Capablanca’s Queen Endgames
It is a well known fact that in queen endgames a passed pawn is of immense importance. In certain positions one advanced pawn can balance one, two or even more pawns (see diagram from Averbakh).
Here, though Black has five pawns more than White, he has nothing better than a perpetual, because of the passed pawn at a6.
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But how to get that passed pawn and how to advance it? No one can teach this lesson better than the legendary endgame genius Jose Raul Capablanca. Going through some of Capablanca’s queen endgames, the Chessbug has come to a conclusion that it wants to share with you, dear readers. The basis for creating a healthy passed pawn is an active queen! The active queen creates threats against the enemy king and his pawns until the king is mated or a passed pawn is created. But let us see some examples of Capablanca’s practice.
(Diagram from Kline-Capablanca 1913 after White’s 37 move) The only open file is under Black’s (Capablanca’s) control. Can the Black queen be more active than that? Well, in addition to his lack of control of the d file, white has a severe weakness on the dark squares and vulnerability of his first rank, hence… 37…Qd4!
The Black queen keeps its control of the d file and adds a few dark squares in the white territory, most importantly the a1 square, on white’s first rank.
38 Nf2 (White plans to capture the h3 pawn and release some pressure of his first rank)
See next diagram. Now it is time to create that passed pawn. Note how Capablanca uses the mating threats in order to create the passed pawn.38...b5! Now the c4 cannot be defended so white played the forced 39 cxb5 axb3 40 axb3 Bxb3 The point!
Now 41 bxc6 will be answered by Qa1+ so White cannot exchange Black’s potentially passed pawn.
41 Nxh3 (is the mate threat over now?) 41…Bd1 (no, it is not, the queen must defend f3 though I believe that Bc4 is also winning.) 42 Qf1 (the passive White queen has too many assignments).
42…cxb5 finally Capablanca has his passed pawn and all that is left to do is to advance it. 43 Kg2 (releases the queen from its defensive duty) 43…b4 44 Qb5 b3 45 Qe8+ Kg7 46 Qe7 b2 (only one more step) 47 Nxg5
As often happens in chess one has to stay concentrated till the very end 47… b1=Q?? loses to 48 Qxf7+ so Capablanca wrapped things up with 47…Bb3 48 Nxf7 Bxf7 49 Qg5+ Kf8 50 Qh6+ Ke7 51 Qg5+ Ke8
No more checks and the b pawn will promote in the next move – White resigns. The active Black queen remained on d4 during the whole process!
But this was not a pure queen endgame because of the officer (bishop or knight) that each of the sides had. Will the same rules apply in an endgame where there are only queens and pawns left? Will we still aim for an active queen and then through mating threats create a passed pawn?
Van den Bosch-Capablanca 1929
At first it seems that White’s queen is more active – it controls the only open file – the e file. More than that it seems that White’s pawn structure is better – both sides have a doubled pawn (on the f file) and Black also has an isolated pawn (the d5 pawn). But, actually, Black has a big advantage. Forget about the queens for a minute and concentrate on the pawns. Black has an extra pawn on the king side and White has an extra pawn on the queen side, so both White and Black have a potential passed pawn. The big difference is that Black is going to have a remote passed pawn on the h file while White is going to have a central pawn on the d file. The second big difference is that Black is much closer in time to creating his passed pawn. The queen will help with that.
25…Qd6 (f4 is attacked) Now what can white do? 26 Qe3 Qa6 27 a3 Qf1 wins a pawn. 26 Qg3 g5 ties the f4 pawn to the white queen and the white queen to the f4 pawn. 26 g3 Kd7 27 Kc2 (to prevent Qa6 with a penetration at d3) 27 …Qe6. The last line seems bad for White but maybe it was his best chance.
26 Qd2 Qa6 (the active queen has a double threat - to take the a2 pawn penetrate to f1) 27 b3 Qf1+ 28 Kb2 Kd7 29 Qc2
White tries to create a passed pawn by playing c4 so… 29…b5! 30 a4 a6 31 axb5 axb5
Now White has a dilemma. If he oscillates with his king between a2 and b2, Black will take his king to e6 to defend the f5 pawn and then play g5. Alternatively Black can play h5-h4-h3 and after gxh3 play Qxf3. In both cases Black will have good winning chances but white may find some way to go for a perpetual check on the king side or eventually create his own passed pawn (after the white queen leaves the f1-a6 diagonal). But White had another idea, which he started with 32 Ka3. White wants to take the king to b4 and then create a passed pawn with c3-c4. It is true that sometimes in queen endgames the king has to go before his own pawns but only when this is done by the active side or else…
Here Capablanca probably guessed his rival’s intentions and played 32…Kc6. It is not too late for White to play Kb2 or Ka2 with a position similar to the one on the previous diagram. But White is consistent with his plan to play c4 and creates his own mating net. 33 Kb4?
33…Qe1! 0-1
Black prevents c4, takes control over the open e file and threats mate in two starting with …Qe7+. If 34 Ka5 then 34…Qa1+ 35 Kb4 Kb6 with mate. If 34 Ka3 then 34…Qa1+ 35 Qa2 Qxa2+ with an easy win in the pawn endgame. If 34 Qa2 Qe7+ 35 Ka5 Qa7+. Finally, if 34 Qb2 then 34…Qe7+ 35 Ka5 Qa7+ 36 Kb4 Kb6 (threatening Qa5#) 37 Qa3 Qe7#.
black should avoid 9… Be6 (which transposes to the Alekhine-Botvinnik position). Instead, Fischer gives 9…a5 10. a4 Be6 and here Fischer says “the best white has is 11.0-0 Rc8 with an equal position”. So Black is OK. But don’t you smell something fishy in Fischer’s remark?
Cool! But couldn’t White defend more stubbornly? Next time we will see what happens when the defensive role is taken by a world caliber player, say Capablanca.
To be continued…
* Chessbug editor thanks our reader Noam Taich for correcting a mistake in one of the diagrams.