Happy Birthday Capa

Toady is the 129th anniversary of the birth of Jose Raul Capablanca. Generally considered one of the "Top 5" World Champions (along with Alekhine, Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov) he started as a child prodigy, before  become a full time player at the age of 20. He won the World Championship in 1921 and then lost it to Alekhine in 1927. He never had another chance to play for the title, and died at the relatively young age of 53.
Capablanca was considered a positional player, focusing on piece placement, and improving his position through 'petite combinations'. This enable him to outplay his contemporaries, although he met his match against Alexander Alekhine. His style influenced the next generation of chess players, especially Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov.
Even at the end of his career he was still able to target a weakness and build an entire game around it. In the game below (his final tournament game), he isolates Black's c pawn on move 9 and then builds up pressure on it. Black is forced to make positional concessions to defend it, and eventually ends up in a lost position.


Capablanca,Jose Raul - Trompowsky,Octavio [E01]
Buenos Aires ol (Men) fin-A Buenos Aires (15), 18.09.1939

1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 e6 3. Bg2 d5 4. d4 c5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. O-O cxd4 8. Nxd4 Be7 9. Nxc6 bxc6 10. Qa4 Bb7 11. Rd1 O-O 12. Na3 Qb6 13. e4 Nf6 14. Nc4 Qb5 15. Qc2 Rfd8 16. Bf4 Rac8 17. Bd6 Ba6 18. Bxe7 Rxd1+ 19. Rxd1 Qxc4 20. Qxc4 Bxc4 21. b3 Bb5 22. a4 Ba6 23. Bc5 h6 24. Bxa7 Kf8 25. f3 Ke7 26. Bc5+ Ke8 27. Kf2 Nd7 28. Bd6 c5 29. e5 Bb7 30. Rc1 Bd5 31. f4 Bxg2 32. Kxg2 c4 33. a5 c3 34. Kf3 c2 35. Ke2 Nb8 36. Kd2 1-0