Lasker v Capablanca, St Petersburg 1914: the game that decided it

St Petersburg 1914 ended with a final for the top five players, and before this game in the final José Raúl Capablanca led the world champion, Emanuel Lasker, by a full point. Capablanca, with Black, needed only a draw. Lasker chose the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez, a quiet line that exchanges queens on move 6, and outplayed him in the endgame. Capablanca then lost his next game as well, and Lasker won the tournament with 13½ points to Capablanca's 13. Lasker later recalled the applause of several hundred spectators as the greatest he had ever experienced.

White to move after 34...Bb7. Lasker's next move gives up a pawn to bring his knight to e4.

The whole game

Lasker v Capablanca, St Petersburg 1914. Step through all 42 moves; Black resigned.

Several writers have called the opening choice a masterstroke. Luděk Pachman and Richard Réti both pointed out that the Exchange Variation, simple as it looks, asks Black to play actively to use his two bishops, which was not what a player hoping for a draw wanted. Vladimir Tukmakov wrote that it surprised everyone, Capablanca included.

What Stockfish makes of it

We had Stockfish check every move. There is no single blunder: Lasker's advantage grows a little at a time.

The opening: level for a long time

10.f4 Re8 11.Nb3 f6 12.f5: White's pawns take space on the kingside.

10.f4 was called very risky in The Spectator, since it weakens White's centre, but Lasker had to win. Stockfish rates it a small concession: Black is slightly better after it. 12.f5, which conceded the e5 square but cramped Black's pieces, was Stockfish's choice. Mark Rubery called 13...Bb7 dubious; Stockfish prefers 13...Bxf4, though the difference is small, and the game is about level after 14.Bxd6.

16.Ne6: the knight that stays

White to move after 15...Rad8. The knight goes to e6 and stays there.

After 16.Ne6 White's knight sits on e6, protected by the pawn on f5, and Black can't drive it away. Stockfish rates White about three-quarters of a pawn better from here. Capablanca's next moves, such as 18...b5 and 21...Ba8, each gave a little more away.

30...Nb6: the drawing chance missed

Black to move after 30.Kf3. 30...Rxe6, giving up the exchange, was Black's best try.

The Spectator's annotator thought Black could probably still have drawn by giving up the exchange on e6 at the right moment. Stockfish agrees that 30...Rxe6 was Black's best move here, though it still leaves White about two and a half pawns better. After 30...Nb6 White is four pawns better.

35.e5!: the clearance sacrifice

35.e5! dxe5 36.Ne4 Nd5 37.N6c5 Bc8 38.Nxd7 Bxd7 39.Rh7 Rf8 40.Ra1 Kd8 41.Ra8+ Bc8 42.Nc5: Capablanca resigned.

35.e5 gives a pawn so the knight can reach e4, with threats everywhere. Capablanca is reported to have said that Lasker's play from move 28 on was probably perfect. Stockfish finds it close: 32.Rh3 and 38.Nxd7 were the only moves that kept White's full advantage, and Lasker found both, though at moves 29, 34 and 37 Stockfish finds slightly stronger moves in an already winning position.

How we checked

The moves are from chess24, Mark Rubery's column in the Cape Times (25 November 2022) and The Spectator (22 June 1991), which agree move for move. One later correction swaps Black's 27th and 39th rook moves (27...Rf8 and 39...Rg8); we follow the three full sources. We replayed every move with python-chess: all are legal. Sources differ on the round of the final in which it was played.
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 are from Wikipedia's page on the St Petersburg 1914 tournament, Sam Kahn's article on Chess.com, chess24 and the two newspaper columns.

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