[blind-chess] Annotated Game #099: Jose Raul Capablanca - Rudolf Spielmann, New York 1927
- From: "Roderick Macdonald" <rjmacdonald@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Blind-Chess Mailing List" <blind-chess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 19:39:56 -1000
Annotated Game #099:
Jose Raul Capablanca - Rudolf Spielmann, New York 1927
Adapted and Condensed from
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Contents
++1. Jose Raul Capablanca y Graupera
++1.A Biography and career
++1.A1 Childhood
++1.A2 Early adult career
++1.A3 World title contender
++1.A4 During World War I
++1.A5 World Champion
++1.A6 Losing the title
++1.A7 Post-championship and partial retirement
++1.A8 Return to competitive chess
++1.A9 Final years
++1.B Assessment
++1.B1 Playing strength and style
++1.B2 Influence on the game
++1.B3 Personality
++1.C Capablanca chess
++1.D Notable chess games
++1.E Writings
++1.F Tournament results
++1.G Match results
++2. Rudolf Spielmann
++2.A Career
++2.B Quotes
++3. Jose Raul Capablanca - Rudolf Spielmann, New York 1927
++1. Jose Raul Capablanca y Graupera
Jose Raul Capablanca y Graupera (November 19, 1888 - March 8, 1942)
was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to
1927. One of the greatest players of all time, he was renowned for
his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Due to his
achievements in the chess world, mastery over the board and his
relatively simple style of play he was nicknamed the "Human Chess
Machine".
++1.A Biography and career
++1.A1 Childhood
Jose Raul Capablanca, the second surviving son of a Spanish army
officer, was born in Havana on November 19, 1888. According to
Capablanca, he learned the rules of the game at the age of four by
watching his father play, pointed out an illegal move by his
father, and then beat his father twice. At the age of eight he was
taken to Havana Chess Club, which had hosted many important
contests, but on the advice of a doctor he was not allowed to play
frequently. Between November and December 1901, he narrowly beat
the Cuban Chess Champion, Juan Corzo, in a match. However in April
1902 he only came fourth out of six in the National Championship,
losing both his games against Corzo. In 1905 Capablanca passed with
ease the entrance examinations for Columbia University in New York
City, where he wished to play for Columbia's strong baseball team,
and soon was selected as shortstop on the freshman team. In the
same year he joined the Manhattan Chess Club, and was soon
recognized as the club's strongest player. He was particularly
dominant in rapid chess, winning a tournament ahead of the reigning
World Chess Champion, Emanuel Lasker, in 1906. In 1908 he left the
university to concentrate on chess.
According to Columbia University, Capablanca enrolled at Columbia's
School of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry in September, 1910, to
study chemical engineering. Later, his financial support was
withdrawn because he preferred playing chess to studying
engineering. He left Columbia after one semester to devote himself
to chess full time.
++1.A2 Early adult career
Capablanca's skill in rapid chess lent itself to simultaneous
exhibitions, and his increasing reputation in these events led to
a USA-wide tour in 1909. Playing 602 games in 27 cities, he scored
96.4% - a much higher percentage than those of, for example, Giza
Marsczy's 88% and Frank Marshall's 86% in 1906. This performance
gained him sponsorship for an exhibition match that year against
Marshall, the U.S. champion, who had won the 1904 Cambridge Springs
tournament ahead of World Champion Emanuel Lasker and Dawid
Janowski, and whom Chessmetrics ranks as one of the world's top
three players at his peak. Capablanca beat Marshall by 15-8 (8
wins, 1 loss, 14 draws) - a margin comparable to what Emanuel
Lasker achieved against Marshall (8 wins, no losses, 7 draws) in
winning his 1907 World Championship match. After the match,
Capablanca said that he had never opened a book on chess openings.
Following this match, Chessmetrics rates Capablanca the world's
third strongest player for most of the period from 1909 through
1912.
Capablanca won all seven games in the 1910 New York State
Championship. After another gruelling series of simultaneous
exhibitions, Capablanca placed second, with 9.5 out of 12, in the
1911 National Tournament at New York, half a point behind Marshall,
and half a point ahead of Charles Jaffe and Oscar Chajes. Marshall,
invited to play in a tournament at San Sebastian, Spain, in 1911,
insisted that Capablanca also be allowed to play.
According to David Hooper and Ken Whyld, San Sebastian 1911 was
"one of the strongest five tournaments held up to that time", as
all the world's leading players competed except the World Champion,
Lasker. At the beginning of the tournament, Ossip Bernstein and
Aron Nimzowitsch objected to Capablanca's presence because he had
not fulfilled the entry condition of winning at least third prize
in two master tournaments. Capablanca won brilliantly against
Bernstein in the very first round, more simply against Nimzowitsch,
and astounded the chess world by taking first place, with a score
of six wins, one loss and seven draws, ahead of Akiba Rubinstein,
Milan Vidmar, Marshall, Carl Schlechter and Siegbert Tarrasch, et
al. His loss, against Rubinstein, was one of the most brilliant
achievements of the latter's career. Some European critics grumbled
that Capablanca's style was rather cautious, though he conceded
fewer draws than any of the next six finishers in the event.
Capablanca was now recognized as a serious contender for the world
championship.
++1.A3 World title contender
In 1911, Capablanca challenged Emanuel Lasker for the World Chess
Championship. Lasker accepted his challenge while proposing
seventeen conditions for the match. Capablanca objected to some of
the conditions, which significantly favored Lasker, and the match
did not take place.
In 1913, Capablanca won a tournament in New York with 11/13, half
a point ahead of Marshall. Capablanca then finished second to
Marshall in Capablanca's hometown, Havana, scoring 10 out of 14,
and losing one of their individual games. The 600 spectators
naturally favored their native hero, but sportingly gave Marshall
"thunderous applause". In a further tournament in New York in 1913,
at the Rice Chess Club, Capablanca won all thirteen games.
In September 1913, Capablanca secured a job in the Cuban Foreign
Office, which made him financially secure for life. Hooper and
Whyld write that, "He had no specific duties, but was expected to
act as a kind of ambassador-at-large, a well-known figure who would
put Cuba on the map wherever he travelled." His first instructions
were to go to Saint Petersburg - where he was due to play in a
major tournament. On his way he gave simultaneous exhibitions in
London, Paris and Berlin, where he also played two-game matches
against Richard Teichmann and Jacques Mieses, winning all his
games. After arriving in Saint Petersburg, he played similar
matches against Alexander Alekhine, Eugene Znosko-Borovsky and
Fyodor Duz-Chotimirsky, losing one game to Znosko-Borovsky and
winning the rest.
The St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament was the first in which
Capablanca played World Champion Emanuel Lasker under normal
tournament conditions. This event was arranged in an unusual way:
after a preliminary single round-robin tournament involving eleven
players, the top five were to play a second stage in double round-
robin format, with scores from the preliminary tournament carried
forward to the second contest. Capablanca placed first in the
preliminary tournament, 1.5 points ahead of Lasker, who was out of
practice and made a shaky start. Despite a determined effort by
Lasker, Capablanca still seemed on course for ultimate victory.
However, in their second game of the final, Lasker reduced
Capablanca to a helpless position and Capablanca was so shaken by
this that he blundered away his next game to Siegbert Tarrasch.
Lasker thus finished half a point ahead of Capablanca and 3.5 ahead
of
Alekhine. Alekhine commented:
His real, incomparable gifts first began to make themselves known
at the time of St. Petersburg, 1914, when I too came to know him
personally. Neither before nor afterwards have I seen - and I
cannot imagine as well - such a flabbergasting quickness of chess
comprehension as that possessed by the Capablanca of that epoch.
Enough to say that he gave all the St. Petersburg masters the odds
of 5-1 in quick games - and won! With all this he was always good-
humoured, the darling of the ladies, and enjoyed wonderful good
health - really a dazzling appearance. That he came second to
Lasker must be entirely ascribed to his youthful levity - he was
already playing as well as Lasker.
After the breakdown of his attempt to negotiate a title match in
1911, Capablanca drafted rules for the conduct of future
challenges, which were agreed by the other top players at the 1914
Saint Petersburg tournament, including Lasker, and approved at the
Mannheim Congress later that year. The main points were: the
champion must be prepared to defend his title once a year; the
match should be won by the first player to win six or eight games,
whichever the champion preferred; and the stake should be at least
1,000 pounds Sterling (worth about 347,000 pounds or $700,000 in
2006 terms.
++1.A4 During World War I
World War I began in midsummer 1914, bringing international chess
to a virtual halt for more than four years. Capablanca won
tournaments in New York in 1914, 1915, 1916 (with preliminary and
final round-robin stages) and 1918, losing only one game in this
sequence. In the 1918 event Frank James Marshall, playing Black
against Capablanca, unleashed a complicated counter-attack, later
known as the Marshall Attack, against the Ruy Lopez opening. It is
often said that Marshall had kept this secret for use against
Capablanca since his defeat in their 1909 match; however, Edward
Winter discovered several games between 1910 and 1918 where
Marshall passed up opportunities to use the Marshall Attack against
Capablanca; and an 1893 game that used a similar line. This gambit
is so complex that Garry Kasparov used to avoid it, and Marshall
had the advantage of using a prepared variation. Nevertheless,
Capablanca found a way through the complications and won.
Capablanca was challenged to a match in 1919 by Borislav Kostic,
who had come through the 1918 tournament undefeated to take second
place. The match was to go to the first player to win eight games,
but Kostic resigned the match after losing five straight games.
Capablanca considered that he was at his strongest around this
time.
++1.A5 World Champion
The Hastings Victory tournament of 1919 was the first international
competition on Allied soil since 1914. The field was not strong,
and Capablanca won with 10.5 points out of 11, one point ahead of
Kostic.
In January 1920, Emanuel Lasker and Capablanca signed an agreement
to play a World Championship match in 1921, noting that Capablanca
was not free to play in 1920. Because of the delay, Lasker insisted
that if he resigned the title, then Capablanca should become World
Champion. Lasker had previously included in his agreement before
World War I to play Akiba Rubinstein for the title a similar clause
that if he resigned the title, it should become Rubinstein's.
Lasker then resigned the title to Capablanca on June 27, 1920,
saying, "You have earned the title not by the formality of a
challenge, but by your brilliant mastery." When Cuban enthusiasts
raised $20,000 to fund the match provided it was played in Havana,
Lasker agreed in August 1920 to play there, but insisted that he
was the challenger as Capablanca was now the champion. Capablanca
signed an agreement that accepted this point, and soon afterwards
published a letter confirming it.
The match was played in March-April 1921; Lasker resigned it after
just fourteen games, having lost four games and won none. Reuben
Fine and Harry Golombek attributed the one-sided result to Lasker's
being in mysteriously poor form. Fred Reinfeld mentioned
speculations that Havana's humid climate weakened Lasker and that
he was depressed about the outcome of World War I, especially as he
had lost his life savings. On the other hand, Vladimir Kramnik
thought that Lasker played quite well and the match was an "even
and fascinating fight" until Lasker blundered in the last game.
Kramnik explained that Capablanca was twenty years younger, a
slightly stronger player, and had more recent competitive practice.
Edward Winter, after a lengthy summary of the facts, concludes
that, "The press was dismissive of Lasker's wish to confer the
title on Capablanca, even questioning the legality of such an
initiative, and in 1921 it regarded the Cuban as having become
world champion by dint of defeating Lasker over the board."
Reference works invariably give Capablanca's reign as titleholder
as beginning in 1921, not 1920. The only challenger besides
Capablanca to win the title without losing a game is Kramnik, in
the Classical World Chess Championship 2000 against Garry Kasparov.
The score sheet of Capablanca's defeat by Richard Riti in the New
York 1924 chess tournament, his first loss in eight years
Capablanca won the London tournament of 1922 with 13 points from 15
games with no losses, ahead of Alexander Alekhine on 11.5, Milan
Vidmar (11), and Akiba Rubinstein (10.5). During this event,
Capablanca proposed the "London Rules" to regulate future World
Championship negotiations: the first player to win six games would
win the match; playing sessions would be limited to 5 hours; the
time limit would be 40 moves in 2.5 hours; the champion must defend
his title within one year of receiving a challenge from a
recognized master; the champion would decide the date of the match;
the champion was not obliged to accept a challenge for a purse of
less than US $10,000 (worth about $349,000 in 2006 terms; 20% of
the purse was to be paid to the title holder and the remainder
divided, 60% going to the winner of the match, and 40% to the
loser; the highest purse bid must be accepted. Alekhine, Efim
Bogoljubow, Giza Maroczy, Richard Reti, Rubinstein, Tartakower and
Vidmar promptly signed them. Between 1921 and 1923 Alekhine,
Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch all challenged Capablanca, but only
Alekhine could raise the money, in 1927.
In 1922, Capablanca also gave a simultaneous exhibition in
Cleveland against 103 opponents, the largest in history up to that
time, winning 102 and drawing one - setting a record for the best
winning percentage ever in a large simultaneous exhibition.
After beginning with four draws, followed by a loss, Capablanca
placed second at the New York 1924 chess tournament with the score
of 14/20 (+10 -1 =9), 1.5 points behind Emanuel Lasker, and 2 ahead
of third-placed Alekhine. Capablanca's defeat at the hands of
Richard Reti in the fifth round was his first in serious
competition in eight years. He made another bad start at the Moscow
1925 chess tournament, and could only fight back to third place,
two points behind Bogoljubow and .5 point behind Emanuel Lasker.
Capablanca won at Lake Hopatcong, 1926 with 6 points out of 8,
ahead of Abraham Kupchik (5) and Maroczy (4.5).
A group of Argentinian businessmen, backed by a guarantee from the
president of Argentina, promised the funds for a World Championship
match between Capablanca and Alekhine in 1927. Since Nimzowitsch
had challenged before Alekhine, Capablanca gave Nimzowitsch until
January 1, 1927 to deposit a forfeit in order arrange a match. When
this did not materialize, a
Capablanca-Alekhine match was agreed, to begin in September 1927.
In the New York 1927 chess tournament, played from February 19 to
March 23, 1927, six of the world's strongest masters played a
quadruple round robin, with the others being Alekhine, Rudolf
Spielmann, Milan Vidmar, Nimzowitsch and Marshall, with Bogoljubow
and Emanuel Lasker not present. Before the tournament, Capablanca
wrote that he had "more experience but less power" than in 1911,
that he had peaked in 1919 and that some of his competitors had
become stronger in the meantime; however, he finished undefeated,
winning the mini-matches with each of his rivals, 2.5 points ahead
of second-place Alekhine, and won the "best game" prize for a win
over
Spielmann.
In December 1921, shortly after becoming World Champion, Capablanca
married Gloria Simoni Betancourt. They had a son, Jose Raul Jr., in
1923 and a daughter, Gloria, in 1925. According to Capablanca's
second wife, Olga, his first marriage broke down fairly soon, and
he and Gloria had affairs. Both his parents died during his reign,
his father in 1923 and mother in 1926.
++1.A6 Losing the title
Alekhine vs. Capablanca
Since Capablanca had won the New York 1927 chess tournament
overwhelmingly and had never lost a game to Alekhine, the Cuban was
regarded by most pundits as the clear favorite in their World Chess
Championship 1927 match. However, Alekhine won the match, played
from September to November 1927 at Buenos Aires, by 6 wins, 3
losses, and 25 draws - the longest formal World Championship match
until the contest in 1984-85 between Anatoly Karpov and Garry
Kasparov. Alekhine's victory surprised almost the entire chess
world. After Capablanca's death, Alekhine expressed surprise at his
own victory, since in 1927 he had not thought he was superior to
Capablanca, and he suggested that Capablanca had been over-
confident. Capablanca entered the match with no technical or
physical
preparation, while Alekhine got himself into good physical
condition, and had thoroughly studied Capablanca's play. According
to Kasparov, Alekhine's research uncovered many small inaccuracies,
which occurred because Capablanca was unwilling to concentrate
intensely. Vladimir Kramnik commented that this was the first
contest in which Capablanca had no easy wins. Ludek Pachman
suggested that Capablanca, who was unused to losing games or to any
other type of setback, became depressed over his unnecessary loss
of the eleventh game, a long, gruelling endgame, featuring errors
by both
players.
Immediately after winning the match, Alekhine announced that he was
willing to give Capablanca a return match, on the same terms that
Capablanca had required as champion - the challenger must provide
a stake of US $10,000, of which more than half would go to the
defending champion even if he was defeated. Alekhine had challenged
Capablanca in the early 1920s but Alekhine could not raise the
money until 1927. After Capablanca's death, Alekhine wrote that
Capablanca's demand for a $10,000 stake was an attempt to avoid
challenges. Negotiations dragged on for several years, often
breaking down when agreement seemed in sight. Their relationship
became bitter, and Alekhine demanded much higher appearance fees
for tournaments in which Capablanca also played.
++1.A7 Post-championship and partial retirement
Giving a simultaneous display on thirty boards in Berlin, June 1929
After losing the World Championship in late 1927, Capablanca played
more often in tournaments, hoping to strengthen his claim for a
rematch. From 1928 through 1931, he won six first prizes, also
finishing second twice and one joint second. His competitors
included rising stars such as Max Euwe and Isaac Kashdan, as well
as players who had been established in the 1920s, but Capablanca
and Alekhine never played in the same tournament during this
period, and would next meet only at the Nottingham, 1936
tournament, after Alekhine had lost the world title to Euwe the
preceding year. In late 1931, Capablanca also won a match (+2 -0
=8) against Euwe, whom Chessmetrics ranks sixth in the world at the
time.
Despite these excellent results, Capablanca's play showed signs of
decline: his play slowed from the speed of his youth, with
occasional time trouble; although he continued to produce many
superb games, he also made some gross
blunders. Chessmetrics nonetheless ranks Capablanca as the second
strongest player in the world (after Alekhine) from his loss of the
title through to autumn 1932, except for a brief appearance in the
top place.
After winning an event at New York in 1931, he withdrew from
serious chess, perhaps disheartened by his inability to secure a
return match against Alekhine, and played only less serious games
at the Manhattan Chess Club and simultaneous displays. On 6
December 1933, Capablanca won all 9 of his games in one of the
club's weekly rapid chess tournaments, finishing 2 points ahead of
Samuel Reshevsky, Reuben Fine and Milton Hanauer.
++1.A8 Return to competitive chess
At first Capablanca did not divorce his first wife, as he had not
intended to re-marry. Olga, Capablanca's second wife, wrote that
she met him in the late spring of 1934; by late October the pair
were deeply in love, and Capablanca recovered his ambition to prove
he was the world's best player. In 1938 he divorced his first wife
and then married Olga on October 20, 1938, about a month before the
AVRO tournament.
Starting his comeback at the Hastings tournament of 1934-35,
Capablanca finished fourth, although coming ahead of Mikhail
Botvinnik and Andor Lilienthal. He placed second by .5 point in the
Margate tournaments of 1935 and 1936. At Moscow in 1935 Capablanca
finished fourth, 1 point behind the joint winners, while Emanuel
Lasker's third place at the age of 66 was hailed as "a biological
miracle." The following year, Capablanca won an even stronger
tournament in Moscow, one point ahead of Botvinnik and 3.5 ahead of
Salo Flohr, who took third place; A month later, he shared first
place with Botvinnik at Nottingham, with a score of (+5 -1 =8),
losing only to Flohr; Alekhine placed sixth, only one point behind
the joint winners. These tournaments of 1936 were the last two that
Lasker played, and the only ones in which Capablanca finished ahead
of Lasker, now 67. During these triumphs Capablanca began to suffer
symptoms of high blood pressure. He tied for second place at
Semmering in 1937, then could only finish seventh of the eight
players at the 1938 AVRO tournament, an ilite contest designed to
select a challenger for Alekhine's world title. Capablanca's high
blood pressure was not correctly diagnosed and treated until after
the AVRO tournament, and caused him to lose his train of thought
towards the end of playing sessions.
After winning at Paris in 1938 and placing second in a slightly
stronger tournament at Margate in 1939, Capablanca played for Cuba
in the 8th Chess Olympiad, held in Buenos Aires, and won the gold
medal for the best performance on the top board. While Capablanca
and Alekhine were both representing their countries in Buenos
Aires, Capablanca made a final attempt to arrange a World
Championship match. Alekhine declined, saying he was obliged to be
available to defend his adopted homeland, France, as World War II
had just broken out. Alekhine also sat out the match when the teams
from Cuba and France faced each other in the Buenos Aires Olympiad,
thus declining an opportunity to play Capablanca once more.
++1.A9 Final years
On March 7, 1942, Capablanca was observing a skittles game and
chatting with friends at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York City,
when he asked for help removing his coat, and collapsed shortly
afterwards. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died at
6 a.m. the next morning. The cause of death was given as "a
cerebral haemorrhage provoked by hypertension". Capablanca's great
rival Emanuel Lasker had died in the same hospital only a year
earlier. Capablanca's body was given a public funeral in Havana's
Colon Cemetery on March 15, 1942.
His bitter rival Alekhine wrote in a tribute to Capablanca:
... Capablanca was snatched from the chess world much too soon.
With his death, we have lost a very great chess genius whose like
we shall never see again.
Emanuel Lasker once said: "I have known many chess players, but
only one chess genius: Capablanca."
An annual Capablanca Memorial tournament has been held in Cuba,
most often in Havana, since 1962.
++1.B Assessment
++1.B1 Playing strength and style
As an adult, Capablanca lost only 34 serious games. He was
undefeated from February 10, 1916, when he lost to Oscar Chajes in
the New York 1916 tournament, to March 21, 1924, when he lost to
Richard Reti in the New York International tournament. During this
streak, which included his 1921 World Championship match against
Lasker, Capablanca played 63 games, winning 40 and drawing 23. In
fact, only Marshall, Lasker, Alekhine and Rudolf Spielmann won two
or more serious games from the mature Capablanca, though in each
case, their overall lifetime scores were minus (Capablanca beat
Marshall +20 -2 =28, Lasker +6 -2 =16, Alekhine +9 -7 =33), except
for Spielmann who was level (+2 -2
=8). Of top players, only Keres had a narrow plus score against him
(+1 -0 =5). Keres' win was at the AVRO 1938 chess tournament,
during which tournament Capablanca turned 50, while Keres was 22.
Statistical ranking systems place Capablanca high among the
greatest players of all time. Nathan Divinsky and Raymond Keene's
book Warriors of the Mind (1989) ranks him fifth, behind Garry
Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Botvinnik - and
immediately ahead of Emanuel Lasker. In his 1978 book The Rating of
Chessplayers, Past and Present, Arpad Elo gave retrospective
ratings to players based on their performance over the best five-
year span of their career. He concluded that Capablanca was the
strongest of those surveyed, with Lasker and Botvinnik sharing
second place. Chessmetrics (2006) is rather sensitive to the length
of the periods being compared, and ranks Capablanca between third
and fourth strongest of all time for peak periods ranging in length
from one to fifteen years. Its author, the statistician Jeff Sonas,
concluded that Capablanca had more years in the top three than
anyone except Lasker, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov - although
Alexander Alekhine had more years in the top two positions. A 2006
study claimed to show that Capablanca was the most accurate of all
the World Champions when compared with computer analysis of World
Championship match games. However, this analysis was criticized for
using a second-rank chess program, Crafty, modified to limit its
calculations to six moves by each side, and for favoring players
whose style matched that of the program.
Boris Spassky, World Champion from 1969 to 1972, considered
Capablanca the best player of all time. Bobby Fischer, who held the
title from 1972 to 1975, admired Capablanca's "light touch" and
ability to see the right move very quickly. Fischer reported that
in the 1950s, older members of the Manhattan Chess Club spoke of
Capablanca's performances with awe.
Capablanca excelled in simple positions and endgames, and his
positional judgment was outstanding, so much so that most attempts
to attack him came to grief without any apparent defensive efforts
on his part. However, he could play great tactical chess when
necessary - most famously in the 1918 Manhattan Chess Club
Championship tournament (in New York) where Marshall sprang a
deeply-analyzed prepared variation on him, which he refuted while
playing under the normal time limit (although ways have since been
found to strengthen the Marshall Attack). He was also capable of
using aggressive tactical play to drive home a positional
advantage, provided he considered it safe and the most efficient
way to win, for example against Spielmann in the 1927 New York
tournament.
++1.B2 Influence on the game
Capablanca founded no school per se, but his style was very
influential in the games of two world champions: Fischer and
Anatoly Karpov. Botvinnik also wrote how much he learned from
Capablanca, and pointed out that Alekhine had received much
schooling from him in positional play, before their fight for the
world title made them bitter enemies.
As a chess writer, Capablanca did not present large amounts of
detailed analysis, instead focusing on the critical moments in a
game. His writing style was plain and easy to understand. Botvinnik
regarded Capablanca's book Chess Fundamentals as the best chess
book ever written. Capablanca in a lecture and in his book A Primer
of Chess pointed out that while the bishop was usually stronger
than the knight, queen and knight was usually better than queen and
bishop, especially in endings -- the bishop merely mimics the
queen's diagonal move, while the knight can immediately reach
squares the queen cannot. Research is divided over Capablanca's
conclusion: in 2007, Glenn Flear found little difference, while in
1999, Larry Kaufman, analysing a large database of games, concluded
that results very slightly favored queen plus knight. John Watson
wrote in 1998 that an unusually large proportion of queen and
knight versus queen and bishop endings are drawn, and that most
decisive games are characterized by the winning side having one or
more obvious advantages in that specific game.
++1.B3 Personality
Early in his chess career, Capablanca had received some criticism,
mainly in Britain, for the allegedly conceited description of his
accomplishments in his first book, My Chess Career. He therefore
took the unprecedented step of including virtually all of his
tournament and match defeats up to that time in Chess Fundamentals,
together with an instructive group of his victories. Nevertheless
his preface to the 1934 edition of Chess Fundamentals is confident
that the "reader may therefore go over the contents of the book
with the assurance that there is in it everything he needs."
However Julius du Mont wrote that he knew Capablanca well and could
vouch that he was not conceited. In du Mont's opinion critics
should understand the difference between the merely gifted and the
towering genius of Capablanca, and the contrast between the British
tendency towards false modesty and the Latin and American tendency
to say "I played this game as well as it could be played" if he
honestly thought that it was correct. Fischer also admired this
frankness. Du Mont also said that Capablanca was rather sensitive
to
criticism, and chess historian Edward Winter documented a number of
examples of self-criticism in My Chess Career.
Despite his achievements Capablanca appeared more interested in
baseball than in chess, which he described as "not a difficult game
to learn and it is an enjoyable game to play." His second wife,
Olga, thought he resented the way in which chess had dominated his
life, and wished he could have studied music or medicine.
++1.C Capablanca chess
In an interview in 1925 Capablanca denied reports that he thought
chess had already currently reached its limit because it was easy
for top players to obtain a draw. However he was concerned that the
accelerating development of chess technique and opening knowledge
might cause such stagnation in 50 years' time. Hence he suggested
the adoption of a 10x8 board with 2 extra pieces per side:
* Chancellor - a chancellor that moves as both a rook and a
knight;
* Archbishop - an archbishop that moves as both a bishop and
a knight. This piece would be able to deliver checkmate on
its own, which none of the conventional pieces can do.
He thought this would prevent technical knowledge from becoming
such a dominant factor, at least for a few centuries.
Capablanca and Edward Lasker experimented with 10x10 and 10x8
boards, using the same expanded set of pieces. They preferred the
8-rank version as it encouraged combat to start earlier, and their
games typically lasted 20 to 25 moves. Contrary to the claims of
some critics, Capablanca proposed this variant while he was world
champion, not as sour grapes after losing his title.
Similar 10x8 variants had previously been described in 1617 by
Pietro Carrera and in 1874 by Henry Bird, differing only in how the
new pieces were placed in each side's back row. Subsequent variants
inspired by Capablanca's experimentation have been proposed,
including Grand chess (which uses a 10x10 board and has pawns on
the third rank), Gothic Chess (which used to be patented), and
Embassy Chess (the Grand chess setup on a 10x8 board).
++1.D Notable chess games
* Jose Raul Capablanca vs L. Molina, Buenos Aires 1911,
Queen's Gambit Declined: Modern. Knight Defense (D52), 1-0
An impressive Greco's sacrifice along with deceptive
simplicity and effortless endgame.
* Jose Raul Capablanca vs Frank James Marshall, ch Manhattan
CC, New York 1918, Spanish Game: Marshall Attack. Original
Marshall Attack (C89), 1-0 One of the most famous games of
Capablanca. It is on record that Marshall unveiled this
attack after careful preparation. Perfect example of
defending against an extremely aggressive attack.
* Jose Raul Capablanca vs Professor Marc Fonaroff, New York
1918, Spanish Game: Berlin Defense. Hedgehog Variation
(C62), 1-0 A freaky ending with amazing accuracy.
* Emanuel Lasker vs Jose Raul Capablanca, Lasker-Capablanca
World Championship Match, Havana 1921. Queen's Gambit
Declined: Orthodox Defense. Rubinstein Variation (D61), 0-1
A strategic masterpiece and instructive endgame which
should be on everybody's list. Capablanca out-playing the
great Lasker in the endgame with simple and perfect
maneuvering of pieces. A must-see game for chess endgame
fans.
* Jose Raul Capablanca vs Savielly Tartakower, New York 1924,
Dutch Defense, Horwitz Variation: General (A80), 1-0 A
brilliant endgame from the natural genius. Dubbed as "Rook
Before you Leap". Demonstrates the exceptional endgame
skills of Capablanca with flawless artistry.
* Jose Raul Capablanca vs Rudolf Spielmann, New York 1927,
Queen's Gambit Declined: Barmen Variation (D37), 1-0 A
remarkable tactical game which earned the "Brilliancy
Price" for Capablanca. This is a showcase of Capablanca's
tactical skills complementing positional supremacy.
* Jose Raul Capablanca vs Andor Lilienthal, Moscow 1936, Reti
Opening: Anglo-Slav. Bogoljubow Variation (A12), 1-0 A
perfect endgame and pawn play utilizing the space against
material advantage.
* Ilia Abramovich Kan vs Jose Raul Capablanca, Moscow 1936,
Vienna Game: Anderssen Defense (C25), 0-1 Another
demonstration of Caplabanca's endgame supremacy. This game
seems a drawn game, but witness how Capablanca ekes out a
win using his positional mastery.
++1.E Writings
* Havana 1913, by Jose Raul Capablanca. This is the only
tournament book he wrote. It was originally published in
Spanish in 1913 in Havana. Edward Winter translated it into
English, and it appeared as a British Chess Magazine
reprint, Quarterly #18, in 1976.
* A Primer of Chess by Jose Raul Capablanca (preface by
Benjamin Anderson). Originally published in 1935.
Republished in 2002 by Harvest Books, ISBN 0156028077.
* Chess Fundamentals by Jose Raul Capablanca (Originally
published in 1921. Republished by Everyman Chess, 1994,
ISBN 1857440730. Revised and updated by Nick de Firmian in
2006, ISBN 0-8129-3681-7.)
* My Chess Career by Jose Raul Capablanca (Originally
published by Macmillan in 1921. Republished by Dover in
1966. Republished by Hardinge Simpole Limited, 2003, ISBN
1843820919.)
* The World's Championship Chess Match between Jose Raul
Capablanca and Dr. Emanuel Lasker, with an introduction,
the scores of all the games annotated by the champion,
together with statistical matter and the biographies of the
two masters, 1921 by Jose Raul Capablanca. (Republished in
1977 by Dover, together with a book on the 1927 match with
annotations by Frederick Yates and William Winter, as
World's Championship Matches, 1921 and 1927 by Jose Raul
Capablanca. ISBN 0486231895.)
* Last Lectures by Jose Raul Capablanca (Simon and Schuster,
January 1966, ASIN B0007DZW6W)
++1.F Tournament results
The following table gives Capablanca's placings and scores in
tournaments.
1910 New York State
1st 20/20 +20 -0 =0.
1911 New York
2nd 9.5/12 +8 -1 =3.
1911 San Sebastian (Spain)
1st 9.5/14 +6 -1 =7 Ahead of Akiba Rubinstein and Milan
Vidmar (9), Frank James Marshall (8.5) and 11 other world-
class players. His only loss was to Rubinstein, and his win
against Ossip Bernstein was awarded the brilliancy prize.
1913 New York
1st 11/13 +10 -1 =2 Ahead of Marshall (10.5), Charles Jaffe
(9.5) and Dawid Janowski (9).
1913 Havana
2nd 10/14 +8 -2 =4 Behind Marshall (10.5); ahead of
Janowski (9) and five others.
1913 New York
1st 13/13 +13 -0 =0 Ahead of Oldrich Duras.
1914 St. Petersburg
2nd 13/18 +10 -2 =6 Behind Emanuel Lasker (13.5); ahead of
Alexander Alekhine (10), Siegbert Tarrasch (8.5) and
Marshall (8). This tournament had an unusual structure:
there was a preliminary tournament in which eleven players
played each other player once; the top five players then
played a separate final tournament in which each player who
made the "cut" played the other finalists twice; but their
scores from the preliminary tournament were carried
forward. Even the preliminary tournament would now be
considered a "super-tournament". Capablanca "won" the
preliminary tournament by 1= points without losing a game,
but Lasker achieved a plus score against all his opponents
in the final tournament and finished with a combined score
= point ahead of Capablanca's.
1915 New York
1st 13/14 +12 -0 =2 Ahead of Marshall (12) and six others.
1916 New York
1st 14/17 +12 -1 =4 Ahead of Janowski (11) and 11 others.
The structure was similar to that of St. Petersburg 1914.
1918 New York
1st 10.5/12 +9 -0 =3 Ahead of Boris Kostic (9), Marshall
(7), and four others.
1919 Hastings
1st 10.5/11 +10 -0 =1 Ahead of Kostic (9.5), Sir George
Thomas (7), Frederick Yates (7) and eight others.
1922 London
1st 13/15 +11 -0 =4 Ahead of Alekhine (11.5), Vidmar (11),
Rubinstein (10.5), Efim Bogoljubow (9), and 11 other
players, mostly very strong.
1924 New York
2nd 14.5/20 +10 -1 =9 Behind Lasker (16); ahead of Alekhine
(12), Marshall (11), Richard Riti (10.5) and six others,
mostly very strong.
1925 Moscow
3rd 13.5/20 +9 -2 =9 Behind Bogojubow (15.5) and Lasker
(14); ahead of Marshall (12.5) and a mixture of strong
international players and rising Soviet players.
1926 Lake Hopatcong
1st 6/8 +4 -0 =4 Ahead of Abraham Kupchik (5), Giza Maroczy
(4.5), Marshall (3) and Edward Lasker (1.5).
1927 New York
1st 14/20 +8 -0 =12 Ahead of Alekhine (11.5), Aron
Nimzowitsch (10.5), Vidmar (10), Rudolf Spielmann (8) and
Marshall (6).
1928 Berlin
1st 8.5/12 +5 -0 =7 Ahead of Nimzowitsch (7), Spielmann
(6.5) and four other very strong players.
1928 Bad Kissingen
2nd 7/11 +4 -1 =6 Behind Bogojubow (8); ahead of Max Euwe
(6.5), Rubinstein (6.5), Nimzowitsch (6) and seven other
strong masters.
1928 Budapest
1st 7/9 +5 -0 =4 Ahead of Marshall (6), Hans Kmoch (5),
Spielmann (5) and six others.
1929 Ramsgate
1st 5.5/7 +4 -0 =3 Ahead of Vera Menchik (5), Rubinstein
(5), and four others.
1929 Carlsbad
2nd= 14.5/21 +10 -2 =9 Behind Nimzowitsch (15); tied with
Spielmann; ahead of Rubinstein (13.5) and 18 others, mostly
very strong.
1929 Budapest
1st 10.5/13 +8 -0 =5 Ahead of Rubinstein (9.5), Savielly
Tartakower (8) and 11 others.
1929 Barcelona
1st 13.5/14 +13 -0 =1 Ahead of Tartakower (11.5) and 13
others.
1929-30 Hastings
1st 6.5/9 +4 -0 =5.
1930-31 Hastings
2nd 6.5/9 +5 -1 =3 Behind Euwe (7); ahead of eight others.
1931 New York
1st 10/11 +9 -0 =2 Ahead of Isaac Kashdan (8.5) and 10
others.
1934-35 Hastings
4th 5.5/9 +4 -2 =3 Behind Thomas, (6.5), Euwe (6.5) and
Salo Flohr (6.5); ahead Mikhail Botvinnik (5), Andor
Lilienthal (5) and four others.
1935 Moscow
4th 12/19 +7 -2 =10 Behind Botvinnik (13), Flohr (13) and
Lasker (12.5); ahead of Spielmann (11) and 15 others,
mainly Soviet players.
1935 Margate
2nd 7/9 +6 -1 =2 Behind Samuel Reshevsky (7.5); ahead of
eight others.
1936 Margate
2nd 7/9 +5 -0 =4 Behind Flohr (7.5); ahead of Gideon
Stehlberg and eight others.
1936 Moscow
1st 13/18 +8 -0 =10 Ahead of Botvinnik (12), Flohr (9.5),
Lilienthal (9), Viacheslav Ragozin (8.5), Lasker (8) and
four others.
1936 Nottingham
1st= 10/14 +7 -1 =6 Tied with Botvinnik; ahead of Euwe
(9.5), Reuben Fine (9.5), Reshevsky (9.5), Alekhine (9),
Flohr (8.5), Lasker (8.5) and seven other strong opponents.
1937 Semmering
3rd= 7.5/14 +2 -1 =11 Behind Paul Keres (9), Fine (8); tied
with Reshevsky; ahead of Flohr (7), Erich Eliskases (6),
Ragozin (6) and Vladimir Petrov (5).
1938 Paris
1st= 8/10 +6 -0 =4 Ahead of Nicolas Rossolimo (7.5) and
four others.
1938 AVRO tournament, at ten cities in the Netherlands
7th 6/14 +2 -4 =8 Behind Keres (8.5), Fine (8.5), Botvinnik
(7.5), Alekhine (7), Euwe (7) and Reshevsky (7); ahead of
Flohr (4.5).
1939 Margate
2nd= 6.5/9 +4 -0 =5 Behind Keres (7.5); tied with Flohr;
ahead of seven others.
At the 1939 Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires, Capablanca took the
medal for best performance on a country's first board.
++1.G Match results
Here are Capablanca's results in matches.
1901 Juan Corzo
Won Havana 7-6 +4 -3 =6 For the championship of Cuba; Corzo
was the reigning champion.
1909 Frank James Marshall
Won New York 15-8 +8 -1 =14.
1919 Boris Kostic
Won USA 5-0 +5 -0 =0.
1921 Emanuel Lasker
Won Havana 9-5 +4 -0 =10 For the World Chess Championship.
1927 Alexander Alekhine
Lost Buenos Aires 15.5-18.5 +3 -6 =25 For the World Chess
Championship.
1931 Max Euwe
Won Netherlands 6-4 +2 -0 =8 Euwe became World Champion
1935-1937.
++2. Rudolf Spielmann
Rudolf Spielmann (May 5 1883 - August 20 1942) was an Austrian-
Jewish chess player of the romantic school, and chess writer.
++2.A Career
He was trained as a lawyer but never worked as one.
Spielmann was known as "The Master of Attack" and "The Last Knight
of the King's Gambit". His daredevil play was full of sacrifices,
brilliancies, and beautiful ideas. This was exemplified, for
example, in the 1923 Carlsbad tournament, where he did not have a
single draw (with five wins and twelve losses).
Despite a strong opposition at that time with players like
Alekhine, Capablanca, Emanuel Lasker, Tarrasch, Rubinstein,
Nimzowitsch, and Tartakower, Spielmann managed to score well in
numerous tournaments. He won 33 of the roughly 120 in which he
played, including Bad Pistyan 1912; Stockholm 1919; Bad Pistyan
1922; and Semmering 1926.
He is also remembered as the author of the classic book The Art of
Sacrifice in Chess.
As a Jew, Spielmann had to flee from the Nazis, escaping to Sweden.
He died in Stockholm in great poverty.
Spielmann was one of few players to have an even score (+2 =8 -2)
against Capablanca, one of an even smaller number to win more than
one game against him, and the only person to fulfill both of those.
Both of Spielmann's wins came shortly after Alekhine dethroned
Capablanca as World Champion in 1927: at Bad Kissingen 1928 and
Karlsbad 1929.
Here is one of Spielmann's wins:
Capablanca-Spielmann, Bad Kissingen 1928 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6
4.Nf3 dxc4 5.e3 b5 6.a4 b4 7.Na2 e6 8.Bxc4 Be7 9.O-O O-O 10.b3 c5
11.Bb2 Bb7 12.Nc1 Nc6 13.dxc5 Na5 14.Ne5 Nxc4 15.Nxc4 Bxc5 16.Nd3
Qd5 17.Nf4 Qg5 18.Bxf6 Qxf6 19.Rc1 Rfd8 20.Qh5 Rac8 21.Rfd1 g6
22.Rxd8+ Qxd8 23.Qe5 Be7 24.h3 Rc5 25.Qa1 Bf6 26.Rd1 Rd5 27.Rxd5
exd5 28.Ne5 Qd6 29.Nfd3 Ba6 30.Qe1 Bxe5 31.Nxe5 Qxe5 32.Qxb4 Bd3
33.Qc5 Qb8 34.b4 Qb7 35.b5 h5 36.Qc3 Bc4 37.e4 Qe7 38.exd5 Bxd5
39.a5 Qe4 0-1
++2.B Quotes
* According to Richard Reti, Spielmann demonstrated "unusual
resourcefulness in complicated situations, in which he felt
perfectly at home."
* Spielmann himself believed "A good sacrifice is one that is
not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and
confused."
* "Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a
magician, and the endgame like a machine." - Spielmann.
++3. Jose Raul Capablanca - Rudolf Spielmann, New York 1927
New York 1927, Round 13
White: Jose Raul Capablanca
Black: Rudolf Spielmann
Result: 1-0
ECO: D38 - Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin Defense
Notes by R.J. Macdonald
1. d4 d5
2. Nf3 e6
3. c4
(The Queen's Gambit.)
3. ... Nd7
(The Queen's Gambit Declined.)
3. c4 Nd7
4. Nc3 Ngf6
5. Bg5 Bb4
(The Ragozin Variation, which normally occurs after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3
Nf6 4. Nf3 Bb4.)
6. cxd5 exd5
7. Qa4 Bxc3+
8. bxc3 0-0
9. e3 c5
10. Bd3 c4
(10. ... h6 11. Bh4 c4 12. Bc2 g5 13. Bg3 Ne4 14. Bxe4 dxe4 15. Nd2 Nb6 16. Qb4
f5 17. Be5 Nd5 18. Qxc4 Be6 19. Qb5 Nxc3 20. Qxb7 Rf7 21. Qa6 Qd7 22. Nb3 Qc8
23. Qxc8+ Rxc8 24. Nc5 Bd7 25. h4 1-0, as in the game S. Feller (2525) - Y.
Gozzoli (2503), Nancy 2009.)
11. Bc2 Qe7
12. 0-0 a6
(12. ... h6 13. Bh4 Qe6 14. Nd2 Nb6 15. Qa5 Ne4 16. Nxe4 dxe4 17. f3 Qd5 18.
Qc5 Qxc5 19. dxc5 Nd5 20. Bxe4 Nxc3 21. Bc2 Bd7 22. a4 Nd5 23. Be4 Bc6 24. Bxd5
Bxd5 25. e4 Be6 26. Rfb1 Rfc8 27. Be7 1/2-1/2 in 53 moves, as in the game I.
Farago (2520) - D. Sifrer (2355), Ljubljana 1992. 12... h6 13. Bh4 gives white
a slight advantage.)
13. Rfe1 Qe6
(13. ... h6 14. Bh4 is strong for white.)
14. Nd2 b5
15. Qa5
(15. Qb4 h6 16. Bf4 Bb7 is strong for white.)
15. ... Ne4
(15. ... h6!? 16. Bh4 Qb6 17. Qxb6 Nxb6 18. Bxf6 gxf6 is strong for white.)
16. Nxe4
(White's position is now very strong.)
16. ... dxe4
17. a4
Key Move Diagram:
r1b2rk1/
3n1ppp/
p3q3/
Qp4B1/
P1pPp3/
2P1P3/
2B2PPP/
R3R1K1
Position after white's 17th move.
17. ... Qd5?
(17. ... Nb6 is relatively better, but white still has a very strong advantage.)
18. axb5 Qxg5
(18. ... Qe6 cannot change what is in store for black: 19. Bf4 is very strong
for white.)
19. Bxe4 Rb8
(19. ... Rb8 20. bxa6 Qxa5 21. Rxa5 Rb2 is decisive for white.)
20. bxa6 Rb5
21. Qc7 Nb6
22. a7 Bh3
23. Reb1 Rxb1+
(23. ... f5 24. Bf3 f4 25. exf4 1-0 as in the game Y. Marie (2055) - P. Cotton,
Paris 1998. 23. ... Bxg2 is pure desperation: 24. Bxg2 Na8 25. Qxc4 Rb6 26.
Rxb6 Nxb6 is decisive for white.)
24. Rxb1 f5
25. Bf3
(25. Qxb6?? - White is doomed if he takes the knight: 25. ... fxe4 26. Qe6+
Bxe6 is very strong for black. 25. Rxb6 is a weaker possibility: 25. ... fxe4
26. Qxc4+ Kh8 is also very strong for white.)
25. ... f4
26. exf4
(Black resigned. 26. exf4 Rxf4 27. a8=Q+ Rf8 28. Qab7 is decisive for white.)
1-0
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