Phony Benoni: <Grech> You definitely have a point. After <28...a5>: click for larger view<29.Ng4> would be aggravating, since Black cannot protect the e-pawn (29...Rc5 30.Nxe5!). And this holds for several moves, becoming especially bad after <31...Kf6>  click for larger viewWhen 32.Ng4+ simply wins the e-pawn directly and probably the game as well. (OK, maybe not against Capablanca, but still...) When two strong players -- and Marder wasn't all that bad -- miss a simple continuation, it can be shrugged off. Time pressure, distraction, fatigue, or any of a dozen different reasons. When both strong players not only miss a simple continuation, but do so for several mvoes and even make the situation worse by their play, the reason is almost surely a bad score. Now, I've looked into this tournament a bit (something I recommend to anyone who values their insanity) and had a few of the early sources of the game at hand. Here's the earlies I found, from the <New York Sun>, August 3, 1913: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/l... If you don't want to bother, I'll tell you -- it's identical to our score. So if a mistake is in there, it's been there form the beginning and has simply been copied by everybody else. You don't need a computer to do that. Why wasn't this brought up then? Because players like Capablanca get a pass on this sort of thing. We assume there's some devilish trap and move on. After all this, here's my suggestion: after <28.Kg2>  click for larger view28...P-QR4 is a typo for 28...P-KR4. Simple, easy, uncomplicated, and makes perfect sense as the game goes on. And one added benefit: after <39.a4>:  click for larger viewIt turns out the quiet killer move is <39...a5!> -- even better than the game finish. Unfortunately, there is probably no way this can be "proven", but by cracky I'll bet my bottom Chessbuck I'm right on this one. |