keypusher: I took a superficial look w/Shredder at this first encounter between Lasker and Bogoljubov. It's a very smooth, clean, straightforward game for Lasker -- you would almost think Capablanca was playing White. Lasker improves on the famous Capablanca vs Bogoljubov, 1922 with 11. Nc3 -- Bogoljubov should have played ....Bg4 before exchanging pawns in the center, as Black did in another famous game, Fischer vs Korchnoi, 1962.
13. dxc5 dxc5 14. e5 leads swiftly to a favorable ending. 15....Bxf3 16. gxf3 Nh5 17. Be4 would be good for white, while after the game continuation 15....Nd7 16. h3, 16....Bxf3? would lose a piece to 17. Rxd7. After 16....Be6 17. Nd5 Bxd5 18. Rxd5 Lasker has the bishop pair, but as he shows with 20. Bg5, he's not so much interested in that as in exploiting the greater mobility of his peices generally, especially the light-squared bishop and the rooks on the d-file. 22....gxf6 looks ugly, but 22...Rxd1+ 23. Rxd1 Rxf6? would lose to 24. Rd8+ Kf7 25. Ng5+ Ke7 26. Rg8 h6 27. Ne4.
Black is worse throughout, but he hurts himself further with 26....b4, which increases the scope of Lasker's bishop and helps White get a rook to the seventh rank.
35....c4 would have preserved some chances for Bogoljubov to draw after 36. bxc4 Nxc4 37. Bxc4 Rxc4 38. Rxa5. After 35....Ne5 36. Nxe5 fxe5 37. Bg4 Black still loses a pawn, and his knight is much weaker than Lasker's bishop, too.
A very high-quality game from Lasker. Surprisingly, T Kosintseva vs Y Yagiz, 2006 followed it all the way to Black's 21st move. Probably Yagiz didn't know about this game.
Kibitzing
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