Championship fever
Vol. XXII, No. 61
Monday, October 20, 2008 MANILA, PHILIPPINES
World Sports
Bobby Ang
With the start of the Anand vs. Kramnik world championship match the topic in every chessclub has turned towards who the best chessplayer in the land was, is and will be. I have decided to hop on the bandwagon and dwell on this topic a bit. There is general acceptance that official World Championships begin in 1886 with Steinitz-Zukertort, won by the former 12.5-7.5 with 10 wins, five draws and five losses. Taking this as our starting point let us have a quick trivia quiz:
1. How many American world chess champions have we had?
2. During the 1921 match between Capablanca and Lasker, who was the champion, and who was the challenger?
3. What is Algemeene Vereeniging Radio Omroep and what is its significance?
4. Name five World Championships in which the incumbent champion defended his title with a tied match.
5. Who has played the most number of games for the world crown?
6. After Bobby Fischer defeated Mark Taimanov 6-0 in their 1971 candidates’ match, the American was the heavy favorite to beat Larsen in the semifinals. Botvinnik went on record as predicting a Larsen victory. What was the reason he gave?
7. Which world champion won the most number of games in title contests?
What in my opinion is the greatest match ever played?
A lot of people will immediately reply Fischer vs. Spassky 1972 Reykjavik “Match of the Century,” but the quality of the games was not so good. Besides, in the second half Bobby Fischer, despite his reputation for always playing to win, tried to draw his way to victory and the fighting content suffered.
The match I like is the 1986 Kasparov-Karpov clash held in London/Leningrad. This was the return match after Karpov’s defeat in the previous year.
Here is the full article.
They match of the century is not the best?
1.) Two – Steinitz and Fischer.
2.) Capablanca was the reigning champion and lasker was the challenger.
3.) AVRO tournament is the strongest tournament ever held. It was supposed to determine who will be Alekhine’s next challenger.
4.) 1910, 1951, 1954, 1987, 2004
5.) It’s a tricky question.
a) If we count FIDE championships too, then it is Karpov.
b) If we ignore FIDE championships, but count classical ones, then it is Kasparov
c) If we only count undisputed championships, then it is Karpov again.
6.) I believe he said that the biggest opponent for Fischer is Fischer himself.
7.) I would say Alekhine.
Last two are my guesses, first fives are facts.
Here are what I know of the questions:
1. Bobby Fischer is the only American male at a classical time control under official match conditions. But you can also add Hans Berliner and Victor Paliuskas (sp?) in correspondence, Susan Polgar in women’s chess, and of course everyone wants to count Paul Morphy.
2. Lasker was the champion; Capablanca was the challenger.
3. Under their initials AVRO, this company sponsored a 1938 tournament that was advertised as a candidates’ match for the next challenger to Alexander Alekhine (who played in the tournament himself and denied it was a candidates’ tournament). On tiebreak, Paul Keres of Estonia beat Reuben Fine of the United States. Former champions Jose’ Raul Capablanca and Max Euwe also played, along with a host of top players.
By the time I finished writing the above paragraph, a commentator had entered the answers to the remaining questions.
True zbout Steinitz. I don’t know if he was an American citizen at the time of the 1886 match with Zukertort, but it was an all-American match.
Did Lasker become an American citizen before he died?
I don’t know if Lasker became US citizen before he died, but even if he did he can’t be counted as American champion, since he didn’t held the title as an American.
Steinitz on the other hand did held the title while being US citizen. Steinitz became American citizen in 1888, thus he was the first American World champion.
Fischer was only first American-born World champion.
Lasker forfeited the title without a fight in 1920 and appointing Capablanca as the new Champion. Thats why in 1921 Capablanca was the reigning champion and Lasker was the challenger. If the match would be tied at 12-12 Capablanca would have retain the title!
As Edward Winter has pointed out this is not true.
Capablanca was American, but not from USA.
What is not true?
Actually Capablanca was born on kind of US theritory, because Cuba was an US colony back then. I don’t know what was the legal status, but the theritory on which Capablanca was born was under US jurisdiction.
What are contributions of Negroes to chess? Well the real Capablanca was actually a black Cuban shoemaker. But the person who played at the chessboard and who the world knew as Capablanca was actually the son of a rich local plantation owner who loved chess wanted the fame for his son.
During matches, the moves were relayed to the board via the arbiter (who had been heavily bribed in each case). I got this from recently declassified files released after Castro became ill.
LOL!
What does Castro have to do with Capablanca except that they both come from Cuba???
Thanks for the information.
I still can’t remember how to spell Paliauscskas’s name (that way isn’t it either).
Capablanca ALMOST became a United States citizen — he announced that he would apply for citizenship when he turned 21 late in 1909. But when he beat Marshall in a match and Marshall didn’t relinquish his new U.S. title, Capablanca decided to become a free-lance diplomat from Cuba and get the government to post him wherever there was a spot.
I am pretty fuzzy on the Lasker-Capablanca match. I think you are right that Lasker resigned his title, but I think he reclaimed it in order to play Capablanca. I do know that Lasker was guaranteed 55% of the prize fund ($11,000 in 1921 money was quite a lot) and claimed it even though he quit after game 14.
How many World Championships have been played in the United States? Steinitz-Zukertort was the first. Did Steinitz’s next three all occur there? I think Lasker-Schlecter 1910 was played in New York. After that, I think there wasn’t another one until Kasparov in 1995, then the Vegas sort-of championship in 1999. Am I missing any?