[Event ""]
[Site " Hastings "]
[Date "1933.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White " Lilienthal, A. "]
[Black " Capablanca, J. "]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Tim McGrew"]
[ECO "E24"]

{ Andrea Lilienthal was born on May 5, 1911, and as of this writing he is still with us. Though he was born in the USSR, his family moved to Hungary when he was two and he represented Hungary in several Olympiads in the 1930's.
The 30's was a difficult decade to be a talented chess player, because the rise of the Soviet School meant that the competition was unusually stiff. Lilienthal never quite reached the front rank of GM's, though he did tie for first in the powerful USSR Championship of 1940. Nevertheless, Lilienthal made his mark with some resounding victories against first-rate opposition. This month's campfire is devoted to his 26 move crush of Capablanca at Hastings, 1933/4. } 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 { Lilienthal opens in classical fashion, and Capablanca shows his flexibility by adopting the NimzoIndian Defense -- a fashionable new continuation at the time that shocked some of the classically-minded theoreticians.
The NimzoIndian is a formidably complex opening with many fascinating byways, but the ideas at the outset are not too difficult to understand. White, by playing 3.Nc3, threatens to play 4.e4. Even the "hypermodernists" realized that giving White this much leeway in the center was a recipe for trouble, so Black must find a way to deter White from occupying that square. The standard method, before Nimzowitsch began to spread his heresy, was 3...d5, transposing into a Queen's Gambit Declined. This effectively stops 4.e4 by putting additional guards on that key square. The Nimzoindian, by contrast, stops e4 by depriving the pawn of support -- the pinned N/c3 is no longer rendering active service.
White has a wide range of responses. 4.Qc2, one of the earliest moves to gain favor, has recently come back into vogue. During the 1970's, it was difficult to find any master who would play anything but 4.e3. Romanishin experimented with 4.g3 in the 1980's. But Lilienthal was fond of a blunt approach championed by Saemisch. } 4. a3 { Putting the question to the Bishop. Since Black frequently exchanges on c3 of his own free will, this can seem like a loss of time. But matters are not so simple. For the tempo spent forcing Black to make his choice, White gets a clarified central position in which he knows, to some extent, what Black's options are. The theoretical battle is still going on, though it's not quite so hot as it once was.
Saemisch's 4.a3 remains a viable approach to the position for those who know it well. Lilienthal knows it very well indeed. } 4... Bxc3+ 5. bxc3 b6 { The battle for e4 continues to rage: Capablanca prepares to meet 6.Qc2 with 6...Bb7, reasserting his control over the critical square. } 6. f3 { Lilienthal is determined to dominate the center at all costs. Now mere piece control will not avail Black: he must fight for control of e4 with a pawn. Capablanca does just that. } 6... d5 7. Bg5 { There's a pleasing symmetry to the struggles over e4. Black, on move 3, asserted control by pinning White's Knight. Now White returns the compliment on the other side of the board. } 7... h6 8. Bh4 Ba6 { One of Black's positional goals in the Nimzoindian is to cripple White's c-pawns and then assault them, particularly the P/c4. Capablanca abandons the struggle over e4 here in order to take a simplifying line in which his Bishop will be exchanged for White's B/f1. The little flurry of tactics that now arises is easily foreseen by master players, but it's worth noting since it is a recurring theme in many d-pawn openings. } 9. e4 Bxc4 { This does not really win a pawn: the idea is to simplify rather than to grab material. } 10. Bxc4 dxc4 11. Qa4+ { This check gets back the pawn. } 11... Qd7 12. Qxc4 Qc6 { Here is Black's idea. White has a large center, but provided Black can maintain control over key breakthrough points, the center will not be too important -- the more so because Black has managed to exchange off half of the minor pieces. } 13. Qd3 Nbd7 { This position is what Capablanca was aiming for with 8...Ba6. Black's position is solid and presents no obvious weaknesses, his spatial deficit notwithstanding. It must have seemed a reasonable approach, offering a still-powerful ex-world-champion ample scope for outplaying his young opponent. } 14. Ne2 { Lilienthal continues his development behind the powerful center, not rushing to attack until he is sure that his pieces will coordinate well. } 14... Rd8 15. O-O a5 { This prevents the a-pawn from being a target on a7, where it might be vulnerable to a later Qa6, for example. Yet the move loses time: Capablanca may have underestimated the force of Lilienthal's coming central play. } 16. Qc2 { Lilienthal patiently removes his Queen from the d-file, pre-empting any tricky ideas involving ...Nc5 or ...Ne5. } 16... Qc4 { This square seems a natural place for the Queen to nestle down. Yet it has two defects. First, Black's King remains uncastled in the center. Second, the Queen no longer exerts pressure on e4. As a consequence, Lilienthal can set an avalanche in motion. } 17. f4 Rc8 { Capablanca continues to make long-range plans, underestimating the force of White's coming central pawn storm. The idea here is ...c5, threatening ...cxd4 since the R/c8 will pick up White's Queen after a sham sacrifice of Black's own Queen on d4. } 18. f5 { Naturally, Black cannot allow this pawn to capture on e6 or the opening of the center, combined with Black's failure to castle, will spell ruin. } 18... e5 { But Capablanca apparently counted on this move as an adequate reply.  Black's idea is that the d-pawn is horizontally pinned against the weakness at e4. } 19. dxe5 Qxe4 { If Lilienthal were obligated to exchange Queens at this point, Capablanca would stand very well indeed. The White P/e5, recklessly advanced, would be a serious weakness that White could hardly hope to hold. But at this point Lilienthal is truly inspired and comes up with a conception that must have shaken Capablanca's normally imperturbably self-confidence to its very foundations. } 20. exf6 $1 { What is the point of this stunning Queen sacrifice? How can White get away with it?
The answer lies, as it usually does for any really difficult combination, in multiple factors: the opening of the e-file, the presence of the B/h4, and the arrival of a pawn at g7 which will simultaneously strike at h8 and take away a flight square at f8.
Black has little choice now but to accept the Queen sacrifice. Trying to take the B/h4 instead fails, because of the most common of all tactical motifs, an undefended piece -- in this case, the R/c8. Thus: if 20...Qxh4 21.fxg7 Rg8 22.f6! and now 22...Nxf6 fails to 23.Qf5! forking f6 and c8 while pinning the hapless N/f6 against the f7 pawn. } 20... Qxc2 21. fxg7 Rg8 { Now the shape of Lilienthal's magnificent conception becomes visible: Black's King is trapped on the e-file. All that is necessary is a tempo-gaining move to get the N off of the file. } 22. Nd4 { And there it is! Now a R check will be deadly. 
Capablanca struggles on as best he can, but without much hope since he will finish this sequence by losing a N on e4. 22.Rfe1 also works but not as well, since Qxf5 simplifies somewhat. } 22... Qe4 23. Rae1 Nc5 { Trying to get as much for his Queen as he can. } 24. Rxe4+ Nxe4 { Now the Knight is on the critical file. A charming feature of this entire game is that the e4 square turns out to be critical all the way through the final combination. } 25. Re1 { Pinning the Knight. There's nothing to do now, and Capablanca does not prolong the agony. } 25... Rxg7 26. Rxe4+ Kd7 { ... and Capablanca resigned without waiting for Lilienthal's move.
The finish might have been:  27. f6 Rg6 28. Re7+ Kd6 29. Nf5+ Kd5 30. Re1! and Capablanca's major pieces are lined up for an unavoidable fork with Ne7.
As a career highlight, a crushing defeat of Capablanca with a brilliant Queen sacrifice would do any player proud. Lilienthal continued to play the Saemisch variation against the Nimzoindian and produced many wonderful games, but this one is difficult to top. I suspect he may still, nearly 70 years later, consider it to be the game of a lifetime. } 1-0