Capablanca published fourteen illustrative games in his own teaching book, and more than half of them are games he lost. Each lesson below takes one game and turns it into a single principle you can use, with an interactive board, the full video, and six puzzles.
Book a Strategy AssessmentBecause a loss shows you the habit that failed. Capablanca could find the best move by feel in a quiet position, and that gift hid a gap: he did not build a calculation method, and he sometimes stopped asking what his opponent wanted. Alekhine and Botvinnik both found it. These fourteen lessons name the habit in each game, the ones he lacked and the ones that made him the cleanest technician in chess history.
Learn prophylaxis (proactive prevention) from a game Capablanca lost. Before every move, ask what your opponent wants and take it away. Full lesson, board and six rook-ending puzzles.
Read the lesson →How to build a calculation method: list your candidates, check the forcing moves first. Capablanca missed 15...Bxf2+ and lost. Full lesson with board and six rook-ending puzzles.
Read the lesson →Capablanca left his king in the centre on move eight and lost. Learn why king safety outranks everything while the queens are on. Full lesson, board and six knight-ending puzzles.
Read the lesson →Two candidate moves is a story, three is a search. How Capablanca's two-candidate habit cost him a game, and how to fix it. Full lesson with board and six queen-and-rook puzzles.
Read the lesson →A majority is only worth what it can produce. Why doubled pawns cannot make a passer, and how Lasker won on that alone. Full lesson with board and six tactical puzzles.
Read the lesson →Opposite-coloured bishops draw endings and decide middlegames. Capablanca was a pawn up and lost anyway. Full lesson with board and six discovered-attack puzzles.
Read the lesson →A square no enemy pawn can attack is a permanent advantage. Prepare it, occupy it with tempo, convert. Full lesson with board and six rook-mating puzzles.
Read the lesson →Won a pawn and do not know what to do? Ask two questions: can it attack the king, or trade into a won ending. Full lesson with board and six queen-side attack puzzles.
Read the lesson →Do not attack an isolated pawn, occupy the square in front of it. The complete blockade-and-trade method. Full lesson with board and six bishop-ending puzzles.
Read the lesson →Marshall developed every piece and was still worse, because none of them attacked anything. Full lesson with board and six rook-ending puzzles.
Read the lesson →When the kings castle on opposite wings it becomes a race. Push pawns at their king, never at your own, and count tempi. Full lesson with six queen-side attack puzzles.
Read the lesson →An attack needs about three pieces. Watch Capablanca march his king from c2 to g4 with the queens still on to find the third. Six king-side attack puzzles.
Read the lesson →A bishop on g7 defends your king and attacks theirs at the same time. How to aim a piece before you storm. Full lesson with six double-bishop mating puzzles.
Read the lesson →Capablanca won this ending a pawn down. Why two long-range pieces beat a rook and knight when play switches wings. Six rook-mating puzzles.
Read the lesson →Reading a principle and using it under a clock are different skills. In a 2-hour Strategy Assessment I go through your own games personally and hand you a roadmap built for your chess, not a hypothetical student's.
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