The AVRO Masterpiece

Mikhail Botvinnik's win over Jose Raul Capablanca at the 1938 AVRO tournament in the Netherlands is one of the most anthologised games in chess literature, with Garry Kasparov later calling it Botvinnik's game of his life, worthy of a place next to Anderssen's Immortal and Evergreen games in the game's folklore.

The turning point is the quiet 30.Ba3, which deflects Black's queen away from the defence of White's advancing e-pawn and sets up a long-term knight sacrifice on h5. From there White's pawn storm and a marching king, walking all the way to h5 while dodging a string of Black queen checks, force resignation on move 41. Botvinnik's own published notes single out Capablanca's 13...Rfe8 as a surprising mistake and describe Black's 29...Qe7 as effectively forced despite leading to defeat, a rare case of the winner narrating exactly where his opponent went wrong.

AVRO 1938 toured several Dutch cities round by round, and sources differ on whether this particular round was played in Amsterdam or Rotterdam; Rotterdam is the more commonly cited venue and is used here, but treat the exact city as a minor open question.