Mentioning Spielmann - Capablanca, Carlsbad 1929, in an earlier post made me think of Capa's other loss in that tournament (Saemisch - Capablanca, round 16), a game which witnessed the worst opening blunder of Capa's career.
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 Bxc3+ 5. bxc3 d6 6. f3 e5 7. e4 Nc6 8. Be3 b6 9. Bd3 Ba6?? 10. Qa4! Bb7 11. d5, winning a piece. (Amazingly, Capablanca held on until move 62 but eventually succumbed to the unavoidable.)
This blunder is so unusual and inexplicable that it was featured in Chess Traps, Pitfalls and Swindles by Horowitz & Reinfeld (1954). It remains one of the worst super-grandmaster opening blunders ever. Kasparov in My Great Predecessors Part I claims that Capa was distracted by the unexpected arrival of his wife (because he was having an affair at the time), but I have not found independent confirmation of this story (either part of it).
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