Take the Outpost: How Capablanca Won by Owning One Square

Good day, chess world!

This is the seventh game in Capablanca's own Chess Fundamentals, and it is a clinic on the outpost. Playing White against Amos Burn. Capablanca works to create a permanent hole on d5 then plants a piece there that can never be driven away. He then turns that one square into a winning attack. When you own a central outpost the opponent cannot challenge, your piece grows in stature.

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Four exercises from the game

Try to solve each before you watch. Capablanca is White here and wins, so every exercise asks for White's move, the method that turned one square into a full point. 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 15). There is a hole on d5. Which knight leap plants a piece on the outpost that Black can never chase away?

Exercise 2. White to play (move 16). Black has traded on d5. Which recapture keeps a permanent pawn on the outpost and opens lines toward the black king?

Exercise 3. White to play (move 20). The outpost has done its structural work. Which centralizing queen move swings the attack over to the h7 square?

Exercise 4. White to play (move 21). Which capture wins a pawn and cracks open the black king?

Play through the full game with my notes here:

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

Watch the video and go deeper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZlfKtPiW4w

Free interactive lesson for this game, with board diagrams and six puzzles, on my website: https://chessexcellence.com/f/chess-outpost-squares-how-to-use-a-hole-capablanca-burn-1911.html

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

Free study sheets from my Logical Chess Move by Move series: https://forms.gle/nEt1DWY5pKGq7T3n6

See the whole Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYil0efSf2As