Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Alekhine Overlooks a Trap

The International Chess Tournament held in New York from March 6 to April 18, 1924, was one of the most remarkable chess tournaments ever.

Three World Champions took part in it: Alexander Alekhine, José Raúl Capablanca and Emanuel Lasker.

The tournament was played by as a double round-robin where every player playing twice against each other.

Later, Alekhine wrote a memorable book about that elite tournament with all the 110 games analysed by himself.

The following diagram shows Alekhine’s comment about his 5ht move in his game against Frederick Yates.

Astonishing, Alekhine overlooked the “Noah’s Ark Trap”.

The funny thing is that some years later the chess master Endre Steiner fell victim of that trap.

Most probably, Steiner read Alekhine’s book and, following his recommendation, wanted to make a quick draw against Capablanca.

Capablanca did his homework, but Steiner didn’t!!

Our next training session has been rescheduled to March 7 where we’ll be looking at Rook endgames.

You may also like...