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<Gypsy: <17...Ba6> Nothing works:

I. 17...Qa5 18.Bd2...
II. 17...Qc5 18.Rc1...
III. 17...Qc4 18.Qa4...>

I simply adore this combination played by Alekhine, how it exploits the <ALIGNMENT> of the Black pieces in every variation given above.

<I. 17...Qa5 18.Bd2...> Exploits the <DIAGONAL ALIGNMENT> of the Black a5-queen and Black b4-knight with the <PIN> 18 ♗f4-d2:

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<II. 17...Qc5 18.Rc1... > Exploits the <VERTICAL ALIGNMENT> of the Black c5-queen and Black c8-bishop with the <SKEWER> 18 ♖b1-c1:

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<III. 17...Qc4 18.Qa4...> Exploits the <LATERAL ALIGNMENT> of the Black c4-queen and Black b4-knight with the <LATERAL PIN> 18 ♕d1-a4:

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Note that Alekhine (White) saw that the <SKEWER> 17 ... ♕b5-c4 18 ♖b1-c1? does -not- work in this variation because Black has the <RUBBERBAND> 18 ... ♕a4-c6!.

Black's problems in this position all stem from the simple fact that his queen is both <PINNED> to the Black b4-knight as well as being the knight's <ONLY DEFENDER>. So in attempting to <UNPIN> the queen, Black must also keep her in contact with the Black knight in order to <DEFEND> it. Keeping the Black queen in contact with the Black knight results in either a <DIAGNONAL>, <VERTICAL>, or <LATERAL> alignment that White can exploit with a <PIN> or <SKEWER>.

A masterful tactical display by Alekhine in exploiting the forced <ALIGNMENT> of his opponent's pieces.

In this game black plays weak
but chajes was a good chessplayer ,
for instance two times won to capablanca

4... g6?

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Destroying the dark squares... Every dark diagonal is weak, since there are two dark squares pieces (the f8 bishop and the queen) covering 4 diagonals.

8... a6??

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From this point, I'd say that the game is already positionally lost for several reasons:

1) Chajes gave up one of his two dark squares pieces, which is far from being enough to cover up everything.

2) After fxe5 axb6, the black knight on g8 will basically never manage to get into the play: h8 and f8 are under white's control, and Nge7 won't lead to anything, since c6, c8, g6, d5 and f5 are controlled by white. Moving the c8 bishop out with b6 and Bb7 with the idea of Ne7 and Nc8 doesn't seem to lead to anything either.

3) the new white pawn on e5 yields eternal control over the d6 square and prevents forever Chajes from playing d5.

By the way, Stockfish gives <+2,26> on move 11 with material equality, which is usually the synonym of an opening disaster.

I believe that black had to play f6 on move 11 in order to free his knight, instead of allowing this tactical destruction.