Botvinnik v Capablanca, AVRO 1938: the bishop sacrifice on a3

Mikhail Botvinnik played this game against José Raúl Capablanca in round 11 of the AVRO tournament in Rotterdam on 22 November 1938. Garry Kasparov called it the game of Botvinnik's life, and it was judged the most brilliant game of the tournament.

White to move after 29...Qe7. Botvinnik's next move gives up a bishop.

The whole game

Botvinnik v Capablanca, AVRO 1938. Step through all 41 moves; Black resigned.

The opening is a Nimzo-Indian. White has doubled c-pawns, and Black's knight goes all the way round to b3, and Black's queen wins the a-pawn. Meanwhile White uses his central pawns: e4, e5, f4 and f5, until a passed pawn reaches e6.

What Stockfish makes of it

We had Stockfish check every move.

17...Na5: Capablanca's slip

Black to move after 17.Ng3. 17...Reb8 keeps the balance.

Capablanca's knight trip, 17...Na5 and 18...Nb3, won the a-pawn but took the knight far from his king. Stockfish prefers 17...Reb8, about level; after 17...Na5 White is better by one and a half pawns. Botvinnik's reply, 18.f3, preparing e4, was the only move that kept that advantage.

24.f5: the pawns roll

24.f5 Rxe1 25.Rxe1 Re8 26.Re6 Rxe6 27.fxe6: a passed pawn on e6.

24.f5 and 27.fxe6 were both the only moves that kept White's advantage, and after them White has a passed pawn on e6, two squares from queening.

29.Qe5 and 29...Qe7

Botvinnik's 29.Qe5 wasn't his strongest move: Stockfish prefers 29.Qc7+, about three and three-quarter pawns better for White against two and a quarter. Graham Burgess found that Black's best try was 29...h6; Stockfish agrees that 29...h6 or 29...h5 would have kept Black in the game, at a little over two pawns worse. Capablanca played 29...Qe7, and the combination works.

30.Ba3!: the sacrifice

30.Ba3! Qxa3 31.Nh5+! gxh5 32.Qg5+ Kf8 33.Qxf6+ Kg8 34.e7: the pawn is about to queen.

30.Ba3 offers the bishop to pull Black's queen away from e7, where it blocks the pawn; if the queen leaves e7 any other way, 31.e7 follows. It was the only strong move. Then 31.Nh5+! gives up the knight too: Black has to take it, or the knight on f6 is lost to a fork. 31.Nh5+, 32.Qg5+ and 33.Qxf6+ were each the only move that kept the win; the next best at move 31 only draws.

Taking the bishop with 30...Qxa3 is described as Black's only real choice; Stockfish rates declining with 30...Qe8 as slightly more stubborn, but White wins either way.

The checks run out

After 34.e7 Black can only give checks. White's king walks up the board to h5, and on move 35 it had to be careful: 35.Kf2 was the only move that kept the win. After 41.Kh5 the checks are over, and Capablanca resigned.

How we checked

The moves are from Wikipedia's page on the game. We replayed every one with python-chess: all are legal.
The engine: Stockfish 16.1 checked every move at depth 22, and the key moments again at depth 26. "A pawn better" is Stockfish's measure of the position, not a count of material.
The history and the named opinions (Kasparov, Burgess) are from the Wikipedia article.

Try it. Real positions, set at your level, every answer checked against the board. No account needed to start.

Start training