Crushing the Castle: Never Copy Capa

Crushing the Castle:  Never Copy Capa ...by Mrs Jessica Era Prescott (nee Martin) aka BoundingOwl

Bon nuit!  Good evening my pretties.  It's storming here in North Carolina.  Perfect time for cozying up to a chess video and learning how to crush castles.  There are many Master Crushers, but today we will talk about Capablanca! 

Everyone I know likes to say his full name:  Jose Raul Capablanca!  (*Ho-ZEY  Rah-ool  Cah-pah-blahn-cah)  Now say it 3 times fast!  He was born in  Cuba and he was World Champion in 1921 (none of us was alive then).

 

 

 

 

Cute, right?

So here is the game that he played against Mr. No Name in 1918.  Mr. No Name thought it would be funny to copy Capa. 

Bad idea.





So even though Mr. No Name Genius Guy thought he was doing well, he never seemed to make any progress.  He kept his fingers crossed and hoped Capa wouldn't know how to make checkmate.





"Oh, look how pretty our board is!"  Mr. No Name announced, expecting maybe a draw.


But you know how this story ends.  Capa is not to be messed with.  He sees an opportunity to strike!  Force a check, then check, check, mate!  Every move is check...





Always look for forcing moves.  Think of CTC=checks, threats, captures.



Until next time, keep dancing!