While he was there Capablanca gave a simultaneous and one of the games made its way into a book titled The Fine Art of Chess that was published in 2019 by Lyudmil Tsvetkov. The book is a BIG one! There is a total of 40 games and 812 pages! The Kindle edition is only $1.99 which, I think, is $1.98 more than the book is worth
It got 4.5 stars on reviews, but one reviewer (with whom I agree) rated it “really quite bad” and “a bunch of drivel.” I don’t know that I would agree with the reviewer that reading this book would make you a worse player, but in one game, Goglidze-Botvinnik, Moscow, 1935, after 1.d4 Tsvetkov give Botvinnik’s 1...Nf6 a “?!” and said it’s “reasonable” and “frequently chosen,” but it’s “very slightly sub-optimal” because “it neglects a sound opening principle, namely that minor pieces should not block (it’s) own Pawns on their home ranks, if possible to do so.”
In the game presented in this post, after 1.d4 Nf6 he says of Ribera’s 2.Nf3, “2.c4 was markedly better. Again, it is axiomatic that, in the very early opening, central pawn moves are preferable to piece-developing ones.”
He was critical of Capablanca’s 2...e6, saying, “Sails toward Indian structures. Doesn't fix the center and relies on unobstructed figure activity.” What?!
In this game, at move 4, he speaks of black’s development of his two Bs in terms like “bringing out both sweepers” and advises the reader to “See how agile and vigorous the newly-positioned raker is, not to mention that it also has placed its sights on the hostile f3-horse and h1-cannon.”
Also, I found the author’s attempt at humorous annotations anything but. When Ribera castled on move 10 the comment was, “God bless, the lofty royal personality has gotten to a safe place!” I could go on, but I won’t. There are a few minor glitches in the English, but that’s not really a problem.
Of course, not everyone agrees that the book is bad and that’s OK. IM Gerard Welling, who is a far better player than I, thinks the average club player will benefit from the book because it teaches how to play with “a bit more understanding.” Welling also observed that a “stronger player will accept large parts and probably debate others, but will surely be triggered to think about certain aspects of chess, which can help him to improve or vary his game."
Who is the author, Lyudmil Tsvetkov? He is a political scientist, former career diplomat, Bulgarian Candidate Master (US Expert, 2000-2199) since 1998 and one of the main Stockfish contributors.
His bio adds that “the rise of computer chess with the appearance of top-level programs like Stockfish and Komodo soon captivated him entirely, and in late 2013 he decided to quit his full-time job to be able to concentrate completely on playing and analyzing chess.”
Here is a game from the book that Capa won in a simul. Like a lot of Capa’s games, it’s deceptively simple, but instructive. Tsvetkov lists the themes as demonstrating advanced pieces (N outpost), Bishop pair, Rook on the 2nd rank, doubled Pawns, isolated Pawns.
Angel Ribera–Jose Capablanca0–1E1230 Board Simul, Barcelona1929Stockfish 16
E12: Queen's Indian Defense 1.d4 f6 2.f3 e6 3.c4 b6 4.c3 b7 5.g5 e7 Normally black plays 5...Bb4, but he has also tried 5...h6 first. 6.e3
The alternative is the equally good 6.Qc2 e4 One of several reasonable
moves. 6...Bb4 and 6...h6 are also quite playable. 7.xe7 It's odd...this
move is hardly bad, but in practical play it fares far worse than 7.Nxe4 7.xe4 xe4 8.f4 is completely equal. 7...xe7 8.xe4 Tsvetkov's comment
on this move is, "Very natural, avoiding the aforementioned jeopardy of
twinning a pedestrian at c3." 8.d3 xc3 9.bxc3 White's doubled Ps are
hardly a serious liability. d6 10.0-0 d7 11.d2 0-0 12.e4 is equal. 8...xe4 9.d3 b7 9...b4+ 10.d2 xd2+ 11.xd2 xd3 12.xd3 and
Kogan,A (2530)-Epishin,V (2643) Port Erin 2002 soon agreed to a draw. 9...xd3 10.xd3 b4+ 11.c3 xc3+ 12.bxc3 fizzled out to a draw in Navarro,T
(2215)-Valle,A (2307) Brasilia BRA 2011 10.0-0 d6 The main alternative is
10...O-O and 11...c5 11.e1 11.d5 e5 12.c2 d7 13.f5 g6 14.xd7+ xd7 15.e4 0-0 16.d2 This whole line doesn't offer either side much scope for
imaginativer play. Philippe,G-Venkatraman,T Moscow 1956 was eventually drawn. 11...d7 11...c6 would not be the best place for the N. After 12.d5 exd5 12...b4 13.a4+ 13.cxd5 e5 14.b5+ f8 15.c1 white is
clearly better. 12.e4 0-0 Also good was 12.e5 with a fully even position. 13.e5 13.a3 e5 14.c2 f6 15.d3 is equal. Neither side has much play. 13...ad8 13...dxe5 14.xe5 xe5 15.dxe5 ad8 16.c2 g6 17.ad1 is fully equal. 14.e2 This is not a serious mistake, but he should
have taken the opportunity to get rid of the light squared Bs. Now Capa has a
tiny advantage, but that's all he needs! 14.exd6 xd6 15.e4 xe4 16.xe4 is equal. 14...dxe5 Watch what happens on this file! 15.dxe5 15.xe5
is inaccurate because after c5 16.e4 xe4 17.xe4 xe5 18.dxe5 18.xe5
Blunder! xd4 19.e2 d6 20.ad1 d8 21.xd4 xd4 22.b3 d2 23.f1 xe2+ 24.xe2 d1+ 25.e1 d4 and in the long run black will wecure the win. 18...d2 black has the more active (not winning!) position. 15...c5 16.c2 xf3 This allows the R to invade on d2. It's not fatal, but it will make
life difficult for white. 17.xf3 d2 White is going to have to
walk a tightrope to avoid disaster on the d-file and second rank. 18.c3 fd8 19.ad1 It's natural to want to clear the d-file, byt this is the place
where white begins losing the game! 19.g3 gives the K an escape and it's
hard to believe, but there is absolutley no way black can capitalize the
d-file! f5 20.exf6 xf6 21.xf6 gxf6 22.ad1 8d7 23.xd2 xd2 24.b4 xc2 25.bxc5 xc4 26.cxb6 axb6 27.xe6 f7 and this position is drawn. 19...e4 If white doesn't take the N then from here it exerts tremendous pressure. 20.e3 20.xe4 xd1+ 21.xd1 xd1+ 22.e1 d7 23.g3 d3 24.c2 h6
Black is better, but us it enough to win?! Yes...in Shootouts black scored 4
wins and a drfaw. However, the games were long, one going 124 moves! 20...xc2 21.xe4 xb2 22.a3 dd2 23.xd2 xd2 Black's control of
the d-file assures the win. Watch how Capa uses it to invade white's position. 24.h3 c5 Excellent! it controls d4 and white's Q is limited. 24...xa3
is tempting. Black still wins but white has some annoying play. 25.a8+ f8 26.xa7 d8 27.c5 d1 28.xd1 xd1+ 29.h2 d8 30.c6 and black will have
a long way to go to squeeze out a win. 25.e3 25.a8+ leads to delicate
play, but black would prevail after d8 26.e4 g6 27.e2 d7 28.e4 d2 29.f1 d4 30.b7 f4 31.e2 c1+ 32.e1 xc4+ 33.g1 d4 34.f1 34.xa7 xf2+ 34...c4 35.xa7 c3 and wins. 25...d4 26.a8+ d8 27.f3 d7
Simple. The threat is to exchange Qs with 28...Qd1+ which would leave black
with a routine win in the R ending. 28.h2 Ribera correctly wants to keep
his Q on the board. d4 Unfortunately for white his Ps are too weak and
cannot be defended. 29.e4 d3 30.g4 h6 this is really an unnecessary
safety precaution, but it doesn't hurt anything. 31.e3 Everything is
defended, but white is still lost. d4 32.e2 d1 33.b2 d2 Unfortunately
for white he must now exchange Qs or give up a P. He decides to keep the Qs on,
but then after Capa's next moive he realized the futility of continuing. 34.c3 34.xd2 xd2 35.g1 d1+ 36.h2 g5 White's R has few moves and his K
is shut out of play and his Ps are weak...all point to a loss. 34...xf2
White resigned. What's interesting is that in the Fritz program white was
assigned a very good Weighted Erroe Value of 0.28. The problem was that
Capablanca's was about a quarter of that...a very precise 0.10 which means he
nearly matched Stockfish's level of play. 34...xf2 35.f3 d4 36.a4 e4 37.e3 d4 38.xe4 xe4 39.c3 g5 40.g3 xe5 41.h4 e4 42.h5 g7 43.f3 d4 44.a5 bxa5 45.a3 f4+ 46.e3 xc4 47.xa5 h4 48.xc5 xh5 49.a5 h4 50.xa7 with an easy win. 0–1
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