1) trade pawns on d5;

2) develop white king's knight to e2;

3) attack with pawns on the king's side and try to castle queen's side.

Alekhine implemented most of the above -- but Capa stopped him from castling at all , at the cost of a pawn. Alekhine's own notes in fact preferred 18 Bxd6 Nxd6 19 0-0-0 as a more promising attacking line than the game continuation.

Ok, now white has 3 options
1) 30.exd5 Bd6! 31.Be5 Rd2! and active pieces guarantee black even without two pawns easier defense than what actually happened in game. Comp evaluation after couple of moves approaching 0.00.

2) 30.a4 (trying to activate rook after advancement of pawns) Re2 (Ke6 is also interesting, but not sufficient) 31.exd5 Bd6 32.a5 (32.b4? Rd2!)Bxf4+ 33.Kxf4 Kd6 Again, position without 2 pawns, but comp easily draws rook ending after 10-15 moves. Main criteria here is active black pieces. It is true that from human point of view it is quite difficult to go such types of positions.

3) 30.Rc1! (best try for white) Rxb2 31.Rc7+ Ke8 32.exd5 Bd8 33.Rc8 Rxa2 34.Bc7 Kd7 35.Rxd8+ Kxc7 36.Rf8 Kd6 37. Rxf7 b5 38.Rf6 Kxd5 (alternate 38...b4 is also very interesting) 39.Rxg6 b4 40.Rh6 b3 41.g6 Ra1 42.Rxh5+ Kxd4 (42..Kc4? 43.Rg5!) 43.Rb5! Rg1+ 44.Kf4 Rxg6 45.Rxb3 a5 I am not sure, but this looks closer to win for white than draw for black. This rook ending was best try for white after the possible variation until move 40.

Anyway last actual mistake was 34..Bxd4 instead of much better 34..dxe4.

By always using the same opening moves, the players 1)get into the flow of the game 2)save precious time for difficult later situations 3)leap into the unknown from more developed positions.

Anyway-I see this masterpiece from the ever fertile brain of the great Alekhine as the template for Carlsen's fascinating win yesterday against Nakamura from the Bazna Kings' tournament. Although Magnus developed his QB to f4 not g5, the rest of his strategy was identical to that originally invented by Alekhine.>

Capa = Capablanca

Asada = Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA)

http://www.asada.gov.au/

:O

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Alekhine is playing one of the oldest and crudest attacks known to chess - wait until your opponent has castled and then throw everything at his castled king. You either don't castle or you castle on the opposite wing.

Don't worry about losing pawns (or even pieces) in the attack. Think of it more as gaining open lines instead of losing a friend.

In this position, Capa has to decide whether to grab the g4 pawn or not. If he takes it, Alekhine will probably castle queenside, park a rook on g1 and CHARGE!

If Capa doesn't take the pawn, then he has to suffer the consequences of allowing Alekhine to play g5. And then he will probably castle queenside, park a rook on g1 and ... you know the rest.

Capa blinks. He doesn't want to give an attacking genius like Alekhine such an obvious plan. So he plays to exchange pieces on e4, at the cost of a pawn. And it is this pawn which eventually costs him the game (after many adventures).

Fritzie reckons that 16...Nxg4 would have led to a level game - but that's just silicon talking. Which carbon-based life form would like a half open file against their king with Alekhine sitting in the chair opposite?

there was one player, however, who was too smart to fall for this @cheap shot@ tactics:

Maybe the pun meant = Capa aside

I dunno

It's all about the control of the open c file. Fritzie recommends this line:

24... Rxb2 25.Rab1 Rxb1 26. Rxb1 b6 27. Rc1 Ra8 28. Rc7

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Black has won a pawn, but he has a very passive position. That's why Capa played 24...Rfc8, which the computer agrees is the strongest move in the position.