Two Questions to Ask When You Are Winning

Good day, chess world!

This is game 6 of Capablanca's My Chess Career, a consultation game from New York in 1908. He faced Davidson and Ferguson working together.

It is not a game of fireworks but that also is its beauty. Winning a won position is its own skill and most players lose it by trading pieces at random. Capablanca asks two questions instead.
Can I attack the king with my extra material? If not, can I trade down into a clearly won ending?
Here the answer to the first was no, so he took the second road: he traded off the pieces that defended, kept the ones that worked for him. He won a second pawn, and steered into an ending with a passed pawn that runs through.

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 White here and he wins, so every exercise asks for White's move. These are technique problems rather than tactics, so the right move usually wins by a small margin rather than a crushing one. That is the nature of conversion. The answers are in the full game at the bottom, in the video, and in the website lesson linked below.

Exercise 1. White to play (move 20). Black's pawn on e4 is attacked twice and defended once, and your knight on g5 is doing nothing on the rim. Which capture keeps the extra pawn and untangles everything?

Exercise 2. White to play (move 29). Both your rooks are on the fourth rank and Black has just played the king to h7. Which rook move creates a threat against the kingside and improves your worst placed piece?

Exercise 3. White to play (move 33). Black has just played c5 to block the queenside. Your rook on a4 has no future where it stands. Where does it belong?

Exercise 4. White to play (move 39). Black has just recaptured on d6 with the bishop. Two pawns up with a passer on c5, you want the queens off. Which check does it?

Play through the full game with my notes here:

Questions, or a move you would have played differently? Tell me in the comments. Good day, chess world.

Watch the video and go deeper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vl_WbAlIrQ

https://chessexcellence.com/f/how-to-convert-a-winning-position-capablanca-davidson-ferguson.html

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVtlFBDTaYahWI-VcpZOUIGn7ly5R4mYnjoEgg2OOgHn1tzQ/viewform

https://forms.gle/nEt1DWY5pKGq7T3n6

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPOO5Irce4Zw