Jose Capablanca was a phenomenon who burst onto the chess world and took top prize in the first ever elite tournament in which he participated. This was at San Sebastian - otherwise known as Donostia - in the Basque country of Spain in 1911. Capablanca's style was serene - no position seemed to trouble him, and he crushed most of the established European grandmasters with seemingly little effort. Only against the mighty Lasker did he experience serious problems. Then in 1921 Capa - as he was known - obliterated Lasker in their world title match and took the championship without losing a single game. Other triumphs followed, such as London 1922, and Capablanca acquired the legend of an invincible superman when he went for 8 years without losing a game! His supreme moment was in New York 1927 - a quadruple round trial of strength between Capa himself Alekhine, Nimzowitsch and three other contenders for the crown. Capa whitewashed the field, creating a fresh masterpiece practically every day. Possibly this easy victory left him over-confident for later the same year he lost his world title to Alekhine.
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Games to learn from and enjoy,
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This review is from: Capablanca's 100 Best Games of Chess (Paperback)
José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942) is widely regarded as one of the all-time great chess players, and possibly the greatest natural chess genius in history. World champion from 1921-1927, he is the only player to have won the world title by defeating the incumbent in a match without losing a game. His games were the greatest influence on the modern great world champions Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov. Mikhail Botvinnik (three times world champ) also related how much he learned from Capablanca, and pointed out that even Alekhine received much schooling from him in positional play, before the struggle for the world title made them bitter foes.Once players have read all the introductory books about endgames, openings, tactics and basic strategy, to improve, they must study master games. Capablanca's crystal clarity of style makes his an ideal object of study. Although not clear from the Amazon title, the games are annotated by Harry Golombek. His notes are very lucid, and he was one of Britain's best players in the pre-GM boom. He had the added advantage of knowing Capa personally. Capa's crush of Golombek features in the book, and made a deep impression on Golombek for seemingly effortless simplicity. There are places where Golombek's notes are outdated or just plain wrong, but this is rare. Definitely order the Algebraic version with John Nunn's editing. The book also has a detailed and sympathetic biographical sketch by J. Du Mont. Hope this book is in stock soon, because it is almost a must for the improving player anywhere from club to expert level - chess coaches take note!
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Synopsis,
This review is from: Capablanca's Hundred Best Games of Chess (Paperback)
First published in 1947. Jose Capablanca was a phenomenon who burst onto the chess world and took top prize in the first ever elite tournament in which he participated. This was at San Sebastian - otherwise known as Donostia - in the Basque country of Spain in 1911. Capablanca's style was serene - no position seemed to trouble him, and he crushed most of the established European grandmasters with seemingly little effort. Only against the mighty Lasker did he experience serious problems. Then in 1921 Capa - as he was known - obliterated Lasker in their world title match and took the championship without losing a single game. Other triumphs followed, such as London 1922, and Capablanca acquired the legend of an invincible superman when he went for 8 years without losing a game! His supreme moment was in New York 1927 - a quadruple round trial of strength between Capa himself Alekhine, Nimzowitsch and three other contenders for the crown. Capa whitewashed the field, creating a fresh masterpiece practically every day. Possibly this easy victory left him over-confident for later the same year he lost his world title to Alekhine.
Grandmaster Emeritus Harry Golombek was from his early days a worshipper at the shrine of Capablanca's genius. In this book he lucidly expounds the thinking behind the Cuban champion's greatest achievements and faithfully records every subtle nuance of his extraordinary ability to cut to the essence of what was truly transpiring amongst the myriad complexities of the chess board. If any player truly exemplified the classical style, it was Capablanca. Harry Golombek was perhaps the king of chess writers. Chess correspondent for The London Times and The Observer, he possessed an unrivalled gift for transforming a chess game into an heroic saga with himself as the bard, singing the exploits of his chosen heroes of the mind. Several times British Champion, Golombek also played top board for England in the Olympiad and represented the British Chess Federation in the FIDE World Championship cycle. He was fluent in Russian and personally attended the World Chess Championships of 1954, 1957 and 1958 as a judge
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