Jose Raul Capablanca (Capablanca) [19 November 1888, Havana - March 8, 1942, New York], Cuban chess player, the third in the history of chess world champion (1921-27), a chess writer and theorist. Diplomat. He learned to play chess at age 4 by watching his father play – the captain of the fortress of La Caba?a. In 13 years, won the match for the championship of Cuba at the J. Corso with a score of 7: 6.

Junior Champion of Cuba.

After graduating from a private school in New York, entered the chemical engineering faculty at Columbia University (1906), but did not finish it. Chess fame brought him to tour in the U.S. (1909), during which he played 602 Party (lost only 12 and made 17 draws), and the match with the champion of the United States and one of the strongest players of the world FJ. Marshall ended the landslide victory of the young Cubans with a score of 15: 8 (+8, -1, = 14). In his game attracted the absence of a template, a constant striving for the initiative, the surprising rapidity of thought, subtle and beautiful combination of intuition, a harmonious combination of the logic of plans and filigree techniques to achieve and take advantage of, determination and persistence in attack protection.

Chess diplomat.

Capablanca European debut took place in 1911 at an international tournament in San Sebastian (Spain), where he confidently took the first place. In 1913, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, received direction at the St. Petersburg consulate, in which the combined activities with active chess performances. On the “tournament of champions” in St. Petersburg (1914) took second place behind world champion GM. Lasker. Watching the rivalry of the two strongest players of the world, the young composer Sergei Prokofiev compared them with two musical geniuses of the world: “… and if the compound, deep Lasker seems to me a grand Bach, a lively, swift Capablanca – forever young Mozart, created with the same ease and sometimes dashing negligence, as Capablanca “(1914).

Applicant becomes a champion.

In subsequent years, in preparation for the match with Lasker, Capablanca has established a phenomenal record – during the 1916-1924 period did not lose a single game in three tournaments and two matches, wrote a famous autobiographical book “My chess career” (1921). In 1921, in Havana, won the world championship match with Lasker (+4, -0, = 10) and was third in the history of chess world champion. In 1925 he participated in the first Moscow international tournament, during which starred in the comedy film “Chess Fever” (directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin), where he played himself. In 1927, a landslide victory in an international tournament in New York, ahead of runner-Alexander Alekhine by 3,5 points. Overestimated their success, the fall of 1927 in Buenos Aires Alekhin lost the world championship match (+3, -6, = 25). The defeat forced Capablanca once again to seriously address the analytical work. He actively participated in the competitions: in the 1928-1931 years has played in 10 tournaments, seven of them occupied the first place.

The last years of life.

New, and final, take-off reached in 1936, winning (along with Mikhail Botvinnik) at the third Moscow and the famous Nottingham international tournaments, created a classic “textbook Chess” (1936). Did much to popularize and develop chess in the Soviet Union, through their tour in 1925, 1935, 1936, and numerous performances in the Soviet chess journals. His second wife was a Russian Princess Olga Chegodaeva, a relative of the poet Sergei Gorodetsky, who later became the wife of the hero of America, Admiral J. Clark and published the book “In memory of beloved dead” (1992, Buenos Aires). In 1939 he made his debut at the World Chess Olympiad national team of Cuba and took first place at the first board, ahead of Alekhine. In preparation for the rematch with Russian chess player, wrote “Chess lectures. Constantly attended the Manhattan Chess Club in New York, where 8 March 1942 fell ill and, without regaining consciousness, died. Total in tournaments and matches played by 603 parties, of which 318 won, and lost only 34 (less than 6%), which is one of the best results in chess history. “With his death we have lost the greatest chess genius, the like of which we never see” (Alekhine).