José Raúl Capablanca: a chess biography
Written by Miguel A. Sánchez. Published August 2015, 568 pp.
(www.mcfarlandpub.com - 800-253-2187)
I knew I made the right choice in getting this book for two
quotes I read in the beginning, one quite profound by Botvinnik
"it is impossible to understand the world of chess,
without looking at it with the eyes of Capablanca."
And the second quote, which I loved, for the reason that it
dispelled the myth many amateurs have, mainly because they never study chess
history. This myth is relative to Capablanca never studying chess, and being so
good and talented. As we know from Kasparov, talent is studying chess 12 hours
a day!
But the quote I want to mention comes from another great
player of those long forgotten times Jacques Mieses, who said: "Capa
practically gave all of his time to chess, from the fourth to the 22nd year of
his life"
 |
| Mieses |
This would also explain the extreme, deep preparation
Alekhine undertook in order to beat Capablanca, and detailed in the book:
"On the road to the World Championship 1923-1927."
Let's return for a moment to Botvinnik's quote: "...
looking at it with the eyes of Capablanca..." well let me show you what
Botvinnik meant! While reviewing a Chessbase DVD on Capablanca,
I met the following position, in the tactic training
section:
This is the 9th game of the Match against Marshall. Capablanca played many times
against Marshall,
but I found this position quite important in showing how deep was Capablanca's
thought.
Marshall just played 16.Ra4,
and Capablanca continued with 16...c5; and Marshall pins the Pc5 with 17.Qa3, but there
is a problem, now the White rook in A4 is trapped.
How can Black exploit it? How can Black find a way to win
some material?
Please take your time, position the pieces on a chessboard,
and think as long as you like.
I must admit that I didn't see the solution. I didn't see
how to trap the Ra4. But Capablanca did, and here his original solution!
Capablanca plays 17...Bd7; but this is not the idea behind
since White can block the attack to the Rook in A4 playing 18.Bb5,
can you see how Capablanca continued? The beautiful and
aesthetically pleasing idea that Capablanca found in order to take advantage of
the trapped Ra4?
He continued with 18...Bf5; leaving the D7-A4 diagonal for
attacking on the F5-B1 diagonal.
Thanks to this move he won a vital tempo. But can you see
what Black does after White plays 19.Rb2.
19...a6; 20.Be2,Bd7 and Black wins the exchange, because
White cannot put anymore the light squares bishop in B5.
Now, if you saw all of this congratulations, you can see
with Capablanca eyes. I didn't, and I was pleasantly surprised when I realized
how deep Capablanca was.
Now let's return to review this great book.
In chapter 1, entitled:
Havana the El Dorado of Chess, the author does
an amazing job in outlining Cuba
as a golden place for playing chess. He begins showing Morphy's games in Cuba, passing
then to other players like Zukertort who sojourned on the island, and then of
course the famous matches between Steinitz and Chigorin, in 1889 and 1892. This
is an important background, because Capablanca the chess player didn't come out
from a country which didn't play chess, but from a country which loved chess so
much to guest two world championships. And then of course there would be the
world championship of 1921, which would crown Capablanca. Practically it's
impossible to create a champion out of a vacuum. This is confirmed always in
the book at page 69, on the third chapter when Alekhine thoughts on Capablanca
are paraphrased by GM Pomar from Spain: "Alexander Alekhine was justified
in thinking that many years of chess promotion in Cuba, and in particular the
Steinitz-Chigorin matches, had created an environment very conducive to the
emergence of a first rate champion."
Chapter 2
outlines the ancient past origins of Capablanca's family from Spain. A good work on genealogy,
which must have been quite complicated to find, since we are speaking of the
1800, and all the wars between Spain,
France,
and other European imperialist powers, must have destroyed many records.
In chapter 3: "the
boy prodigy," we can find what is considered the first game published,
which was played by Capablanca when Capablanca was 4 years and 10 months old.
It is a game Capablanca wins, but White gave him the advantage of the queen.
This chapter is quite interesting because portrays the first
years of Capablanca playing chess, what were the conditions, or how his parents
were afraid it would damage his health to play chess. Just this chapter
contains 20 games played by Capablanca, many early pictures. Then pictures of
the academic results by Capablanca, and the house where he lived.
Chapter 4 is Champion
of the Americas.
This chapter begins to tell us the sad story of Marshall, whose career
unfortunately coincided with the raise of two of the best players of all times,
one is obviously the main character of this book: Capablanca, and the other, as
you can imagine was Alekhine.
This is also part of what I call luck or fate in chess.
There are some historical periods in which one could be the best, but there are
two or three other stars who obfuscate, and destroy whatever one can achieve. In
some case historical events, can be quite damaging. For example Alekhine was
damaged by WWI and WWII. Lasker was definitely helped by WWI in keeping his
reign for so long. Rubinstein is another name of a player, who was damaged by
the Great War.
However, this chapter shows that by 1909, Capablanca was
more famous in the Americas,
and especially US, than Marshall
was.
I'm briefly outlining most of the chapters, because I think
the reader of the book shouldn't be spoiled all the surprises he can find in
the book itself.
But if one can take something from this chapter, and is
really fond of learning about Capablanca, then one should also read the book:
My Chess Career, written by Capablanca. It's an out of print book, I found a
copy for 88 cents! But the average price was around 3$. However the advantage
of this book, compared to "my chess career" is the games are in
algebraic, and in my opinion there are more annotations in this book, than in
Capablanca's one.
Also in this chapter is mentioned the book written by Marshall: "My fifty
years of chess" which I bought too, for writing another article, and it
was more expensive, around 13$
Chapter 5: the
prodigal son
The title of the chapter is pretty self-explanatory.
Capablanca is now top of the chess world famous, and returns to Cuba, where
they are waiting for him to celebrate. The chapter also shows a mature
Capablanca playing against Corzo, the local champion. This is quite an
interesting point, because one can compare the way Capablanca played 8 years
before with now. In this sense the author makes this important comparison for
those who don't have a database, and shows the most important games.
I'd like to show an example of annotated game from this
chapter, to show the quality of the games, for those who are not interested
only in the biographical work:
Chapter 6: the New
Conquistador
The chapter begins describing the numerous simultaneous
exhibitions Capablanca played in many different places: Paris,
Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Munich,
and shows some games played Buenos
Aires. The chapter also discusses the correspondence
relative to challenging the world champion Lasker, and the many tournaments
Capablanca played and won, like the following one:
Chapter 7: In
Morphy's footstep
I find most of these chapters of extreme interest both at
human historical level, here for example, at the end of the chapter is
described the beginning of WWI, and how Capablanca luckily escaped, taking a
ship which will bring him back to the Americas. But also at historical chess
level, what he had to do to become the challenger to the world champion. The
chapter also shows the many games Capablanca played in that period.
The book continues with 11 more chapters. They are all fascinating.
Chapter 8, a
king in waiting, also tell us about the romantic life of the gifted cuban!
Obviously chapter 9, on the world championship of 1921, and
chapter 13, on the world championship of 1927, can be of interest also to chess
players who don't like chess history.
Please note also how the author dig deep into different
historical sources, and found even caricatures with Capablanca.
Chapter 13 "Smiling again," begins showing the
tournament in Moscow 1936, where Capablanca beats Botvinnik, Lasker, Flohr and
other strong players of that period!
By the way, I'd like to show the thoroughness of the author
in his search upon Capablanca's life. For example, Capablanca traveled many
times to Moscow:
1925, 1935, and 1936, but the FBI denied they ever investigated Capablanca.
This can sound strange for us in this modern period, but also Fischer and his
mother were investigated by the FBI, which had dossier, and agents actively
following them.
Appendix I shows Capablanca's ideas on four of his
predecessors.
Appendix II can be interesting for those suffering of high
blood pressure, because the neurologist which wrote such chapter, did a good
work in exposing the problems of hypertension, and inserted a lot of images of
the brain. Capablanca likely died of a massive hemorrhagic stroke.
In conclusion: I counted around 170 games in this book,
making it a good book also for those who are more interested in games than a
biography. However, the book is supreme for the biography section, because in
the biography we can see the huge amount of research the author has done.
Throughout the book is possible to find images of the period, satirical
cartoons, quite ancient documents whose access is generally given only to
scholars.
In the end the book shows the scholarly level with the
indexes. There is an index for everything! Opponents, Openings, Images! This is
quite important for me, because I write many articles during the year, and
these professional indexes, help me find the material I'm looking for in the
over 500 pages of this great book, in seconds!
Clearly this is the book an amateur interested in chess
history wants to have in his own library. I'm quite proud of this volume,
because I wanted to know more about Capablanca's life, and to have some of his
games in book format, and this book satisfied both these desires.
By the way, for those interested in Capablanca, McFarland
also published another book, by the famous Chess Historian: Edward Winter:
