Imagine objecting to a young player’s place in an elite chess tournament… and then getting paired against him immediately. That is exactly what happened to Ossip Bernstein, as it was Capablanca vs Bernstein in the very first round.

Bernstein had objected to the young José Raúl Capablanca being admitted to the tournament. Then the pairings came out: Capablanca vs. Bernstein, round one.

In this lesson, I break down how Capablanca answered him on the board.

What makes this game so instructive is that Capablanca did not need a reckless all-in attack or a 20-move forced combination. He simply improved his pieces, built pressure, and made his position more dangerous until the tactics appeared naturally.

You’ll learn how to improve your pieces with purpose, create pressure and build an attack without forcing it. Understand Capablanca’s attacking strategy with these principles:

• Combine development and attack
• Before you start attacking, bring all your pieces into play
• One piece is not an army. Try to attack a target with multiple pieces
• A passive piece is a disease
• Drive enemy pieces off your territory to prevent blunders

Capablanca won the game, earned a brilliancy prize, and later went on to win the entire tournament. It was the perfect response to anyone who doubted he belonged there.

Capablanca vs Bernstein Video Lesson

Below, you can find the complete game shown in the video:

Discover more openings with our Chess Openings Lesson Guide to find lessons organized by opening strategies. Improve your play from the first moves with a clear, topic-based approach.

Learning opening traps can help you win more games quickly . However, there’s more to chess improvement than just learning different openings.

If you want to learn all the fundamental things about chess, including openings, then you need to check out Level Up Your Chess. This course has six sections covering, not just the opening, middlegame and endgame. It also covers how to avoid blunders and how to study and train effectively.

And my big promise in this course is that studying just one section is enough to boost your chess rating. So, go ahead and check it out.