(November 19, 1888 – March 8, 1942) was a famous Cuban chess player in the early to mid twentieth century. Referred to by many chess historians as the Mozart of chess, Jose Capablanca was a chess prodigy whose brilliance was noted at an early age. He was the game’s third World Champion, between 1921 and 1927.

According to Capablanca, he learned the rules of the game at the age of four by watching his father play. He said he noticed his father make an illegal move with his knight, accused him of cheating, and then demonstrated what he had done. Capablanca was taken to the Havana Chess Club when he was five, where the leading players found it impossible to beat the young boy when giving him the handicap of a queen. In 1901, at the age of 12, he defeated Cuban national champion Juan Corzo by the score of 4 wins, 3 losses, and 6 draws.

In 1909, at the age of 20, Capablanca won a match against US champion Frank Marshall. Marshall insisted that Capablanca be allowed to play in a tournament at San Sebastián, Spain in 1911. It was one of the strongest tournaments of the time. All of the world’s leading players except world champion Emmanuel Lasker were in attendance. At the beginning of the tournament Ossip Bernstein and Aaron Nimzowitsch objected to Capablanca’s presence because he had not won a major tournament. But after Capablanca won his first round game against Bernstein, with an effort which was to win the tournament’s brilliancy prize, Bernstein quickly acknowleged Capablanca’s talent and said that he wouldn’t be surprised if Capablanca won the tournament. Nimzowitsch took offense when Capablanca made a comment while watching one of his blitz , and remarked that unproven players should hold their tongue in the presence of their betters. Capablanca quickly challenged Nimzowitsch to a series of fast , which he won easily. The assembled masters soon concluded that Capablanca had no equal at fast chess, a distinction which was to remain his until virtually the end of his life. Capablanca went on to win his tournament game with Nimzowitsch as well, using an opening setup much admired by Mikhail Botvinnik. By tournament’s end, Capablanca had astounded the chess world by taking first place at San Sebastián, with a score of +6 -1 =7, ahead of Akiba Rubinstein, Carl Schlechter and Siegbert Tarrasch.

In 1911, Jose Capablanca challenged Emanuel Lasker for the world championship. Lasker accepted his challenge but proposed seventeen conditions for the match. Capablanca disapproved of some of the conditions and the match did not take place.

In 1913, Jose Capablanca played in his home town of Havana and came second to Frank Marshall, and lost one of their individual after having a much better position. Reuben Fine claimed that Capablanca had the mayor clear all the spectators so they wouldn’t see him resign, and this story has uncritically circulated in books and around the Internet. However, Winter’s book below (pp. 47–48) documents that Fine’s story has no basis whatever. Instead, there were 600 spectators present, who naturally favored their native hero, but sportingly gave Marshall “thunderous applause”. Marshall’s own notes corroborated this—when he heard the roar, he thought that the crowd was going to kill him, and he asked for security escort “and quickly rushed over to my hotel. Afterwards I was told they were cheering for me.”

Then he scored +13 -0 =0 in a tournament in New York, although Oldrich Duras was the only International Grandmaster class opponent.

In September 1913, Capablanca secured a job in the Cuban Foreign Office. He appears not to have had any specific duties other than playing chess, but what he had he was reported to have carried out conscientiously. For many years, he was the most famous Cuban alive.

Then he played in a series of matches in Europe against some of the top players of his day. In Berlin, he defeated Jacques Mieses and Richard Teichmann; in Moscow, he played a six-game series, two games against Alexander Alekhine, Eugene Znosko-Borovsky and Fyodor Dus-Khotimirsky, losing once to Znosko-Borovsky and winning the rest—his first encounters with Alekhine, who was outclassed; then in Vienna he defeated both Richard Réti and Savielly Tartakower 1.5-0.5 each. Then he beat Bernstein in Moscow in a game listed in many anthologies as a brilliancy for winning move …Qb2!! and for the new strategy with hanging pawns, and defeated Nimzowitsch in an elegant opposite-colored bishop endgame. Capablanca also gave many simultaneous exhibitions noted for their speed and very high winning scores.

At the great 1914 tournament in St. Petersburg, with most of the world’s leading players (except those of the Austro-Hungarian empire), Capablanca met the great Lasker across the chessboard for the first time in normal tournament play (Capablanca had won a knock-out lightning chess final game in 1906, leading to a famous joint endgame composition). Capablanca took the large lead of one and a half points in the preliminary rounds, and made Lasker fight hard to draw. He again won the first brilliancy prize against Bernstein and had some highly regarded wins against David Janowsky, Nimzowitsch and Alekhine.

However, Jose Capablanca fell victim to a comeback by Lasker in the second stage of the tournament, including a famous victory by Lasker. Capablanca finished second to Lasker with a score of 13 points to Lasker’s 13.5, but ahead of third-placed Alexander Alekhine. After this tournament, Tsar Nicholas II proclaimed the five prize-winners (Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, Marshall) as “Grandmasters of Chess”.

In 1920, Lasker saw that Capablanca was becoming too strong, and resigned the title to him, saying, “You have earned the title not by the formality of a challenge, but by your brilliant mastery.” Capablanca wanted to win it in a match, but Lasker insisted that he was now the challenger. They played a match in Havana in 1921, and Capablanca defeated Lasker +4 -0 =10. This feat of winning the world title without losing a game to the incumbent went unequalled for almost eight decades, until Vladimir Kramnik’s win over Garry Kasparov +2 -0 =13 in 2000.

This was Capablanca’s first game with Alekhine since their great match, and the Cuban did not miss his chance to avenge that defeat. He had the worse position, but caught Alekhine in such a deep trap, allowing him to win the exchange, that none of the other players could work out where Alekhine went wrong, except Lasker who immediately saw the mistake. Capablanca recounted this episode in Capablanca’s Legacy: Capablanca’s Last Chess Lectures, pp. 111–112, expressing his admiration for Lasker’s insight even in his sixties. But Capablanca didn’t mention that his opponent was Alekhine. Their feud was still intense, so they were never seen seated together at the board for more than a few seconds. Each man made his move and then got up and walked round.

In 1937, Euwe, unlike Alekhine with respect to Capablanca, fulfilled his obligation to allow Alekhine a return match. Alekhine gave up drinking, prepared well and easily regained the title. Thereafter there was little hope for Capablanca to regain his title, and Alekhine played no more world championship matches till the time of his death in 1946. The absolute control of the title by the title-holder was a major impetus for FIDE to take control of it, and try to ensure that the best challenger has a shot at the title.

Capablanca’s health took a turn for the worse. He suffered a small stroke during the AVRO tournament of 1938, and had the worst result of his career, 7th out of 8. But even at this stage of his career he was capable of producing strong results. In the 1939 Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires, he made the best score on top board for Cuba, ahead of Alekhine and Paul Keres.

On 7 March 1942, he was happily kibitzing a skittles game at Manhattan Chess Club in New York when he collapsed from a stroke. He was taken to Mount Sinai hospital, where he died the next morning. Remarkably, the Cuban’s great rival, German-born Emanuel Lasker, had died in that very hospital only a year before.

His bitter rival Alekhine wrote on Capablanca’s death, “With his death, we have lost a very great chess genius whose like we shall never see again”

Sources: Wiki/CapablancaKing/InternetPhotosrlier/YouTube/TheCubanHistory.com
Jose Raul Capablanca/ TheCubanHistory.com

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