José Raúl Capablanca
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| Surname | José Raúl Capablanca |
| Association |
 Cuba
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| Born | November 19, 1888 Havana , Cuba |
| Died | March 8, 1942 New York City |
| World Champion | 1921-1927 |
| Best Elo rating | 2877 (May 1921; historical ) |
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (born November 19, 1888 in Havana , † March 8, 1942 in New York ) was a Cuban chess player and diplomat. From 1921 to 1927 he was the third world chess champion .
Life
Capablanca was the son of a Spanish colonial official. He was considered a child prodigy and learned to play chess at the age of four. Allegedly, he is said to have taught himself this by simply watching his father's games, which Capablanca himself relegated to the realm of fable in later years. The fact is, however, that he had considerable skill levels from a very young age.
At the age of twelve, Capablanca won a competition against the Cuban national champion Juan Corzo 4-3 in six draws . He later studied chemistry and exercise at Columbia University in New York . In 1909 he won a match against leading American champion Frank Marshall by a clear 8-1 with 14 draws. His international breakthrough came at the tournament in San Sebastián in 1911, which he won in front of famous masters such as Akiba Rubinstein , Milan Vidmar and Carl Schlechter . From 1913 he was in Cuba's diplomatic service , but was de facto able to devote himself entirely to chess.
In April / May 1914 one of the most important tournaments in chess history took place in St. Petersburg . Capablanca achieved a lead of 1 ½ points over world champion Emanuel Lasker in the general tournament . Lasker made up for the deficit in the winning tournament of the top five players, defeated Capablanca and was tournament winner with 13½ points from 18 games, half a point ahead of Capablanca.
In 1921 Capablanca won the world title in a competition against Lasker (4 wins, 10 draws, no defeat). He lost it in Buenos Aires in 1927 to Alexander Alekhine (3: 6 in 25 draws). There was no longer a fight for revenge because Capablanca and Alekhine could not agree on the modalities; some authors say that Alekhine deliberately avoided a fight for revenge.
Capablanca was among the best in the world until the mid-1930s. So in 1936 he won tournaments in Moscow (sole winner before Botvinnik) and Nottingham (shared with Botvinnik). During the AVRO tournament in 1938 , he suffered a first slight stroke, was impaired and only finished second to last.
In 1942, Capablanca suffered another stroke while lapwing at the Manhattan Chess Club , from which he never recovered. He died in the same clinic as Lasker a year earlier. His final resting place is in the Columbus Cemetery in Havana.
Marriages:
Capablanca married his first wife Gloria Simioni y Betancourt in 1921 , with whom he had been introduced a few months before the marriage by the Cuban minister Gonzalo de Quesada . She came from a family of Cuban patriots who had been honored for their services in the War of Independence . The marriage, which resulted in two children, was divorced in 1937. On October 20, 1938, he married his second wife Olga Chagodaev (née Choubaroff) (born September 23, 1898 in Georgia , † April 24, 1994 in Manhattan ), a Russian princess whom he had met in 1934, in New York .
game
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Capablanca's style was very solid. He played with great ease and was considered hard to beat in his prime between 1914 and 1924. He himself claimed to calculate up to 25 moves (not half moves) in endgames . Because of its precise game, Capablanca was also called the chess machine . From 1914 to 1927 he lost only five tournament games, of 578 serious games only 36.
In addition to its outstanding technique, Capablanca was also known for its so-called "petites combinaisons": short, not particularly complicated combinations that had to be seen well in advance. An example from Capablanca's youth is his game against Ettlinger, which was played in New York in 1907. In the position in the diagram, 1.… Sa5 – c4 followed. A pawn sacrifice to activate the king via the d5 square. 2. Se3xc4 d5xc4 3. Tb4xc4 Ke6-d5 4. Tc4-c8 KD5 e4 5. Rc8-e8 + Ke4-d3 6. Te8xe2 f3xe2 + Redundant figures were abgetauscht, the black king enters the position and supports the far advanced passed pawn . 7. Kd1 – e1 Bb6 – c7 8. Bd2 – f4 Bc7 – a5 9. Bf4 – d2 f5 – f4! A petite combinaison. White can neither allow the further advance of this pawn nor capture it with the bishop, since the c3 pawn is hanging. 10. g3xf4 La5-d8 The Pointe, it threatens crucial Lh4 matt . White gave up.
Capablanca was convinced that chess would lose its appeal if in future most of the games ended in a draw due to the high playing technique of the chess masters ("draw death" of the chess game). So he suggested a variant of chess on a larger board with additional pieces to make the game even more complicated. Although this variant did not catch on, some modern variants of conventional chess build on it. However, further developments showed that Capablanca had underestimated the complexity of the game of chess; to this day his fear of a remistod has not come true , even considering the enormous strength of computer chess .
Capablanca reached its highest historical rating of 2877 in May 1921 after winning the world championship against Lasker.
Lots
- Capablanca - Bernstein, San Sebastián 1911
- Lasker - Capablanca, St. Petersburg 1914
- Capablanca - Marshall, New York 1918
- Botvinnik - Capablanca, Rotterdam 1938
List of tournament and competition results
| year | competition | place | Result / score | rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | Competition against Juan Corzo | Havana | 7/13 (+4 = 6 −3) | Capablanca wins 7-6 |
| 1906 | Short competition with Robert Raubitschek | New York City | 2/2 (+2 = 0 −0) | Capablanca won 2-0 |
| University team fights | New York City | 4.5 / 5 (+4 = 1 −0) | Capablanca played for Columbia University in New York . | |
| 1909 | Competition against Frank James Marshall | New York City | 15/23 (+8 = 14 −1) | Capablanca won 15-8 |
| 1910 | New York State Chess Association Championship | New York City | unknown | 1st place |
| 1911 | New York State Chess Association Championship | New York City | 9.5 / 12 (+8 = 3 −1) | 2nd place |
| International tournament | San Sebastian | 9.5 / 14 (+6 = 7 −1) | 1st place | |
| 1913 | Competition with Charles Jaffé | New York City | 2.5 / 3 (+2 = 1 −0) | Jaffé resigned at 2.5-0.5 for Capablanca. |
| New York State Chess Association Championship | New York City | 11/13 (+10 = 7 −1) | 1st place | |
| International tournament | Havana | 10/14 (+8 = 4 −2) | 2nd place | |
| Rice Memorial Tournament | New York City | 13/13 (+13 = 0 −0) | 1st place | |
| 1914 | International tournament | St. Petersburg | 13/18 (+10 = 6 −2) | 2nd place |
| 1915 | New York State Chess Association Championship | New York City | 13/14 (+12 = 2 −0) | 1st place |
| 1916 | Rice Memorial Tournament | New York City | 14/17 (+12 = 4 −1) | 1st place |
| 1918 | Manhattan tournament | New York City | 10.5 / 12 (+9 = 3 −0) | 1st place |
| 1919 | Competition with Boris Kostić | Havana | 5/5 (+5 = 0 −0) | Capablanca won 5-0 |
| International tournament | Hastings | 10.5 / 11 (+10 = 1 −0) | 1st place | |
| 1921 | Competition for the world championship against Emanuel Lasker | Havana | 9/14 (+4 = 10 −0) | Lasker gave up the competition when the score was 5-9 (it was played on 6 winning games), Capablanca became the new world champion. |
| 1922 | International tournament | London | 13/15 (+11 = 4 −0) | 1st place |
| 1924 | International tournament | New York City | 14.5 / 20 (+10 = 9 −1) | 2nd place |
| 1925 | International tournament | Moscow | 13.5 / 20 (+9 = 9 −2) | 3rd place |
| 1926 | International tournament | Lake Hopatcong | 6/8 (+4 = 4 −0) | 1st place |
| 1927 | International tournament | New York City | 14/20 (+8 = 12 −0) | 1st place |
| Competition for the world championship against Alexander Alekhine | Buenos Aires | 15.5 / 34 (+3 = 25 −6) | Alekhine wins with 18.5-15.5 and becomes the new world champion. | |
| 1928 | International tournament | Bad Kissingen | 7/11 (+4 = 6 −1) | 2nd place |
| International tournament | Berlin | 8.5 / 12 (+5 = 7 −0) | 1st place | |
| International tournament | Budapest | 7/9 (+5 = 4 −0) | 1st place | |
| 1929 | International team tournament: England-foreign guests | Ramsgate | 5.5 / 7 (+4 = 3 −0) | Capablanca played for the guests |
| International tournament | Budapest | 10.5 / 13 (+8 = 5 −0) | 1st place | |
| International tournament | Carlsbad | 14.5 / 21 (+10 = 9 −2) | 2-3 Place (shared with Rudolf Spielmann ) | |
| International tournament | Barcelona | 13.5 / 14 (+13 = 1 −0) | 1st place | |
| 1929/1930 | International tournament | Hastings | 6.5 / 9 (+4 = 5 −0) | 1st place |
| 1930/1931 | International tournament | Hastings | 6.5 / 9 (+5 = 3 −1) | 2nd place |
| 1931 | Competition with Max Euwe | Amsterdam | 6/10 (+2 = 8 −0) | Capablanca wins by 6-4 |
| Championship tournament | New York City | 10/11 (+9 = 2 −0) | 1st place | |
| 1934/1935 | International tournament | Hastings | 5.5 / 9 (+4 = 3 −2) | 4th Place |
| 1935 | International tournament | Moscow | 12/19 (+7 = 10 −2) | 4th Place |
| International tournament | Margate | 7/9 (+6 = 2 −1) loss to Reshevsky | 2nd place | |
| 1936 | International tournament | Margate | 7/9 (+5 = 4 −0) | 2nd place |
| International tournament | Moscow | 13/18 (+8 = 10 −0) | 1st place | |
| International tournament | Nottingham | 10/14 (+7 = 6 −1) | 1st – 2nd Place (shared with Michail Botvinnik ) | |
| 1937 | International tournament | Semmering , Baden near Vienna | 7.5 / 14 (+2 = 11 −1) loss to Eliskases | 3rd to 4th Place (shared with Samuel Reshevsky ) |
| 1938 | Championship tournament | Paris | 8/10 (+6 = 4 −0) | 1st place |
| AVRO tournament | Amsterdam, The Hague , Rotterdam , Groningen , Zwolle , Haarlem , Utrecht , Arnhem , Breda and Leiden | 6/14 (+2 = 8 −4) defeats against Keres, Euwe, etc. a. | 7th place | |
| 1939 | International tournament | Margate | 6.5 / 9 (+4 = 5 −0) | 2-3 Place (shared with Salo Flohr ) |
| Chess Olympiad | Buenos Aires | 11.5 / 16 (+7 = 9 −0) | Capablanca played on the first board for Cuba |
The Capablanca-Hagenlocher legend
The anecdote is circulating that Capablanca had a mini-competition in billiards and chess, each with a handicap, with the carambola player Erich Hagenlocher in the 1920s. According to research by Chess History , however, it is a joke by Hans Klüver in Die Welt 1951.
Movie
- Schachfieber (1925) with Capablanca as a supporting actor in the film humor
Works
- My chess career (1920, German: My chess career)
- Chess fundamentals (1921), German edition: Basic principles of chess strategy, Joachim Beyer Verlag, Eltmann 2007 ISBN 978-3888052927 .
- A Primer of Chess (1935)
- Ultimas lecciones (1942), German edition: Last chess lessons , Joachim Beyer Verlag, Eltmann 2014 ISBN 978-3940417558 .
literature
- Max Euwe , Lodewijk Prins : Capablanca. The chess phenomenon. The chess archive, Hamburg 1979.
- Harry Golombek : Capablanca's Hundred Best Games of Chess. G. Bell & Sons, London 1947 (1980 edition: ISBN 0-7135-1962-2 , German translation 1970 under the title JR Capablanca, 75 of his most beautiful games ).
- Wassilij N. Panow : Capablanca - the chess phenomenon. From child prodigy to world chess champion. Franckh, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-440-05110-2 .
- Robert Hübner : The competition Capablanca - Aljechin, Buenos Aires 1927. In: Schach , 1998, Issue 5: pp. 5–22, Issue 6: pp. 52–71, Issue 8: pp. 55–69.
- Isaak and Wladimir Linder: The chess genius Capablanca. Sportverlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-328-00238-3 .
- Miguel A. Sánchez: José Raúl Capablanca. A chess biography. McFarland, Jefferson NC 2015. ISBN 978-0-7864-7004-4 .
- Edward Winter : Capablanca. McFarland, Jefferson NC 1989, ISBN 0-89950-455-8 .
- Werner Lauterbach : José Raoul Capablanca. A chess myth. Rau, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-7919-0286-5 (with contributions from his wife Olga Capablanca-Clark and Michail Botwinnik ).
- Fritz C. Görschen: Capablanca's losing games. The Chess Archive, 2nd edition, Hamburg 1976.
Web links
- Literature by and about José Raúl Capablanca in the catalog of the German National Library
- Interview of the reporter Han Hollander with Capablanca and Euwe (1935) (English / Dutch) rare video and audio document Capablanca
- Replayable chess games by José Raúl Capablanca on 365Chess.com (English)
- Capablanca's chess on chessvariants.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Colonial and Foreign News. In: The British Chess Magazine . May 1922 (published May 1, 1922). P. 206.
- ↑ Edward Winter: The Genius and the Princess (1999)
- ^ André Schulz : Raul Capablanca, for his 130th birthday In: de.chessbase.com. November 19, 2018, accessed August 13, 2019.
- ^ Fritz C. Görschen (1976)
- ↑ Capablanca's historic Elo rating based on Jeff Sonas
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Capablanca, José Raúl |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Capablanca y Graupera, José Raúl (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Cuban chess player and world chess champion |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 19, 1888 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Havana |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 8, 1942 |
| Place of death | New York City |