The Pawn the Rook Could Not Leave: Capablanca's Advanced Passed pawn

FM amazingatlas16 Oct 2026346 viewsEnglish (US)

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Capablanca out calculates Fox in the complications. He comes out an exchange up and then rolls a pawn to e3 where it glues a white rook to the blockade for the rest of the game.

Good day, chess world!

This is game 5 of Capablanca's My Chess Career, against Albert Fox at the Manhattan Chess Club in 1906
This is a game I use to teach advanced passed pawns and how it can be used to tie down the opposition. The tactical part comes first. A mess of threats from moves 18 to 23 that Capablanca calculates better than his opponent and he comes out an exchange up.
Then comes the part worth storing in our memory banks. He pushes a pawn to e3 making the threat of promotion an ever present. That single pawn ties a white rook to e2 for the rest of the game. The rook can never move because the pawn would advance with decisive effect. An extra exchange plus a permanently paralysed rook is not really an exchange up. It is a piece up everywhere that matters.

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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 wins material; the other three build and advance the passed pawn that decides the game. 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 19). White has just played h3 to kick your knight on g4. Instead of retreating, there is a check that wins material. Which one?

Exercise 2. Black to play (move 22). You have just taken on e5 and White recaptured on f2. You are an exchange up and your centre pawns are ready. Which pawn move creates the passer and hits a piece at the same time?

Exercise 3. Black to play (move 26). White's queen has gone off to a7 to grab a pawn. Your two centre pawns are the fastest thing on the board. Which one goes first?

Exercise 4. Black to play (move 27). This is the move the whole game is named after. Which push buries a pawn in White's camp and paralyses a rook for good?