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[Event "Steinitz - Lasker World Championship Ma"] [Site "Montreal CAN"] [Date "1894.04.21"] [Round "11"] [White "Emanuel Lasker"] [Black "Wilhelm Steinitz"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D37"] [Annotator "Stockfish 10 64 (10s)"] [PlyCount "75"] [EventDate "1894.??.??"] {D40: Queen's Gambit Declined: Semi-Tarrasch with 5 e3} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Bd3 c5 {Although this move is preferred by Stockfish it's rarely played and has a poor result in practice. Lasker played it here as part of his strategy of taking advantage of Steinitz' weakness in playing middlegames without Qs.} 7. dxc5 {Perhaps he should have accepted the isolated d-Pawn with 7...Bxc5 8.cxd5 exd5, but Steinitz probably considered it a weakness to be avoided. In fact, isolated d-Pawns can lead to dynamic play.} dxc4 8. Bxc4 Qxd1+ {Almost always played, but as Reinfeld and FIne pointed out it is bad because black's K is too far away from the center and even though 8.. .Bxc5 results in the exchange of Qs it would at least save a tempo. Interesting and relatively unexplored is 8...Qa5 which avoids the exchange of Qs.} 9. Kxd1 Nc6 10. a3 Bxc5 11. b4 Bb6 {Steinitz does not develop his piece in the best way. On b6 it prevents black from developing his other B to its best square, b7. Lasker is going to take advantage of this minuscule slip!} 12. Ke2 Bd7 13. Bb3 Rac8 14. Bb2 a5 {With this move Steinitz makes a serious positional error. The purpose of this move is to secure c5 for his pieces, but as it turns out, c5 has no value, plus it weakens his Q-side Ps. Reinfeld recommends 14...Rfe8 followed by bringing the K to the center. That plan does not seem to work out well though because after 14...Rfe8 15.Rhd1 Kf8 (or 15... a6 16.Ne4!) 16.Nb5! threatening a fork on d6 and whit is dominating the position. For example, he can play his Ns to d6 and g6 attacking the f- and h-Ps. Better was 14...Rfb8.} 15. b5 Ne7 16. Ne5 Be8 17. a4 Bc7 18. Nc4 { Black's pieces are badly placed and it's hard to suggest any logical plan. As a result, he is reduced to just making moves.} Bd7 {Reinfeld points out that white cannot win a P with 19.b6 Bd8 20.Nxa5 Bxb6 21.Nxb7 claiming that black can regain the P with the favorable position. He is half right, black regains the P, but the position would only be equal.} 19. Rac1 {Defending the N so he can play his B to a3. Actually he could play 19.Ba3 Ned5 20.Rac1 with the advantage. It would be wrong to give up two piece for the R with 20.Bxf8.} Ned5 {Reinfeld slaps a ? on this move saying it gives Lasker a winning endgame advantage. But, he also observes that black has a bad game in any event. True on both counts.} 20. Nxd5 Nxd5 21. Ne5 Bxe5 22. Bxe5 {The threat is 23.e4 and it doesn't matter where the N retreats: 23...Ne7 24.Bd6 or 23...Nb7 24.Bc7. White wins in either case.} f6 23. e4 fxe5 24. exd5 Kf7 25. Rhd1 Ke7 26. d6+ Kf6 {Black is quite lost. Stockfish's evaluation is nearly 5 Pawns in white's favor.} 27. Ke3 Rxc1 28. Rxc1 Rc8 29. Rxc8 Bxc8 30. Bc2 {Beautiful! Now if black plays either 30...h6 or 30...g6 white will post his B on e4 and bring his K to the Q-side. Note that after Be4 attacking the b-Pawn black can't play ...b6 because then Bc6 and d7 would win outright.} Kf7 31. Bxh7 g6 {Some sources give the remaining moves as 31...b6 32.Ke4 Kf6 33.g4 g5 34.Kf3 Kf7 35. Be4 Ke8 36.h4 Kd7 37.h5 Ke8 38.Ke3 1-0} 32. Ke4 Kf6 33. g4 g5 34. Kf3 Kf7 35. Be4 Ke8 36. h4 {Creating a passed P.} Kd7 37. h5 Ke8 38. Ke3 1-0