José Raúl Capablanca Graupera

Capablanca was cataloged as the second child prodigy in the world. Throughout his career, he accumulated a total of 302 victories, 246 draws, and 35 defeats. He was the only world champion Cuba has had, and his career was recognized by the International Chess Federation.

He was born in the military installation of the Castillo del Príncipe in La Habana, and was the son of Spanish army commander José María Capablanca and Doña María Graupera.

From an early age, he demonstrated his talent for chess, which he learned by watching his father play. He defeated his father in 1892 at the age of four years old, news that spread throughout the world, earning him the title of second child prodigy, as the first had been American Paul Charles Morphy.

He completed his high school education at the Instituto de Bachillerato de Matanzas. His family did not have the economic resources to pay for his university studies and allow him to study abroad. Due to his excellent academic results, Ramón San Pelayo agreed to finance his education. In the summer of 1904, he went to New York to study English and prepare for his entrance to Columbia University, where he enrolled in 1906 in the Chemical Engineering program. However, permanently distracted by his passion for the game of chess, he only completed the first two years.

He liked to play chess, but not teach it. In September 1913, he obtained a job at Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Relations as an ambassador. This salary allowed him to continue enjoying his passion for chess and make some trips abroad in search of new challenges.

In 1921 he married in Cuba, but in 1925 he married a Russian princess.

The oldest game preserved from José Raúl dates from the age of five and was played at the Chess Club of La Habana on September 17, 1893 against Ramón Iglesias, who offered the young boy a queen as an advantage. On move 38, Iglesias concedes defeat.

At seven years old, he won a game against Frenchman Tabernhaus, who was visiting La Habana. Years later, Tabernhaus would claim that he was the only master who had dared to give Capablanca a queen as an advantage.

In 1900, he defeated Master Juan Corzo y Príncipe and won the title of Champion of Cuba. In 1902, he participated in the first Cuban national chess championship, placing in fourth position. From then on, he participated in various competitions that led him to travel throughout Europe and the United States. At twelve years old, he was already champion of Cuba, and at 23, he was Pan-American Champion.

He traveled to the United States to pursue university studies. There, he began to visit the Manhattan Chess Club. In 1905, he participated in a strong tournament where he had the opportunity to face the great Lasker for the first time, the World Champion, whom he managed to defeat.

In 1909, he played against the grand master Frank J. Marshall, defeating him in 8 games, drawing 14, and losing only one. He won the third prize shared with Oscar Chajes in the 1911 American championship, behind Frank Marshall. There he also won the brilliancy prize and the title of master. Also in that same year, he participated in the great San Sebastián tournament. There he took first place, surpassing Rubinstein, Nimzowitch, Spielmann, Marshall, Janovski, Schelechter, Vidmar, Tarrasch, and Berstein.

He obtained third place in the New York tournament of 1913, defeating David Janowsky and Oscar Chajes, and drawing against Frank Marshall. In the La Habana tournament of 1913, a confusing episode occurred in which Capablanca denounced an alleged fraudulent maneuver to benefit Marshall, in which Jaffé had been involved. The Cuban stated to the press that he would not play again in competitions in which Jaffé participated.

He returned to Cuba in 1912, publishing a chess magazine in La Habana. That same year he visited Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and from 1913 onward, he displayed great activity in international chess tournaments. In 1915, he shared first place in the New York state championship. His career also includes victories over Jacques Mieses, Enmanuel Lasker, and other great chess players of his time.

Between 1918 and 1922, Capablanca won all the games and tournaments in which he participated. Some critics even cataloged him as having an almost complete absence of errors and false interpretations of position.

He became the most famous chess player of the era. His surname was repeated in all languages and there was no way to forget it. He is the only Cuban to have obtained the title of World Chess Champion to date.

In 1919, he won the traditional Hastings tournament in England. In 1921, he published the work Fundamentals of Chess and obtained the status of World Chess Champion in La Habana against German Enmanuel Lasker, holding it until 1927, when he lost to Russian-French Alexander Alekhine. The result concluded with six games won by Alekhine, three by Capablanca, and 25 draws. His conqueror said he would give him a rematch in less than two years, but this proved unfulfilled, as he never accepted playing him again. By that time, José Raúl was already suffering from arterial hypertension.

The grand master won the Gold Medal among the first boards in the World Olympiad held in 1939 and participated in twenty-nine high-level tournaments, of which he won fifteen and finished second in nine others. In total, he accumulated 318 victories, 249 draws, and 34 defeats. For these results, he was praised by Yugoslav Gligoric, who publicly stated, "Capablanca knows, the rest of us experiment."

The last official appearance of the idol of the game of chess was at the FIDE Chess Olympiad held in Buenos Aires in 1939, where he occupied first place on the board of the Cuba team, which also included chess players Francisco Planas, Alberto López, Rafael Blanco, Miguel Alemán, and María Teresa Mora, who years later became the first Cuban international master.

Since 1962, the classic Capablanca In Memoriam International Tournament has been held annually in Cuba, where world champions and the main grandmasters of the world have gathered.

The International Chess Federation, known by the acronym FIDE, established November 19, Capablanca's birthday, as World Chess Player Day in tribute to the Cuban world champion.