right hand, and appears to overwhelm the Man in black]

Man in black: You're amazing!

Inigo: I ought to be after twenty years.

Man in black: [struggling to keep Inigo away] There's something I ought to tell you.

Inigo: Tell me.

Man in black: I'm not left-handed either!!

<Many books have been written since WW2, and, guess what, a lot of them just repeat each other. Same boring lists of positional elements, same ‘tactics serve strategy’ and ‘attack only when prepared’ hollow advice, same carefully selected games, which are nothing but one-way beatings delivered by chess heavyweights to the tomato cans of amateur ranks. After the years of repetition the positional theory of chess has raised to become a religion with its sacred objects – the untouchable classical games. Take Janowski-Capablanca, New York 1916. Not a bad game, but the annotations! Is anybody out there ignorant enough to say that Dawid Janowski, the man who played two World Championship matches and contended for top prizes in major tournaments for some 20+ years, lost this game because he didn’t understand simple positional principles? Gimme a break! Capa was a better player by all counts, so he won that one and the lion’s share of their encounters. Fair enough, but if you want to use this particular game as learning material, then study it honestly.>

4..Bf5 <This move goes by with no comments from the great Jose, who follows with the game text.>

6.Qxb6 <Capa stops here and expresses his pleasure with Black’s position. All true, as Black has solved his main problem of the Queen’s Gambit – the development of his light-squared bishop. Why did it come so easy is a natural question for somebody who tries to learn opening subtleties. No answer is provided.

Let’s go back a couple of moves and think what Black would do in case of a little move transposition, 5.cxd5 cxd5 (5..Nxd5!? is what Black probably has to do, but White must be doing well after 6.Nd2, followed by e4), and now 6.Qb3.

How to meet this? 6..b6 leads to a dangerous weakening of the light squares, made critical by the fact that Black’s light-squared bishop took a leave of absence from his primary defensive duties. It’s very hard to continue after 7.Bf4, with an opening catastrophe just lurking around the corner, such as 7..Nc6 8.e4! Na5 (8..dxe4 9.Bb5) 9.Qb5+ Bd7 10.Nxd5!, etc.

6..Qb6 is met by 7.Nxd5! and Black will be fishing for dubious compensation if he wants to avoid the forced line 7..Nxd5 8.Qxd5 e6 9.Qb3 Qxb3 10.axb3 Bc2 11.e3 Bxb3 12.Bb5+ Nc6 13.Ne5 Bd5 14.f3, with a clear edge to White. I can’t see anything better than 6..Bc8, which is a very sad retreat indeed. With that I conclude my analysis of this opening line.

This and other attempts to put the great chess treasures under the microscope are casually dismissed as shrewd attempts to apply today’s theoretical knowledge to old games. What knowledge, for crying out loud? There’s no modern theory after 4..Bf5?, because it’s a bad move and nobody would play it any more. Capa himself must have figured it out pretty quickly, as I don’t know of any other games of his played with this variation.>

7..Nxd5! <Nicely played, as the threat of 8..Nb4 forces White to exchange.>

10..Bd7 <This much-praised retreat has the idea of supporting ..b5. Let’s sprint through some moves to arrive at a critical point.>

20..Kf7 <In his game overview (I can hardly call something that contains no variations ‘annotations’, Capablanca mentions some relevant positional elements that constitute Black’s advantage here: the bishop-pair, more compact pawn-structure, and even throws in his more active king for good measure! All this has been duly repeated by other annotators, who, just as Capa did in his analysis, paid no particular attention to White’s next move.>

21.e5? <Somebody, I think it was Vidmar, mentioned 21.exf5 exf5 22.f4, followed by Nf3-e5, as an improvement on Janowski’s play. Some understatement! I don’t think Black can do much against this simple plan. The centralized knight effectively nullifies Black’s advantages, and even Capa’s glorious active king would have been slightly embarrassed.

Now, how are we going to explain Dawid Janowski’s decision? He was a good enough chess-player (his career achievements attest to that) to find this idea – after all, if he was a tactician such as he’s portrayed in chess literature, then pieces’ energy had to be the name of the game for him; therefore improving his knight’s scope would become his main priority – yet, he played the inexplicable move 21.e5??, giving Black a free hand all over the board. I say, he saw everything, including the disadvantages of his idea, but let other factors influence his decision. I’ll take a liberty to suggest that he didn’t want to exchange his knight for Black’s dark-squared bishop, because this operation would result in an opposite-coloured bishops dead draw! As ignorant as it sounds, it may be true. Taking into account the history of their previous encounters (Capa well on top, thus a revenge factor), and Dawid Janowski’s personal characteristics (a gambling man, who always went for the jackpot) it’s easy to understand his motives. I bet two-three moves later he realized what he had done to his position! For the rest of the game we see a broken man trying to stop a tsunami wave with his bare hands.