José Raúl Capablanca was the third World Champion and one of the strongest players in the history of chess. Below, I explore his life and games.
Photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Harris & Ewing, [LC-DIG-hec-05488], Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Table of contents:
Biography
Early life
José Raúl Capablanca was born in 1888 in Havana, Cuba. He grew up in a large family, with many siblings. Havana had a strong chess culture at the time, hosting the Steinitz vs Chigorin World Championship matches in 1889 and 1892, as well as the Gunsberg vs Chigorin match in 1890. This made it a great place for the young Capablanca to improve his chess, after learning to play at the age of four. Already in 1901, barely a teenager, Capablanca won a match against Corzo, the champion of Cuba at the time. The following year, he finished 4th at the first Cuban Championship.
Life in America
Around 1904, Capablanca moved to America, and started to spend time at the famous Brooklyn and Manhattan chess clubs. This furthered his chess development, and in 1906, he won a strong rapid tournament ahead of the World Champion, Emanuel Lasker. In 1908, he dropped out of engineering at Columbia University to spend more time on chess. No longer bound by academic obligations, Capablanca spent the end of 1908 and the beginning of 1909 travelling and giving simuls in various towns, winning a very high percentage of his games. This gave him the opportunity to challenge Marshall to a match in 1909, the same year that Marshall became champion of America. However, Capablanca won the match without great difficulty, by eight wins to one, with 14 draws.
International breakthrough
Capablanca won a tournament in New York in 1910, came second behind Marshall at a New York tournament in 1911, and spent March and April of that year giving simuls in France and Germany. However, the main event of this time was the incredibly strong tournament at San Sebastian in 1911, which boasted a field including many of the world’s strongest players. It is thought that some participants, notably Bernstein, objected to Capablanca’s participation, claiming he had not achieved enough to be invited to such a tournament.
However, Marshall, having felt Capablanca’s strength first hand, pushed for his inclusion, and he was eventually allowed to play. At the tournament, Capablanca produced an incredible performance, claiming first place with 9,5/14. He also defeated Bernstein in their individual game in the first round. This game would win the brilliancy prize.
Before WWI
Following this success, Capablanca challenged Lasker to a match for the World Championship, but they could not agree terms. He therefore toured Europe, giving more simuls, before returning to America. There he won a short match against Charles Jaffe in New York in 1912.
1913 was an interesting year for Capablanca. He won a tournament in New York, and came second in a tournament in Havana, half a point behind the winner, Marshall. He also won a short match against Alekhine (2-0). However, the highlight of the year was winning another New York tournament with the perfect score of 13/13. Also in this year, Capablanca was made an ambassador of Cuba, which allowed him to earn a steady income while travelling the world to play chess.
1914 saw Capablanca take 2nd place at the incredibly strong international tournament at St Petersburg, finishing only half a point behind the World Champion. Capablanca and Lasker began to discuss terms for a World Championship Match once again, but the talks were interrupted by the start of WWI. Interestingly, Capablanca also won a blitz match against Lasker in Berlin in 1914, by the score of 6,5-3,5.
WWI
The First World War broke out in 1914, and Capablanca spent the war years in America, winning the New York tournaments of 1915, 1916, and 1918. He also won another match against Marshall in 1916. It was clear that Capablanca’s chess abilities had outgrown the American continents.
Kostic and Hastings
After the war, Capablanca won a match against Boris Kostic in 1919 in Havana, with Kostic resigning the match after losing the first five games. This was especially impressive considering that Kostic had taken second place at New York 1918. Capablanca then won Hastings in 1919, one of the first international tournaments after the war, with the incredible score of 10,5/11.
World Champion
At the beginning of 1920, Capablanca and Lasker agreed terms for a World Championship Match. However, in June, Lasker attempted to resign the title to Capablanca. Not wanting to gain the title without winning a match, Capablanca travelled to Europe to meet Lasker and agree terms for the match once more. The match did take place, in Havana in 1921. Lasker resigned the match after 14 games, trailing by zero wins to Capablanca’s four, and thus Capablanca became the third World Chess Champion.
Around this time, Capablanca had two books published: My Chess Career in 1920 and Chess Fundamentals, in 1921. Rubinstein and Alekhine both challenged Capablanca for the title in 1921 but were unable to raise the necessary funding for the match. Capablanca therefore again began giving simuls, including a particularly memorable occasion in Cleveland, Ohio, where he scored 102 wins and one draw.
Life as World Champion
The very strong tournament of London 1922 was a resounding success, where he finished first, going undefeated, in a field including Alekhine, Rubinstein and Bogoljubow. After the tournament, Capablanca drew up the “London Rules”, an attempt to standardise the rules for arranging and contesting World Championship matches.
These were significant years for Capablanca in his personal life. 1922 also saw Capablanca getting married, with his first son born the following year, and his daughter born in 1925. In 1926, his mother passed away.
In 1924, he took second place behind Lasker at the famous tournament in New York, losing a game for the first time in eight years. 1925 saw Capablanca take third at Moscow, behind Bogoljubow and Lasker. Interestingly, in a simul he gave in the Soviet Union in 1925, his only loss was to a 14-year-old Mikhail Botvinnik.
Battle with Alekhine
In 1926, Alekhine managed to raise the necessary funds, and Capablanca agreed to a World Championship Match to be played the following year, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Before then, however, Capablanca dominated New York 1927, winning by 2,5 points ahead of Alekhine, Nimzowitsch, Spielmann, Vidmar, and Marshall, and going undefeated.
He was therefore seen as the overwhelming favourite to defend his title against Alekhine that year. However, Alekhine had prepared thoroughly, and surprised the chess world by taking the crown in a hard-fought match, by six wins to three, with 25 draws. After the match, Alekhine stated that he would be willing to play another title match with Capablanca under the same conditions that Capablanca had offered him.
Attempts at a rematch
In 1928, Capablanca bounced back to finish first at Budapest, second at Bad Kissingen, and first at Berlin. He challenged Alekhine for the title in October. However, he had delayed for slightly too long: Bogoljubow had already issued a challenge, in August. Alekhine thus played a World Championship Match with Bogoljubow instead, in 1929.
The day after Alekhine defended his crown against Bogoljubow, Capablanca again challenged Alekhine. However, this was the year that the stock market in America crashed, and Capablanca lost his funding for the match, causing more delays. Despite this, he continued to play strongly in tournaments, sharing second with Spielmann behind Nimzowitsch at Carlsbad, and taking first at Ramsgate. Capablanca also won Budapest 1929, Barcelona 1929 (with 13,5/14, two points ahead of Tartakower in second) and Hastings 1929/30.
At Hastings 1930/1, Capablanca finished second, behind Max Euwe. The two subsequently played a match of 10 games, with Capablanca winning by two wins to none. He once again challenged Alekhine for the crown, but again, this challenge did not lead to a match. Following this, Capablanca took a three-year break from tournament chess.
A disappointing return
He returned to take 4th at Hastings 1934/5, 4th at Moscow 1935, and 2nd at Margate behind Reshevsky. His third book, A Primer of Chess, was published in 1935. It appeared to some that age and the rising talents of the new generation had pushed Capablanca out of the world’s elite.
Rise in form
However, the year 1936 saw Capablanca achieve some incredible results. He finished second at Margate 1936, only half a point behind Flohr, and 1st at Moscow that same year, ahead of Botvinnik, Flohr, Lilienthal and Lasker. He then shared 1st place with Botvinnik at Nottingham 1936, ahead of Fine, Reshevsky, Euwe, Alekhine and Lasker.
In 1937, he shared third with Reshevsky at Semmering, behind Keres and Fine. This was also the year in which Alekhine retook the crown from Euwe, and he subsequently offered Capablanca a World Championship Match to be played in 1939 at Buenos Aires. Capablanca would finally get another opportunity.
Advancing years
1938 saw Capablanca remarry, after his divorce the previous year. However, he turned 50 this year, and he began to experience health problems. He won a tournament in Paris ahead of Rossolimo, but finished a disappointing 7th out of 8 at the famous AVRO 1938 tournament. This was the only tournament in his career in which he lost more games than he won, and he may have suffered a stroke during the tournament, although this is unclear.
A strong finish
Capablanca finished his chess career strongly. Shared 2nd with Flohr at Margate 1939, behind only Keres, was followed by the best result on board 1 at the Olympiad, where he represented the Cuban team. He finished the event with 7 wins and nine draws. However, WWII broke out during the Olympiad, which destroyed Capablanca’s last hope of again competing in a World Championship Match. His health continued to decline, and he died in 1942, at the age of 54.
Legacy
Today, Capablanca is remembered as the third World Champion and one of the strongest players in the history of chess. Generations of players have grown up learning from his games, which are particularly instructive. His books, especially Chess Fundamentals, are still popular today.
Game Analysis
Capablanca’s victory against Winter at Hastings 1919 has become a famous example on the theme of restricting an enemy bishop.
Lessons from this game:
- When one piece is clearly better than its counterpart, exchanging the other pieces off highlights this advantage. In this game, the superiority of black’s dark squared bishop is made even more impactful by exchanging off the other minor pieces.
- Doubled pawns can be useful! In this game, black’s doubled c pawns control many important central squares. They are not weak, as white cannot attack them.
- An open file is only useful if it can be used to attack the opponent’s weaknesses or invade the enemy position.
Puzzles
Rubinstein – Capablanca, New York 1913
Janowski – Capablanca, New York 1916
Capablanca – Lasker, World Championship Match, Havana 1921
Nimzowitsch – Capablanca, New York 1927
Solutions
Further Reading
For more information about Capablanca, the following are great resources:
My Great Predecessors, Volume 1 by Kasparov,
this YouTube video by Lucas Anderson,
his chessgames.com page,
his chess.com page,
this chessbase article by Eugene Manlapao,
this chessbase article by Sundararajan Kidambi,
and this list of articles about Capablanca on chesshistory.com.
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