[Event "New York"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1924.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tartakower,S"]
[Black "Lasker,Ed"]
[Result "1/2"]
[Annotator "Lopez "Battle Royale""]
[ECO "C45"]
[PlyCount "66"]

1. e4 { Tartakower opens with a fine center-controlling move. } 1... e5 { Lasker responds in kind. } 2. Nf3 { White develops with a threat: 3.Nxe5. } 2... Nc6 { Black develops with a purpose -- the Knight stops White's threat of Nxe5. } 3. d4 { White sets up the ideal center, with pawns at d4 and e4, He's also renewed the threat against the e5-pawn. } 3... exd4 { One way to stop the threat is to just trade off the pawns, which is what Lasker does. He initiates an exchange which will ultimately eliminate the target of White's threats. } 4. Nxd4 { Tartakower recaptures in the logical manner (Qxd4 would be a hideous blunder). } 4... Nf6 { Now Lasker develops with a threat of his own. } ( 4... Nxd4 { There's a reason why this is a bad idea... } 5. Qxd4 { White's Queen is very strongly placed in the center, as there is now no chance of a Knight driving it off from the c6-square. } 5... c5 { This move is possible, but it leaves a weakness: a backward pawn on d7 which has almost no hope of advancing without being picked off by a marauding White piece. } 6. Qd1 { Even if the White Queen retreats to d1, White has a better position. His e-pawn is better than Black's c-pawn and Black's d-pawn is permanently weak. } ) 5. Nxc6 { Tartakower ignores the threat to his c-pawn and wrests the initiative back from Black by making a strong threat of his own. } 5... bxc6 { Lasker doesn't want to trade Queens and give up his right to castle, so he recaptures with the b-pawn instead of the d-pawn. } ( 5... dxc6 6. Qxd8+ Kxd8 7. Bg5 ) 6. Nd2 { The idea of Nd2 instead of Nc3 is that the Knight will maneuver to b3. From that square it can control a lot of space on the Queenside. It also avoids an annoying pin by ...Bb4. } 6... Bc5 { Lasker completes his Kingside development and prepares to castle. } 7. e5 { An interesting move. Tartakower neglects his development (again!) to hang on to the initiative. He moves the pawn a second time to attack the Black Knight. } 7... Qe7 { Instead of retreating the Knight, Lasker pins the pawn to the White King (removing the threat to the Knight). This type of pin (in which the pinned piece is unable to move without breaking the rules of the game is called an "absolute" pin). } 8. Qe2 { Tartakower renews the threat by blocking the pin. } 8... Nd5 { Now the Knight must move. The Knight can't go back to its home square without getting in the way of Kingside castling, so it goes to the only other available safe square. } 9. Nb3 { As expected, the Knight leaps to b3 and attacks the Black Bishop. } 9... Bb6 { Black is in no real danger of losing material (10.Nxc5 Qxc5). He withdraws the Bishop because he doesn't want to give up the Bishop pair at this early stage of the game. } ( 9... Bb4+ 10. c3 ( 10. Bd2 Bxd2+ 11. Nxd2 ) 10... Bc5 { And White has picked up a move for "free". } ) 10. Bd2 { Tartakower wants to get the King out of the center, but will have a hard time clearing the Kingside (the f1-Bishop is presently buried). He instead develops his last Queenside piece and gets ready to castle on that side of the board. } 10... a5 { Lasker prepares to play ...a4, driving the White Knight backward. } 11. a4 { Tartakower nips Lasker's idea in the bud. } 11... O-O { Lasker moves a step closer toward completing his development. } 12. O-O-O { Tartakower's light-squared Bishop is buried on f1, making Kingside castling impossible, so he opts to castle long. } 12... d6 { Now Lasker makes a mistake by advancing the wrong pawn, which will allow White to free his cramped position. } ( 12... f6 13. exf6 Qxf6 { In this variation, suggested by Alekhine, we see that White is still bottled up. } ) 13. exd6 { Tartakower recaptures. } 13... cxd6 { Lasker could have delayed this move in favor of ...Qxe2 (see the variation). } ( 13... Qxe2 14. Bxe2 cxd6 { This variation would have been better for Black than what was played in the actual game. } ) 14. Qxe7 { The trades continue. Tartakower realizes that trading pieces will help free his game. } 14... Nxe7 { Lasker evens the material balance. } 15. Bf4 { Tartakower grab the initiative by making a threat against the d-pawn. } 15... d5 { Remember that you can sometimes defend a pawn by advancing it. Here the c-pawn defends the d-pawn so that no pieces are tied up by covering the pawn. } 16. Bd6 { Tartakower continues to threaten -- this time he may win the Exchange, or even a whole piece. } 16... Re8 { The obvious reply. The Rook is no longer menaced by the x-ray attack and it now defends the Knight. } 17. Bc5 { Tartakower is about to take advantage of Black's weakness on the dark squares. He drops his Bishop into the hole on c5. } 17... Bxc5 { Lasker accepts the trade. } 18. Nxc5 { And now White's Knight is posted strongly on a square from which it may never be driven away by a pawn. } 18... Ng6 { Lasker starts a maneuver to drive away the invading c5-Knight. } 19. Bd3 { Tartakower finally completes his development by connecting his Rooks. } 19... Nf4 { The Knight maneuver continues... } 20. g3 { Tartakower has completely missed the point of Black's Knight moves. He expends a tempo to drive away the Knight (which had no intention of staying at f4 anyway). } ( 20. Rhe1 Bg4 21. Rxe8+ Rxe8 22. f3 { This sequence would probably have served White a bit better. } ) 20... Ne6 { We now see the point of Lasker's last several moves! The White Knight was strongly posted at c5, controlling many squares on Black's half of the board. Lasker would love to get rid of the White Knight. } ( 20... Nxd3+ { Getting rid of the Bishop was another possibility. } 21. Rxd3 Bf5 22. Re3 { This position is about equal. } ) 21. Rhe1 { The White Rook now attacks its Black counterpart on e8, right through the Knight (preventing ...Nxc5). } 21... Kf8 { The King slides over to protect the Rook, again enabling ...Nxc5. } 22. Nxe6+ { Tartakower can't possibly maintain the Knight on c5, so he trades it off. } 22... Bxe6 { This was better than ...Rve6 (see the variation). } ( 22... Rxe6 23. Rxe6 Bxe6 24. Re1 { White could advance the f-pawn against the e6-Bishop. Meanwhile, if Black contests control of the e-file, the White King slides over one square to protect the Rook on e1. } ) 23. Re3 { Tartakower's intention is to double the Rooks on the e-file. } ( 23. Bxh7 g6 { The Bishop is trapped. } ) 23... h6 { Lasker wasn't worried about an immediate Bxh6. He's more concerned with safeguarding the pawn's future (in case ...g6 becomes necessary) and in starting a general advance of his Kingside pawns. } 24. Rde1 { As expected, the White Rooks are now doubled. } 24... Rab8 { The Rook grabs the open file, with possible threats later against the b-pawn, as well as the possibility of moves like ...Rb4. } 25. b3 { Tartakower makes sure the b-pawn is defended. He can now activate his King for the endgame. } 25... Bd7 { Black offers simplification into an endgame. } 26. Kd2 { Tartakower decides to get his King one step closer to the center. He probably thinks that if Black wants the Rooks off the board, let him initiate the trade! } ( 26. Rxe8+ Rxe8 27. Rxe8+ Kxe8 { White wouldn't really lose anything by swapping off the Rooks, but he doesn't gain anything either. } ) 26... Rxe3 { Lasker does just that, swapping off a pair of Rooks. } 27. Rxe3 { Tartakower completes the trade, and the e-file is now his (at least temporarily). } 27... Re8 { Lasker disputes White's command of the e-file. } 28. c3 { Tartakower's plan is to play b3-b4. After ...axb4 cxb4, White has a passed a-pawn. } ( 28. Rxe8+ Kxe8 29. Ke3 Ke7 30. Kd4 Kd6 { Black could later drive White's King from the center with ...c5. But examine the pawn structures; neither side has an obvious advantage. The game would probably end in a draw. (Variation by Alekhine). } ) 28... Rb8 { Lasker will have none of it. The Rook's control of the file prevents the trade of pawns and the creation of a White passed pawn on the a-file. } 29. Bc2 { The Bishop steps back to give the King a direct route to the center. } 29... f6 { With the idea ...Kf7. } 30. Bd1 { The idea is to be able to shoot over to the Kingside along the d1-h5 diagonal. } 30... c5 { Lasker continues with his incremental pawn advances. White's planned b3-b4 is definitely stopped now (as two Black pawns control that square) so the Black Rook is now free to move. } 31. Bc2 { Tartakower sees nothing contructive to do, so he marks time by shuffling his Bishop. } 31... Rb6 { Planning to again contest control of the e-file by playing ...Re6. } 32. Kc1 { Another waiting move. Tartakower sees that the game is drawn as long as he maintains a strong position. Attempting to force matters could cause him to make a bad move and turn the draw into a loss. } 32... Rb8 { Lasker also sees that the game is likely drawn, so he makes his own waiting move to see if Tartakower has any tricks left up his sleeve. } 33. Bd1 { Tartakower continues to mark time... } 33... Bf5 { ...so Lasker moves and offers a draw. Tartakower accepts and the players split the point. } 1/2