José Raúl Capablanca: The eternal Cuban Champion
By: Liduan Lezcano Marín
José Raúl Capablanca Graupera was born in November 19th ,1888, in Havana, he was a genius of the chess. Seeing his father play when he was hardly four years old, points him a bad play. To the few days he faces him and the father loses. People tell that same thing happened to several friends of the then Spanish colonel José María Capablanca.
When he was 12 years of age, in 1900 he faces the Cuban champion, the Master Juan Corzo y Príncipe, and Capablanca defeats him, becoming in this way the new Champion of Cuba.
In 1904 he study engineering in the United States, being linked at once to the chess clubs. His fame grows, he participates in level tournaments, until in 1911 he wins the San – Sebastián reserved for players with international record. Her inclusion motivated protests, because some participants considered that he didn’t have level for these event, until they were defeated by Capablanca.
This Cuban player follows his victorious career and reaches the consecration when in April of 1921 he defeat in Havana to the world champion, the German Emanuel Lasker, keeping the scepter up to 1927.
Although he lost the championship in 1927 in front of the Russian Alexander Alekhine, he avoided the revenge, but in 1936 he was able to face him in a tournament and he defeated him.
Capablanca continued harvesting memorable successes and in 1939 he won in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Olympiad leading the team Cuba, where along with other big masters is and defeats Alekhine again.
In March 7th, of 1942, while he observed a game between two fans in the Club of Chess Manhattan, in New York, he suffers of a cerebral hemorrhage and he dies at 5:30 o’clock in the morning of the day eight.
In this way the Great Master José Raúl Capablanca died, but his chess feats immortalized him for Cuba and the world.
Source: http://www.radionuevitas.co.cu
oh god!! who wrote this article?! they have murdered english…..
Capa! One of my favourite Chess Players of all time! He even did a cameo in the Russian silent film from 1925 Chess Fever. I still get great enjoyment playing over his games and with Rybka it is amazing to see that he was one of the most accurate chess players of all time even more so than any of our modern players. Viva el Campeon!
Wow, that’s some bad English!
The legacy of a genius: José Raúl Capablanca
By: Liduan Lezcano Marín
One of the most universally well known Cuban sportsmen was without doubts José Raúl Capablanca, star of the called science game.
In this, his homeland, the memory of the unforgettable chess talent is perpetuated. It is as well as in permanent tribute toward his person since 1962, the tournaments Capablanca in Memoriam begin at national level, to honor and to bequeath his feat to the new generations of Cubans.
Much could be said of what Capablanca represented for the chess in the world, but better we see what some of the greatest masters of the science game said about him.
Emanuel Lasker, world champion to who Capablanca defeated him in 1921 and with the one he faced in several opportunities, manifested:
“I have known many chess players, but among them only one genius, Capablanca! His ideal was to win by means of maneuvers. The genius of Capablanca is revealed in his capacity of putting on approval the weak points of the opponent. The smallest weakness cannot escape to his good sight.”
The Great Russian Master Alexander Alekhine who was World Chess Champion when referring to the Cuban man said:
“He is the greatest chess player of all the times. I don’t understand neither now, after so many years, how I have been able to win Capablanca in the match of 1927.”
Among other opinions of great masters and world champions is the one of the North American Robert Bobby Fischer when saying on Capablanca that he is among the greatest players, but not only for his ability in the end. His trick consisted on playing the simplest possible openings, and then he played with such brightness in the middle of the game that the end was resolved -although his opponent no always knew it -, before arriving at the end he commented.
It is said that the invention of the science game is related directly with the mathematics and many investigators sustain that this game was invented toward the northwest region of the Indian.
The chess since it arrived in Cuba, found fans among the great men of this Island, among them Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, José Martí, Carlos Juan Finlay or Ernesto Che Guevara, among others that felt deep admiration for the board game of the 64 squares.
José Raúl Capablanca was the initiator of a Cuban generation that were notable before the world as a strong referent of this difficult sport, such as Guillermo García, Leinier Domínguez or Lázaro Bruzón for just to mention some names.
To 67 years of his physical disappearance, the sentence of Alekhine is still valid when he said “the men had to be demigods, otherwise, they had not invented the chess.”
Source:-http://www.radionuevitas.co.cu/web_english/news/nuevitas_191109_1.asp
Orinigal Article & this one are by
Google Translator.