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158-509: José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was the third world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy , he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Capablanca was born in 1888 in the Castillo del Príncipe , Havana . He beat Cuban champion Juan Corzo in a match on 17 November 1901, two days before his 13th birthday. His victory over Frank Marshall in

316-465: A short tied match against Carl Schlechter , although the exact conditions of this match are a mystery. He then defeated Dawid Janowski in the most one-sided title match in history later in 1910 . Lasker's negotiations for title matches from 1911 onwards were extremely controversial. In 1911, he received a challenge for a world title match against José Raúl Capablanca and, in addition to making severe financial demands, proposed some novel conditions:

474-448: A 1909 match earned him an invitation to the 1911 San Sebastián tournament , which he won ahead of players such as Akiba Rubinstein , Aron Nimzowitsch and Siegbert Tarrasch . Over the next several years, Capablanca had a strong series of tournament results. After several unsuccessful attempts to arrange a match with then world champion Emanuel Lasker , Capablanca finally won the world chess champion title from Lasker in 1921. Capablanca

632-415: 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

790-486: A challenge for a purse of less than US$ 10,000 (about $ 260,000 in 2006 terms); 20% of the purse was to be paid to the title holder and the remainder divided, 60% to the winner of the match, and 40% to the loser; the highest purse bid must be accepted. Alekhine, Efim Bogoljubow , Géza Maróczy , Richard Réti , Rubinstein, Tartakower and Vidmar promptly signed them. Between 1921 and 1923 Alekhine, Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch all challenged Capablanca, but only Alekhine could raise

948-508: 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. In 1940, he had extremely dangerous hypertension of 210 systolic /180 diastolic ( hypertensive crisis is 180/120 or above, and even after treatment Capablanca had 180/130). After winning at Paris in 1938 and placing second in

1106-586: A championship match between Karpov and Timman. For the first time in history, there were two World Chess Champions: Kasparov defeated Short and Karpov beat Timman . FIDE and the PCA each held a championship cycle in 1993–1996, with many of the same challengers playing in both. Kasparov and Karpov both won their respective cycles. In the PCA cycle, Kasparov defeated Viswanathan Anand in the PCA World Chess Championship 1995 . Karpov defeated Gata Kamsky in

1264-425: A claim while Morphy was alive (Morphy died in 1884). There are a number of references to Steinitz as world champion in the 1870s, the earliest being after the first Zukertort match in 1872. Later, in 1879, it was argued that Zukertort was world champion, since Morphy and Steinitz were not active. However, later in his career, at least from 1887, Steinitz dated his reign from this 1866 match, and early sources such as

1422-408: A comeback in 1934, with good results, but also showed symptoms of high blood pressure . He died in 1942 of a brain hemorrhage . Capablanca excelled in simple positions and endgames; Bobby Fischer described him as possessing a "real light touch". He could play tactical chess when necessary, and had good defensive technique. He wrote several chess books during his career, of which Chess Fundamentals

1580-665: 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. Capablanca founded no school per se , but his style influenced world champions Fischer, Karpov, and Botvinnik. Alekhine received schooling from Capablanca in positional play before their fight for

1738-578: 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 1 January 1927, to provide a deposit in order to 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 , held from 19 February to 23 March 1927, six of

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1896-411: A hypertensive thalamic hemorrhage. The hospital admissions report stated: When admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital, the examination showed: Patient critically ill in deep coma, unreceptive to nocioceptive stimuli, unequal pupils with the left one dilated (fixed and unresponsive to light), left facial palsy, left hemiplegia, globally depressed tendinous reflexes and arterial tension 280/140. A lumbar puncture

2054-846: A job in the Cuban Foreign Office, which made him financially secure for life. Hooper and Whyld write, "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 four games. 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

2212-480: A letter confirming it. The match was played in March–April 1921; Lasker resigned it after 14 games, having lost four and won none. Reuben Fine and Harry Golombek attributed the one-sided result to Lasker's 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

2370-640: A match (8–6, 0 draws). However, he was not immediately able to conclusively demonstrate his superiority. Steinitz placed third at the Paris 1867 chess tournament , behind Kolisch and Szymon Winawer ; he placed second at the Dundee 1867 tournament, behind Gustav Neumann ; and he again placed second at the Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament , which was the strongest that had been held to date (Anderssen came first, and won twice against Steinitz). Steinitz confirmed his standing as

2528-550: 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 ½ point in the Margate tournaments of 1935 and 1936. At Moscow 1935 Capablanca finished fourth, 1 point behind the joint winners, while Lasker's third place at the age of 66

2686-480: A point ahead of Capablanca and 3½ 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

2844-483: A proposal put forward by the Soviet Union (authored by Mikhail Botvinnik ). The 1938 AVRO tournament was used as the basis for the 1948 Championship Tournament . The AVRO tournament had brought together the eight players who were, by general acclamation, the best players in the world at the time. Two of the participants at AVRO – Alekhine and former world champion José Raúl Capablanca – had died; but FIDE decided that

3002-609: A public funeral in Havana's Colón Cemetery on 15 March 1942. 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." 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. As an adult, Capablanca lost only 34 serious games. He

3160-466: A regular simul, no chess clocks are used (if they are involved it is called a clock simul ). The boards are usually arranged in a large circle or square and the exhibitor walks from board to board in a fixed order. Each individual participant is expected to make a move when the exhibitor arrives at their board. The exhibitor may pause briefly before playing their move, but will typically attempt to avoid lengthy pauses because too many such pauses will cause

3318-471: A rematch with 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 . It is from this period that the only surviving voiced film footage survives. He

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3476-429: A similar clause that if Lasker should resign the title after a date had been set for the match, Capablanca should become world champion. On 27 June 1920 Lasker abdicated in favor of Capablanca because of public criticism of the terms of the match, naming Capablanca as his successor. Some commentators questioned Lasker's right to name his successor; Amos Burn raised the same objection but welcomed Lasker's resignation of

3634-402: A simultaneous exhibition was hosted by Lichess for International Master Marc Esserman who engaged 100 players. He rapidly moved through a hundred Kings Pawn E4 opening and the matches lasted anywhere from thirty minutes to a full eight hours. Many top level players were involved and the exhibition lasted for just over eight hours. IM Marc Esserman won 82 of the games played with 11 ending in

3792-697: A slightly stronger tournament at Margate in 1939, Capablanca played for Cuba in the 8th Chess Olympiad , 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. Capablanca announced in advance that he would not play Alekhine if their teams met. Not long before his death, his familial hypertension had shot up to

3950-432: A super-tournament (AVRO) of ex-champions and rising stars should be held to select the next challenger. FIDE rejected this proposal and at their second attempt nominated Salo Flohr as the official challenger. Euwe then declared that: if he retained his title against Alekhine he was prepared to meet Flohr in 1940 but he reserved the right to arrange a title match either in 1938 or 1939 with José Raúl Capablanca , who had lost

4108-570: A tie-breaking rule, with Reuben Fine placed second and Capablanca and Flohr in the bottom places; and the outbreak of World War II in 1939 cut short the controversy. Alexander Alekhine died in 1946 before anyone else could win against him in match for the World Champion title. This resulted in an interregnum that made the normal procedure impossible. The situation was very confused, with many respected players and commentators offering different solutions. FIDE found it very difficult to organize

4266-475: A tradition continued of the world championship being decided by a match between the reigning champion, and a challenger: if a player thought he was strong enough, he (or his friends) would find financial backing for a match purse and challenge the reigning world champion. If he won, he would become the new champion. Steinitz successfully defended his world title against Mikhail Chigorin in 1889 , Isidor Gunsberg in 1891 , and Chigorin again in 1892 . In 1887,

4424-763: 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, Marshall, playing Black against Capablanca, unleashed a complicated counterattack, 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

4582-572: Is considered to have established Staunton as the world's strongest player, at least in England and France. By the 1830s, players from Germany and more generally Central Europe were beginning to appear on the scene: the strongest of the Berlin players around 1840 was probably Ludwig Bledow , co-founder of the Berlin Pleiades . The earliest recorded use of the term "World Champion" was in 1845, when Staunton

4740-409: Is presently defending his title against Gukesh Dommaraju in the 2024 World Chess Championship tournament. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort , which was won by Steinitz, who became the first world champion. From 1886 to 1946, the champion set the terms, requiring any challenger to raise a sizable stake and defeat

4898-467: Is some debate over whether to date Steinitz's reign as world champion from his win over Anderssen in 1866, or from his win over Zukertort in 1886. The 1886 match was clearly agreed to be for the world championship, but there is no indication that Steinitz was regarded as the defending champion. There is also no known evidence of Steinitz being called the world champion after defeating Anderssen in 1866. It has been suggested that Steinitz could not make such

José Raúl Capablanca - Misplaced Pages Continue

5056-604: Is with Euwe and Dutch radio sports journalist Han Hollander . Hollander asks Capablanca for his views on the upcoming world Championship match between Euwe and Alekhine in October of that year (1935). Capablanca replies: "Dr. Alekhine's game is 20% bluff. Dr. Euwe's game is clear and straightforward. Dr. Euwe's game—not so strong as Alekhine's in some respects—is more evenly balanced." Then Euwe gives his assessment in Dutch, explaining that his feelings alternated from optimism to pessimism, but in

5214-610: The 1984 World Chess Championship , Karpov fought against Garry Kasparov . Karpov retained the title after the tournament went for more than five months and was terminated with Karpov leading with five wins to Kasparov's three and 40 draws after 48 matches. Karpov eventually lost his title in 1985 to Kasparov, who won the title by a scoreline of 13–11. The two played three more subsequent championships in World Chess Championship 1986 (won by Kasparov, 12½–11½), World Chess Championship 1987 (drawn 12–12, Kasparov retained

5372-502: The American Chess Congress started work on drawing up regulations for the future conduct of world championship contests. Steinitz supported this endeavor, as he thought he was becoming too old to remain world champion. The proposal evolved through many forms (as Steinitz pointed out, such a project had never been undertaken before), and resulted in the 1889 tournament in New York to select a challenger for Steinitz , rather like

5530-480: The Anderssen vs Steinitz match (London, 1866); Steinitz and Zukertort played their 1886 match for £400 a side. Lasker introduced the practice of demanding that the challenger should provide the whole of the purse, and his successors followed his example up to World War II. This requirement made arranging world championship matches more difficult, for example: Marshall challenged Lasker in 1904 but could not raise

5688-622: The FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 , a double round robin tournament to be held in San Luis, Argentina between eight of the leading players in the world. However Kramnik insisted that his title be decided in a match, and declined to participate. The tournament was convincingly won by the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov , and negotiations began for a Kramnik–Topalov match to unify the title. Simultaneous exhibition In

5846-511: The Manhattan Chess Club in New York City, when he asked for help removing his coat, and collapsed shortly afterward. Eminent physician Eli Moschcowitz administered first aid and then arranged an ambulance. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital , where he died at 6:00 AM the next day. Emanuel Lasker had died in the same hospital only a year earlier. The cause of death was given as "a cerebral hemorrhage provoked by hypertension ", in particular

6004-429: 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. But he could play great tactical chess when necessary—most famously in the 1918 Manhattan Chess Club Championship tournament, when Marshall sprang

6162-538: 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. He represented Columbia on top board in intercollegiate team chess. 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

6320-516: The New York 1927 chess tournament overwhelmingly and had never lost a game to Alekhine, most pundits regarded the Cuban as the clear favorite in their World Chess Championship 1927 match. But 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

6478-485: The Queen's Gambit Declined ; all games after the first two used this opening, and Capablanca's defeat has been partially attributed to his unwillingness to attempt any other openings. Immediately after winning the match, Alekhine announced that he was willing to give Capablanca a rematch, 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

José Raúl Capablanca - Misplaced Pages Continue

6636-496: The US 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, 15–8 (8 wins, 1 loss, 14  draws )—a margin comparable to what Lasker achieved against Marshall (8 wins, no losses, 7 draws) in winning his 1907 World Championship match . After

6794-456: The World Chess Championship 2006 , and all the subsequent tournaments and matches have once again been administered by FIDE. Since 2014 , the championship has settled on a two-year cycle, with championship matches conducted every even year. The 2020 and 2022 matches were postponed to 2021 and 2023 respectively because of the COVID-19 pandemic . The next match returned to the normal schedule and

6952-550: The interregnum . The proposals which led to the 1948 Championship Tournament also specified the procedure by which challengers for the World Championship would be selected in a three-year cycle: countries affiliated to FIDE would send players to Zonal Tournaments (the number varied depending on how many good enough players each country had); the players who gained the top places in these would compete in an Interzonal Tournament (later split into two and then three tournaments as

7110-407: 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 2½ 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

7268-402: The 15th century, though rule variations persisted until the late 19th century. Before Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort in the late 19th century, no chess player seriously claimed to be champion of the world. The phrase was used by some chess writers to describe other players of their day, and the status of being the best at the time has sometimes been awarded in retrospect, going back to

7426-470: The 1962 Candidates and then defeated Botvinnik in 1963 to become world champion. After the 1962 Candidates, Bobby Fischer publicly alleged that the Soviets had colluded to prevent any non-Soviet – specifically him – from winning. He claimed that Petrosian, Efim Geller and Paul Keres had prearranged to draw all their games, and that Viktor Korchnoi had been instructed to lose to them. Yuri Averbakh , who

7584-488: The Berlin Pleiades], the best player of Germany": von der Lasa was unable to attend the 1851 tournament, though he was invited. In 1851, Anderssen lost a match to von der Lasa; in 1856, George Walker wrote that "[von der Lasa] and Anderssen are decidedly the two best in the known world". Von der Lasa did not compete in tournaments or formal matches because of the demands of his diplomatic career, but his games show that he

7742-551: The Classical World Chess Champion. Meanwhile, FIDE had decided to scrap the Interzonal and Candidates system, instead having a large knockout event in which a large number of players contested short matches against each other over just a few weeks (see FIDE World Chess Championship 1998 ). Rapid and blitz games were used to resolve ties at the end of each round, a format which some felt did not necessarily recognize

7900-584: The Cuban Chess Champion, Juan Corzo , in a match. However, in April 1902 he came in fourth out of six in the National Championship, losing both his games with Corzo. In 1905 Capablanca easily passed the entrance examinations for Columbia College (New York) , where he wished to play for Columbia's strong baseball team, and soon was starting shortstop on the freshman team. In the same year he joined

8058-502: The FIDE World Championship in 1999 , Anand in 2000 , Ruslan Ponomariov in 2002 , and Rustam Kasimdzhanov in 2004 . By 2002, not only were there two rival champions, but Kasparov's strong results – he had the top Elo rating in the world and had won a string of major tournaments after losing his title in 2000 – ensured even more confusion over who was World Champion. In May 2002, American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan led

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8216-501: 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 Kostić , who had come through the 1918 tournament undefeated to take second place. The match

8374-517: The New York Times in 1894, Emanuel Lasker in 1908, and Reuben Fine in 1952 all do the same. Many modern commentators divide Steinitz's reign into an "unofficial" one from 1866 to 1886, and an "official" one after 1886. By this reckoning, the first World Championship match was in 1886 , and Steinitz was the first official World Chess Champion. Following the Steinitz–Zukertort match,

8532-471: 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

8690-406: 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

8848-526: The World Championship. Fischer won the 1992 Fischer–Spassky rematch decisively with a score of 10–5. After becoming world champion by default, Karpov confirmed his worthiness for the title with a string of tournament successes from the mid 70s to the early 80s. He defended his title twice against ex-Soviet Viktor Korchnoi , first in Baguio in 1978 (6–5 with 21 draws) and in Merano in 1981 (6–2, with 10 draws). In

9006-587: The analysis Philidor gave in his book (e.g. the Modenese Masters ), and some more recent authors have echoed these doubts. In the early 19th century, it was generally considered that the French player Alexandre Deschapelles was the strongest player of the time, though three games between him and the English player William Lewis in 1821 suggests that they were on par. After Deschapelles and Lewis withdrew from play,

9164-479: The breakdown of his first attempt to negotiate a title match against Lasker (1911), Capablanca drafted rules for the conduct of future challenges, which were agreed to 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

9322-402: The challenger or both players, with the assistance of financial backers, would contribute to a purse ; about half would be distributed to the winner's backers, and the winner would receive the larger share of the remainder (the loser's backers got nothing). The players had to meet their own travel, accommodation, food and other expenses out of their shares of the purse. This system evolved out of

9480-483: The champion in a match in order to become the new world champion. Following the death of reigning world champion Alexander Alekhine in 1946, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) took over administration of the World Championship, beginning with the 1948 tournament . From 1948 to 1993, FIDE organized a set of tournaments and matches to choose a new challenger for the world championship match, which

9638-406: 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 (about $ 170,000 in current terms); 20% of the purse was to be paid to the title holder, and the remainder being divided, 60% going to the winner of the match, and 40% to

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9796-719: The championship should be awarded to the winner of a round-robin tournament in which the other six participants at AVRO would play four games against each other. These players were: Max Euwe , from the Netherlands; Botvinnik, Paul Keres and Salo Flohr from the Soviet Union; and Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky from the United States. However, FIDE soon accepted a Soviet request to substitute Vasily Smyslov for Flohr, and Fine dropped out in order to continue his degree studies in psychology , so only five players competed. Botvinnik won convincingly and thus became world champion, ending

9954-607: The conduct of future challenges, which were agreed to 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 (worth about £26,000 or $ 44,000 in 2013 terms). World War I began in midsummer 1914, bringing international chess to

10112-415: The creation of chess game services wherein people may play an opponent from anywhere in the world. Popular sites such as Lichess may have many thousands of active online games as well as tens of thousands of viewers during any time of day around the world. This new online chess paradigm allows for world class players to be actively playing chess as well as teaching and giving demonstrations. On 13 April 2019,

10270-518: 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. After losing

10428-503: The early 17th-century Italian player Gioachino Greco (the first player where complete games survive). Richard Lambe, in his 1764 book The History of Chess , wrote that the 18th-century French player François-André Danican Philidor was "supposed to be the best Chess-player in the world". Philidor wrote an extremely successful chess book ( Analyse du jeu des Échecs ) and gave public demonstrations of his blindfold chess skills. However, some of Philidor's contemporaries were not convinced by

10586-499: The early 1920s but only Alekhine could raise the US$ 10,000 Capablanca demanded and only in 1927. Capablanca was shockingly upset by the new challenger. Before the match, almost nobody gave Alekhine a chance against the dominant Cuban , but Alekhine overcame Capablanca's natural skill with his unmatched drive and extensive preparation (especially deep opening analysis, which became a hallmark of most future grandmasters). The aggressive Alekhine

10744-485: The early discussions on how to resolve the interregnum because problems with money and travel so soon after the end of World War II prevented many countries from sending representatives. The shortage of clear information resulted in otherwise responsible magazines publishing rumors and speculation, which only made the situation more confusing. It did not help that the Soviet Union had long refused to join FIDE, and by this time it

10902-422: The end of the exhibition. At this point clocks are sometimes introduced with each side getting a fixed amount of time. In most regular simuls, the exhibitor plays White in all the games and the individual participants are of varying playing strengths (though they are typically below master class). In clock simuls all the games are played as normal tournament games and are timed by a chess clock. These simuls require

11060-504: 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 overconfident. 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

11218-406: The exhibition to continue for an extended period. Longer exhibitions increase the risk of fatigue-induced blunders on the part of the exhibitor, especially since the individual participants remaining at the end tend to be the stronger players who represent the exhibitor's most challenging opponents. As games are finished off, they are usually not replaced and only a few games will remain in progress at

11376-406: The exhibitor to accept a substantial time handicap since their clock continues to run on all boards. These simuls typically involve a relatively small number of individual participants whose playing strength is at or near master class. Occasionally, grandmasters have given blindfold simultaneous displays. In such displays, the exhibitor does not look at any of the boards, but retains all the moves of

11534-486: The final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 . Negotiations were held for a reunification match between Kasparov and Karpov in 1996–97, but nothing came of them. Soon after the 1995 championship, the PCA folded, and Kasparov had no organisation to choose his next challenger. In 1998 he formed the World Chess Council, which organised a candidates match between Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik . Shirov won

11692-435: The final venue. Even then Fischer raised difficulties, mainly over money. It took a phone call from United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and a doubling of the prize money by financier Jim Slater to persuade him to play. After a few more traumatic moments Fischer won the match 12½–8½. An unbroken line of FIDE champions had thus been established from 1948 to 1972, with each champion gaining his title by beating

11850-441: The first player to win six or eight games (the champion had the right to choose); and the stake should be at least £1,000 (about £120,000 in current terms). Following the controversies surrounding his 1921 match against Lasker, in 1922 world champion Capablanca proposed the "London Rules": 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 2½ hours;

12008-555: The games in their head. The opponents utilize boards and pieces in the standard fashion, but their moves are communicated verbally to the exhibitor by an arbiter or intermediary. Dutch grandmaster Jan Hein Donner offered the following advice to a player taking a board at a simultaneous exhibition: If you are to stand a chance of scoring a half or a full point, there are a few things to bear in mind: Here are some significant games from simultaneous exhibitions: The internet has allowed for

12166-658: The grasp, successively, of Philidor, Bernard, Carlier [two members of La Société des Amateurs ], and Deschapelles". In 1840, a columnist in Fraser's Magazine (who was probably Walker) wrote, "Will Gaul continue the dynasty by placing a fourth Frenchman on the throne of the world? the three last chess chiefs having been successively Philidor, Deschapelles, and De La Bourdonnais." After La Bourdonnais' death in December 1840, Englishman Howard Staunton 's match victory over another Frenchman, Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant , in 1843

12324-515: 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

12482-451: The hazardous 200–240/160+. The day before his fatal stroke , his vascular specialist Dr. Schwarzer strongly advised him that his life was endangered unless he totally relaxed, but Capablanca said that he could not because his ex-wife and children had started court proceedings against him. The doctor blamed his death on "his troubles and aggravation". On 7 March 1942, Capablanca was observing a skittles game and chatting with friends at

12640-488: The highest-quality play: Kasparov refused to participate in these events, as did Kramnik after he won the Classical title in 2000. In the first of these events, in 1998, champion Karpov was seeded directly into the final, but he later had to qualify alongside the other players. Karpov defended his title in the first of these championships in 1998, but resigned his title in protest at the new rules in 1999. Alexander Khalifman won

12798-401: The joint winners. These tournaments of 1936 were the last two 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 elite contest designed to select

12956-523: The later world championship matches. Approximately 85 games (the true number is up for historical debate) were played, with La Bourdonnais winning a majority of the games. In 1839, George Walker wrote "The sceptre of chess, in Europe, has been for the last century, at least, wielded by a Gallic dynasty. It has passed from Legalle [Philidor's teacher, who Philidor regarded as being a player equal to himself, according to Deschapelles] to La Bourdonnais, through

13114-421: The loser; the highest purse bid must be accepted. Alekhine , Bogoljubow , Maróczy , Réti , Rubinstein , Tartakower and Vidmar promptly signed them. The only match played under those rules was Capablanca vs Alekhine in 1927 , although there has been speculation that the actual contract might have included a "two-game lead" clause. Alekhine, Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch had all challenged Capablanca in

13272-541: 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 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 tournament in New York in 1913, at the Rice Chess Club, Capablanca won all 13 games. In September 1913, Capablanca accepted

13430-402: The match should be considered drawn if neither player finished with a two-game lead; and it should have a maximum of 30 games, but finish if either player won six games and had a two-game lead (previous matches had been won by the first to win a certain number of games, usually 10; in theory, such a match might go on for ever). Capablanca objected to the two-game lead clause; Lasker took offence at

13588-411: 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 six games and drew one in the 1910 New York State Championship. Both Capablanca and Charles Jaffe won their four games in the knock-out preliminaries and met in a match to decide

13746-552: The match, but negotiations for a Kasparov–Shirov match broke down, and Shirov was subsequently omitted from negotiations, much to his disgust. Plans for a 1999 or 2000 Kasparov–Anand match also broke down, and Kasparov organised a match with Kramnik in late 2000. In a major upset, Kramnik won the match with two wins, thirteen draws, and no losses. At the time the championship was called the Braingames World Chess Championship, but Kramnik later referred to himself as

13904-451: 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's 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

14062-542: The mini-matches with each of his rivals, 2½ 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, José Raúl 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. Since Capablanca had won

14220-464: The money to challenge Steinitz. Lasker won the 1894 match and succeeded Steinitz as world champion. Lasker held the title from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign (27 years) of any champion. He won a return match against Steinitz in 1897 , and then did not defend his title for ten years, before playing four title defences in four years. He comfortably defeated Frank Marshall in 1907 and Siegbert Tarrasch in 1908 . In 1910, he almost lost his title in

14378-428: The money until 1907; in 1911 Lasker and Rubinstein agreed in principle to a world championship match, but this was never played as Rubinstein could not raise the money. In the early 1920s, Alekhine , Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch all challenged Capablanca , but only Alekhine was able to raise the US$ 10,000 that Capablanca demanded, and not until 1927. Attempts to form an international chess federation were made at

14536-456: The money, in 1927. In 1922, Capablanca had also given 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

14694-487: The more recent Candidates Tournaments . The tournament was duly played, but the outcome was not quite as planned: Chigorin and Max Weiss tied for first place; their play-off resulted in four draws; and neither wanted to play a match against Steinitz – Chigorin had just lost to him, and Weiss wanted to get back to his work for the Rothschild Bank . The third prizewinner, Isidor Gunsberg , was prepared to play Steinitz for

14852-461: The next cycle, 1963–1966, the round-robin tournament was replaced by a series of elimination matches. Initially the quarter-finals and semi-finals were best of 10 games, and the final was best of 12. Fischer, however, refused to take part in the 1966 cycle, and dropped out of the 1969 cycle after a controversy at 1967 Interzonal in Sousse. Both these Candidates cycles were won by Boris Spassky , who lost

15010-432: The number of Soviet players he might have to meet in the title match. Botvinnik lost to Vasily Smyslov in 1957 but won the return match in 1958, and lost to Mikhail Tal in 1960 but won the return match in 1961. Thus Smyslov and Tal each held the world title for a year, but Botvinnik was world champion for rest of the time from 1948 to 1963. The return match clause was not in place for the 1963 cycle. Tigran Petrosian won

15168-595: The number of countries and eligible players increased ); the highest-placed players from the Interzonal would compete in the Candidates Tournament , along with whoever lost the previous title match and the second-placed competitor in the previous Candidates Tournament three years earlier; and the winner of the Candidates played a title match against the champion. Until 1962 inclusive the Candidates Tournament

15326-567: The organisation of the so-called "Prague Agreement" to reunite the world championship. Kramnik had organised a candidates tournament (won later in 2002 by Peter Leko ) to choose his challenger. It was agreed that Kasparov would play the FIDE champion (Ponomariov) for the FIDE title, and the winner of that match would face the winner of the Kramnik–Leko match for the unified title. However, the matches proved difficult to finance and organise. The Kramnik–Leko match did not take place until late 2004 (it

15484-408: 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 20 years younger, a slightly stronger player, and had more recent competitive practice. Edward Winter, after a lengthy summary of the facts, concludes, "The press was dismissive of Lasker's wish to confer

15642-454: The preliminary tournament, 1½ points ahead of Lasker , who was out of practice and had made a shaky start. Despite a determined effort by Lasker , Capablanca still seemed on course for ultimate victory. But 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 Tarrasch. Lasker then won his final game, against Marshall, thus finishing half

15800-458: The previous incumbent. This came to an end when Anatoly Karpov won the right to challenge Fischer in 1975. Fischer objected to the "best of 24 games" championship match format that had been used from 1951 onwards, claiming that it would encourage whoever got an early lead to play for draws. Instead he demanded that the match should be won by whoever first won 10 games, except that if the score reached 9–9 he should remain champion. He argued that this

15958-437: The previous ten years, their score had been evenly matched at 7–7. At first Capablanca did not divorce his first wife, as he had not intended to remarry. 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 married Olga on 20 October, about

16116-443: The rest. The St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament was the first in which Capablanca confronted Lasker under tournament conditions. This event was arranged in an unusual way: after a preliminary single round-robin tournament involving 11 players, the top five were to play a second stage in double round-robin format, with total scores from the preliminary tournament carried forward to the second contest. Capablanca placed first in

16274-512: The right to challenge Kasparov for the title. However, before the match took place, both Kasparov and Short complained of FIDE's mishandling of the prize pool in organizing the match, corruption in the leadership, and FIDE's failure to abide by their own rules, and split from FIDE to set up the Professional Chess Association (PCA), under whose auspices they held their match. In response, FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title and held

16432-452: The rules very flexibly to enable Fischer to play, as he thought it important for the health and reputation of the game that Fischer should have the opportunity to challenge for the title as soon as possible. Fischer crushed all opposition and won the right to challenge reigning champion Boris Spassky . After agreeing to play in Yugoslavia, Fischer raised a series of objections and Iceland was

16590-441: The same bracket" as Deschapelles and La Bourdonnais, who he had played years before, and that "his superiority is as obvious as theirs". But when Morphy returned to America in 1859, he abruptly retired from chess, though many considered him the world champion until his death in 1884. His sudden withdrawal from chess at his peak led to his being known as "the pride and sorrow of chess". After Morphy's retirement from chess, Anderssen

16748-405: The same conditions that governed their match in 1927. Although FIDE wished to set up a match between Alekhine and Bogoljubow, it made little progress and the title "Champion of FIDE" quietly vanished after Alekhine won the 1929 world championship match that he and Bogoljubow themselves arranged. While negotiating his 1937 World Championship rematch with Alekhine, Euwe proposed that if he retained

16906-614: The same tournament during this period, and next met only at the Nottingham 1936 tournament, after Alekhine had lost the world title to Euwe the previous 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 ; he continued to produce many superb games, but also made some gross blunders. Chessmetrics nonetheless ranks Capablanca as

17064-567: The score of 14½/20 (+10−1=9), 1½ points behind Lasker, and 2½ ahead of third-placed Alekhine. Capablanca's defeat by Réti 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 ½ point behind Lasker. Capablanca won at Lake Hopatcong , 1926 with 6 points out of 8, ahead of Abraham Kupchik (5) and Maroczy (4½). A group of Argentinian businessmen, backed by

17222-462: 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. Alekhine's offer to play Capablanca in a rematch if $ 10,000 could be raised came to naught due to the Great Depression . After winning an event at New York in 1931, he withdrew from serious chess, perhaps disheartened by his inability to secure

17380-399: The stronger engines Rybka 2 and Rybka 3 found similar results to the 2006 Crafty analysis for Capablanca. 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

17538-446: The strongest players from France and England respectively were recognised as Louis de la Bourdonnais and Alexander McDonnell . La Bourdonnais visited England in 1825, where he played many games against Lewis and won most of them, and defeated all the other English masters despite offering handicaps . He and McDonnell contested a long series of matches in 1834 . These were the first to be adequately reported, and they somewhat resemble

17696-426: The terms in which Capablanca criticized the two-game lead condition and broke off negotiations. Further controversy arose when, in 1912, Lasker's terms for a proposed match with Akiba Rubinstein included a clause that, if Lasker should resign the title after a date had been set for the match, Rubinstein should become world champion. When he resumed negotiations with Capablanca after World War I , Lasker insisted on

17854-455: The time of the 1914 St. Petersburg , 1914 Mannheim and 1920 Gothenburg Tournaments. On 20 July 1924 the participants at the Paris tournament founded FIDE as a kind of players' union. FIDE's congresses in 1925 and 1926 expressed a desire to become involved in managing the world championship. FIDE was largely happy with the "London Rules", but claimed that the requirement for a purse of $ 10,000

18012-403: The title in New York, so this match was played in 1890–1891 and was won by Steinitz. The experiment was not repeated, and Steinitz's later matches were private arrangements between the players. Two young strong players emerged in late 1880s and early 1890s: Siegbert Tarrasch and Emanuel Lasker . Tarrasch had the better tournament results at the time, but it was Lasker who was able to raise

18170-415: The title match to Petrosian in 1966, but won and became world champion in 1969. In the 1969–1972 cycle Fischer caused two more crises. He refused to play in the 1969 US Championship, which was a Zonal Tournament. This would have eliminated him from the 1969–1972 cycle, but Benko was persuaded to concede his place in the Interzonal to Fischer. FIDE President Max Euwe accepted this maneuver and interpreted

18328-544: 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. Capablanca won the London tournament of 1922 with 13 points in 15 games with no losses, ahead of Alekhine with 11½, Milan Vidmar (11), and Akiba Rubinstein (10½). During this event, Capablanca proposed

18486-428: The title to Alekhine in 1927; if Euwe lost his title to Capablanca then FIDE's decision should be followed and Capablanca would have to play Flohr in 1940. Most chess writers and players strongly supported the Dutch super-tournament proposal and opposed the committee processes favored by FIDE. While this confusion went unresolved: Euwe lost his title to Alekhine; the AVRO tournament in 1938 was won by Paul Keres under

18644-540: The title to Capablanca on 27 June 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

18802-402: The title), and World Chess Championship 1990 (won by Kasparov, 12½–11½). In the five tournaments, Kasparov and Karpov played a total of 144 World Championship games with 104 draws, 21 wins by Kasparov and 19 wins by Karpov. In 1993, Nigel Short broke the domination of Kasparov and Karpov by defeating Karpov in the candidates semi-finals followed by Jan Timman in the finals, thereby earning

18960-494: The title, FIDE should manage the nomination of future challengers and the conduct of championship matches. FIDE had been trying since 1935 to introduce rules on how to select challengers, and its various proposals favored selection by some sort of committee. While they were debating procedures in 1937 and Alekhine and Euwe were preparing for their rematch later that year, the Royal Dutch Chess Federation proposed that

19118-407: The title. Capablanca argued that, if the champion abdicated, the title must go to the challenger, as any other arrangement would be unfair to the challenger. Lasker later agreed to play a match against Capablanca in 1921, announcing that, if he won, he would resign the title so that younger masters could compete for it. Capablanca won their 1921 match by four wins, ten draws and no losses. After

19276-502: The top two positions. A 2006 study found that Capablanca was the most accurate of all the World Champions when compared with computer analysis of World Championship match games. 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; however a 2011 computer analysis by Bratko and Guid using

19434-422: The two Soviet representatives in FIDE, who were personal friends of reigning champion Mikhail Botvinnik . A defeated champion would have the right to a return match. FIDE also limited the number of players from the same country that could compete in the Candidates Tournament , on the grounds that it would reduce Soviet dominance of the tournament. Averbakh claimed that this was to Botvinnik's advantage as it reduced

19592-400: The very first round, more simply against Nimzowitsch, and astounded the chess world by taking first place, with six wins, one loss and seven draws, ahead of Akiba Rubinstein , Milan Vidmar , Marshall, Carl Schlechter and Siegbert Tarrasch , et al. His loss, to Rubinstein, was one of the most brilliant achievements of the latter's career. Some European critics grumbled that Capablanca's style

19750-432: The wagering of small stakes on club games in the early 19th century. Up to and including the 1894 Steinitz–Lasker match, both players, with their backers, generally contributed equally to the purse, following the custom of important matches in the 19th century before there was a generally recognized world champion. For example: the stakes were £100 a side in both the second Staunton vs Saint-Amant match (Paris, 1843) and

19908-562: The winner, who would be the first to win two games. The first game was drawn and Capablanca won the second and third games. After another grueling series of simultaneous exhibitions, Capablanca placed second, with 9½ 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 Sebastián , Spain, in 1911, insisted that Capablanca also be allowed to play. According to David Hooper and Ken Whyld , San Sebastián 1911

20066-455: The world title made them bitter enemies. World Chess Championship Pre-FIDE FIDE: Split titles (Classical): Split titles (FIDE): Reunified (FIDE): The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess . The current world champion is Ding Liren , who defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 World Chess Championship after the previous champion Magnus Carlsen had declined to defend his title. Ding

20224-439: The world's leading active player, winning the Paris 1878 chess tournament . Zukertort then won the London 1883 chess tournament by a convincing 3-point margin, ahead of nearly every leading player in the world, with Steinitz finishing second. This tournament established Steinitz and Zukertort as the best two players in the world, and led to a match between these two, the World Chess Championship 1886 , won by Steinitz. There

20382-578: The world's leading player by winning the London 1872 tournament, winning a match against Johannes Zukertort in 1872 (7–1, 4 draws), winning the Vienna 1873 chess tournament , and decisively winning a match over Joseph Henry Blackburne 7–0 (0 draws) in 1876. Apart from the Blackburne match, Steinitz played no competitive chess between the Vienna tournaments of 1873 and 1882 . During that time, Zukertort emerged as

20540-413: The world's leading player. In 1893, Henry Bird retrospectively awarded the title of first world chess champion to Anderssen for his victory, but there is no evidence that he was widely acclaimed as such at the time, and no mention of such a status afterwards in the tournament book by Staunton. Indeed, Staunton's tournament book calls Anderssen "after Heydebrand der Laza [Tassilo von der Lasa, another of

20698-472: 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 Lasker absent. 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. But Capablanca had overwhelming success: he finished undefeated with 14/20, winning

20856-418: 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 participation because he had not fulfilled the entry condition of winning at least third prize in two master tournaments. Capablanca won brilliantly against Bernstein in

21014-402: Was a bad idea, as intracranial hypertension is now a well-known contraindication because it releases the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid counteracting the herniating force of the hypertension. But neurosurgeon Orlando Hernández-Meilán has said that it made no difference, as Capablanca could not have been revived even if the best modern medicine had been available. Capablanca was given

21172-531: Was a multi-cycle round-robin tournament – how and why it was changed are described below. The FIDE system followed its 1948 design through five cycles: 1948–1951, 1951–1954, 1954–1957, 1957–1960 and 1960–1963. The first two world championships under this system were drawn 12–12 – Botvinnik-Bronstein in 1951 and Botvinnik-Smyslov in 1954 – so Botvinnik retained the title both times. In 1956 FIDE introduced two apparently minor changes which Soviet grandmaster and chess official Yuri Averbakh alleged were instigated by

21330-402: Was again regarded as the world's strongest active player, a reputation he reinforced by winning the strong London 1862 chess tournament . Louis Paulsen and Ignatz Kolisch were also playing at a comparable standard to Anderssen in the 1860s: Anderssen narrowly won a match against Kolisch in 1861, and drew against Paulsen in 1862. In 1866, Wilhelm Steinitz narrowly defeated Anderssen in

21488-442: Was born in Havana on 19 November 1888. According to Capablanca, he learned to play chess at the age of four by watching his father play with friends, pointed out an illegal move by his father, and then beat his father. 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

21646-469: Was clear that about half the credible contenders were Soviet citizens. But, realizing that it could not afford to be excluded from discussions about the vacant world championship, the Soviet Union sent a telegram in 1947 apologizing for the absence of Soviet representatives and requesting that the USSR be represented on future FIDE Committees. The eventual solution was very similar to FIDE's initial proposal and to

21804-622: Was described as "the Chess Champion of England, or ... the Champion of the World". An important milestone was the London 1851 chess tournament , which was the first international chess tournament, organized by Staunton. It was played as a series of matches, and was won convincingly by the German Adolf Anderssen , including a 4–1 semi-final win over Staunton. This established Anderssen as

21962-407: Was drawn, so Kramnik retained his title). Meanwhile, FIDE never managed to organise a Kasparov match, either with 2002 FIDE champion Ponomariov, or 2004 FIDE champion Kasimdzhanov. Kasparov's frustration at the situation played a part in his decision to retire from chess in 2005, still ranked No. 1 in the world. Soon after, FIDE dropped the short knockout format for a World Championship and announced

22120-441: Was enlarged, 575 g instead of the normal 300–350 g, including 3 cm hypertrophy of left ventricle wall. This wall had a number of subendiocardial hemorrhages, which was later proved to be common in patients with severe intercranial hypertension. This caused the release of a large amount of vasoactive substances into the bloodstream, including acetylcholine and noradrenaline that caused these hemorrhages. The lumbar puncture

22278-502: Was hailed as "a biological miracle." The following year, Capablanca won an even stronger tournament in Moscow, one point ahead of Botvinnik and 3½ 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. The loss to Flohr was because of being disturbed while in time trouble by the bystander Euwe. Alekhine placed sixth, only one point behind

22436-454: Was head of the Soviet team, confirmed in 2002 that Petrosian, Geller and Keres arranged to draw all their games in order to save their energy for games against non-Soviet players. Korchnoi, who defected from the USSR in 1976, never confirmed that he was forced to throw games. FIDE responded by changing the format of future Candidates Tournaments to eliminate the possibility of collusion. Beginning in

22594-451: Was held every three years. Before the 1993 match , then reigning champion Garry Kasparov and his championship rival Nigel Short broke away from FIDE, and conducted the match under the umbrella of the newly formed Professional Chess Association . FIDE conducted its own tournament, which was won by Anatoly Karpov , and led to a rival claimant to the title of World Champion for the next thirteen years until 2006. The titles were unified at

22752-608: Was held in 2024. Emanuel Lasker was the longest serving World Champion, having held the title for 27 years, and holds the record for the most Championship wins with six along with Kasparov and Karpov. Though the world championship is open to all players, there are separate championships for women , under-20s and lower age groups , and seniors . There are also chess world championships in rapid , blitz , correspondence , problem solving , Fischer random chess , and computer chess . The game of chess in its modern form emerged in Spain in

22910-429: Was helped by his tactical skill, which complicated the game. Immediately after winning, Alekhine announced that he was willing to grant Capablanca a return match provided Capablanca met the requirements of the "London Rules". Negotiations dragged on for several years, often breaking down when agreement seemed in sight. Alekhine easily won two title matches against Efim Bogoljubov in 1929 and 1934 . In 1935 , Alekhine

23068-503: Was impracticable and called upon Capablanca to come to an agreement with the leading masters to revise the Rules. In 1926 FIDE decided in principle to create a title of "Champion of FIDE" and, in 1928, adopted the forthcoming 1928 Bogoljubow – Euwe match (won by Bogoljubow) as being for the "FIDE championship". Alekhine agreed to place future matches for the world title under the auspices of FIDE, except that he would only play Capablanca under

23226-456: Was more advantageous to the challenger than the champion's advantage under the existing system, where the champion retained the title if the match was tied at 12–12 including draws. Eventually FIDE deposed Fischer and crowned Karpov as the new champion. Fischer privately maintained that he was still World Champion. He went into seclusion and did not play chess in public again until 1992, when Spassky agreed to participate in an unofficial rematch for

23384-512: Was one of the world's best then: he won series of games against Staunton in 1844 and 1853. Anderssen was himself decisively beaten in an 1858 match against the American Paul Morphy (7–2, 2 draws). In 1858–59 Morphy played matches against several leading players, beating them all. This prompted some commentators at the time to call him the world champion: Gabriel-Éloy Doazan, who knew Morphy, wrote that "one can and...must place [him] in

23542-470: Was performed which showed hemorrhagic cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with a pressure of 500 mm of water. The full autopsy, by Drs. Moschcowitz, Prill, and Levin, showed that the right thalamus was almost totally destroyed, and in its place was a hematoma 2 inches wide and 2 inches high. The whole ventricular system and cisterna magna were flooded with blood. The gyri were flattened and sulci narrowed, consistent with years of extreme hypertension. His heart

23700-411: 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. In 1911, Capablanca challenged Lasker for the World Chess Championship . Lasker accepted his challenge while proposing 17 conditions for the match. Capablanca objected to some of the conditions, which favored Lasker , and

23858-445: Was regarded by Mikhail Botvinnik as the best chess book ever written. Capablanca preferred not to present detailed analysis but focused on critical moments in a game. His style of chess influenced the play of future world champions Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov . José Raúl Capablanca, the second surviving son of a Spanish army officer, José María Capablanca, and a Spanish woman from Catalonia , Matilde María Graupera y Marín,

24016-478: Was the strongest of those surveyed, with Lasker and Botvinnik sharing second place. Chessmetrics (2005) 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 15 years. Its author, the statistician Jeff Sonas , concluded that Capablanca had more years in the top three than anyone except Lasker, Karpov and Kasparov—though Alekhine had more years in

24174-458: Was to go to the first player to win eight games, but Kostić resigned the match after losing the first five. Capablanca considered that he was at his strongest around this time. 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 10½ points out of 11, one point ahead of Kostić. In January 1920, Lasker and Capablanca signed an agreement to play

24332-495: Was undefeated from 10 February 1916, when he lost to Oscar Chajes in the New York 1916 tournament, to 21 March 1924, when he lost to Richard Réti 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

24490-460: Was undefeated from February 10, 1916 to March 21, 1924, a period that included the world championship match with Lasker . Capablanca lost the title in 1927 to Alexander Alekhine , who had never beaten Capablanca before the match. Following unsuccessful attempts to arrange a rematch over many years, relations between them became bitter. Capablanca continued his excellent tournament results in this period but withdrew from serious chess in 1931. He made

24648-511: Was unexpectedly defeated by the Dutch Max Euwe , an amateur player who worked as a mathematics teacher. Alekhine convincingly won a rematch in 1937 . World War II temporarily prevented any further world title matches, and Alekhine remained world champion until his death in 1946. Before 1948 world championship matches were financed by arrangements similar to those Emanuel Lasker described for his 1894 match with Wilhelm Steinitz : either

24806-437: Was unwilling to concentrate intensely. Vladimir Kramnik commented that this was the first contest in which Capablanca had no easy wins. Luděk Pachman suggested that Capablanca, who was unaccustomed to losing games or to any other type of setback, became depressed over his unnecessary loss of the 11th game in a grueling endgame featuring errors by both players. The match became somewhat notorious for its extremely lopsided use of

24964-544: Was withdrawn because he preferred playing chess to studying engineering. He left Columbia after one semester to devote himself to chess full-time. Capablanca's skill in rapid chess lent itself to simultaneous exhibitions , and his increasing reputation in these events led to a US-wide tour in 1909. Playing 602 games in 27 cities, he scored 96.4%—a much higher percentage than, for example, Géza Maróczy 's 88% and Frank Marshall 's 86% in 1906. This performance gained him sponsorship for an exhibition match that year against Marshall,

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