1888–1942 
CHESS PLAYER CUBA
His technique was flawless, and his style so graceful and elegant as to make chess look easy. No player in all the world’s history has equalled in artistry, logic, and crystalline clarity the masterpieces produced by Capablanca.
—IRVING CHERNEV, BIOGRAPHER
José took a deep breath. This match could mean the beginning of a career for him if he finished well. He’d already played eleven games against Juan Corzo, the defending chess champion of Cuba. Juan easily won the first two, but when the third game was a draw—the technical term for a tie in chess—José realized he might have a chance. Even though Juan had studied the masters and read all the books on chess, José had an intuitive understanding of the game. While Juan had memorized all the tricks a player can do, José could just look at the board and see them.
Now, José had won three games and just needed to win one more. He focused on the board and all the pieces on it.
“Checkmate,” José said as he moved his rook, cornering his opponent’s king.
The crowd remained silent until the judge examined the chess board and nodded. Then the room erupted with applause. Twelve-year-old José Raúl Capablanca had just become Cuba’s national chess champion!
José is often called the Human Chess Machine.
José was born in 1888 in Havana, Cuba. His father enjoyed playing chess, and José often watched. When José was four years old, he giggled during a game his father was playing with a friend. When his father asked him why he was giggling, he responded, “Because you moved your knight to an incorrect square.” When his father looked at the board again, he saw that his son was right.
José’s father recognized his son’s natural talent, so he began taking José to the Central Chess Club of Cuba. There, the best players in the club couldn’t defeat little José. He was a genius!
In his teens, José began to think about college, and he decided to move to the United States so he could attend Columbia University in New York City. He took his studies seriously, but he took chess even more seriously, and he spent much of his time with the Manhattan Chess Club, where he built friendships that would last a lifetime. His fellow club members were so impressed with José’s abilities that they arranged a tour across the United States for him to play matches against the leading chess players in the country. Near the end of this tour, when José was twenty years old, he went head-to-head with the American chess champion, Frank Marshall, whom he beat 8–1, with fourteen draws. The world was in awe.
In 1911 the chess world prepared for the San Sebastian international tournament in Spain—the most important competition of the year. All the world’s best players would be there, with the only exception being World Champion Emanuel Lasker. This tournament had strict qualification guidelines. José did not quite meet them, but Marshall knew José deserved to be there. He insisted the administration allow José to play, and they did, but whispers were already gathering among the chess community. What kind of a player expects the rules to be bent for him? One of the other players, Aron Nimzovich, even told José that he shouldn’t talk in the presence of better players. José challenged the man to a series of lightning games—and easily beat him. No one else dared tell José to be quiet. Everyone played their best, and José beat them all. This time, though, there was no grand applause like there had been back in Cuba. Instead, his European rivals said José was just an inexperienced player who got lucky.
But José didn’t care. He knew he was an outstanding chess player, and he traveled around Europe playing chess matches in dozens of cities. Then he set his sights on the next title: world champion. Lasker, the current world champion, hadn’t come to San Sebastian, but José wanted to play him anyway. He challenged Lasker to a match. Lasker agreed, but only if José met seventeen conditions. José did not agree with several of the conditions, so the two men did not play.
Two years later, José’s hometown of Havana hosted a chess tournament to show off its pride for José. He played reasonably well during the tournament, and the championship rested on the final match between José and Marshall, the former American chess champion. Both men wanted the title badly, and they fidgeted with anxiety. Marshall just barely beat José, who felt he had let his country down.
Cuba still supported José wholeheartedly, though, and in 1913, the government appointed José to work in the Cuban Foreign Office. His only job duty was to play chess—they wanted him to represent Cuba well in the upcoming St. Petersburg international chess tournament in 1914. There, he would play against Marshall, Nimzovich, and finally Lasker.
Lightning chess—also called speed chess, rapid transit chess, or blitz chess—is a fast game in which players have either ten seconds to play each turn or five minutes to play the whole game.
José started out shaky in the first two games of the tournament, but then he gained his strength and eventually met with Lasker to battle for the championship. The two great chess players challenged each other with brutal attacks and sneaky tricks. José fought hard, but Lasker beat him. José still could not call himself the world champion.
Shortly after the St. Petersburg tournament, World War I broke out, putting international chess tournaments on hold. José continued to travel and play chess matches through his position in the Cuban Foreign Office, though, and he was on such a strong winning streak that he started to think he was invincible. Meanwhile, Lasker was working to better the chess profession, arguing that winning chess players deserved to be paid. This was a tough goal, though. By the time the war was over and José was again challenging Lasker for the title of world champion, Lasker had not made any progress in convincing people to pay chess payers, and although he accepted José’s challenge, he had little interest in defending his title. He gave up and told José, “You have earned the title.”
The highest compliment a modern chess player can receive is to be told he plays like Capablanca.
Chess fans were sorely disappointed by this lack of sportsmanship, and a year later, José challenged Lasker again. To make the match more appealing to Lasker, though, José convinced sponsors to pay José and Lasker each $12,500 to play the match. Lasker agreed, but after José won four games and there had been ten draws, Lasker gave up again. José was the reigning world champion.
As the chess world continued to grow and change, the world’s best players met to discuss new rules. Because José had raised $25,000 to challenge Lasker for the world championship, he believed all future challengers should have to raise at least $10,000. Over the next few years, several players challenged José for his title, but only one was able to raise the money to actually have the match. Alexander Alekhine had the support of the Argentinean government and several businesspeople to challenge José. But then José made another rule—before Alekhine could be considered a challenger, he had to play in a New York tournament. Alekhine was furious that José was making it so hard to challenge him for the title, but he did it anyway.
The world champion match between José and Alekhine finally took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1927. To win it, one player just had to win six games. It seems simple, but that match ended up being the longest world championship match in history, lasting seventy-three days! After thirty-four games, Alekhine had finally won six games, and he was the new world champion.
In 1942 José was watching a match at the Manhattan Chess Club when he suddenly collapsed. He was rushed to the hospital, but he died the next day.
Although José Raúl Capablanca never won the world champion title back, he is still considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. Throughout his career, he played nearly six hundred games, and he only lost thirty-six. Even Alekhine called him “the greatest genius of chess.”5