Lasker's Endgame Grind

By the final round of the 1914 St Petersburg tournament, Emanuel Lasker trailed Jose Raul Capablanca and needed a win to overtake him for first place. Rather than seek complications, he chose the Exchange Ruy Lopez, a quiet structural line that several contemporaries, including Richard Reti, described as a deliberate psychological choice meant to deny Capablanca the sharp tactical fights he handled so comfortably.

The plan worked. Lasker's f4 to f5 advance secured a knight outpost on e6, and Capablanca's decision to open both the a-file and the h-file for White's rooks turned a small structural edge into a rout; White's pieces poured through on both wings while Black's queenside pawns and pieces were gradually rounded up. Capablanca resigned on move 42. The result overtook Capablanca in the standings, and Lasker went on to win the tournament outright.

A popular story that Tsar Nicholas II personally granted the five St Petersburg finalists the title of Grandmaster is almost certainly apocryphal, since the Tsar was not even in the city at the time; the tale is treated by historians as a later embellishment rather than fact and is not repeated here as history.