A Rook Down Against a King With Nowhere to Hide

FM amazingatlas28 Oct 2026440 viewsEnglish (US)

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Corzo won a rook and the engine says he was close to winning for seven moves. He also had a king with no shelter, had to keep finding moves, and on move 28 he stopped finding them.

Good day, chess world!

This is game 16 of Capablanca's My Chess Career, against his old rival Juan Corzo in Havana in 1913.

This is a battle of King safety vs material. Corzo wins the exchange and then ends up a full rook. I am not going to pretend the sacrifice was perfect but it did require Corzo to be perfect with his defence. Capablanca understood that it is much harder to defend when your king is a permanent target.
This is why when you evaluate a position the safety of the King is always a higher priority than material.
Take a look at the exercises and see if you can attack as well as Capa did.

If you are enjoying my posts take a look at the lesson link on my website and consider signing up for the free daily lessons with the links below.

Four exercises from the game

Try to solve each before you watch. Capablanca is Black here and he wins, so every exercise asks for Black's move. The first comes while he is doing fine, the rest from the collapse. The answers are in the full game at the bottom, in the video, and in the website lesson linked below.

Exercise 1. Black to play (move 18). White has just pushed f5 to shut your bishop out. Which queen move takes the strongest square on the board and eyes the loose white king?

Exercise 2. Black to play (move 28). You are a rook down. White has just played his queen to c3 and that is the losing move. Which knight check begins the punishment?

Exercise 3. Black to play (move 29). The king has gone to f2 and your knight sits on f3. Do not check again. Which quiet queen move leaves White with nothing to do?