When the Chess Machine was a human: Capablanca v. weak square = 1-0
Jose Raul Capablanca (pictured) was born in Havana, Cuba on November 19, 1888. He died March 8, 1942. (For reincarnation fans, that is a year and a day before the birth of Robert James Fischer.) While losing no games (1916-1924), Capablanca was called the Chess Machine. In that period, he won the World Chess Championship from Emanuel Lasker in 1921.
His opponent in the game presented is Milan Vidmar, Sr. Vidmar was born June 22, 1885 in Ljubljana, Austria-Hungary (now in Slovenia). He died October 9, 1962. He was a professional engineer and an amateur chess player who was one of the best for about half a century. In 1950, when FIDE started awarding GM titles, Vidmar was included.
The game was contested at the famous tournament of London 1922. The results are as follows: 1. Jose Raul Capablanca 13 (11 wins, 4 draws), 2.Alexander Alekhine 11.5, 3. Milan Vidmar Sr 11, 4. Akiba Rubinstein 10.5, 5. Efim Bogoljubow 9, 6. Richard Reti 8.5, 7. Saviely Tartakower 8.5, 8. Geza Maroczy 8, 9. Frederick Yates 8, 10. Henry Atkins 6, 11. Max Euwe 5.5, 12. Eugene Znosko Borovsky 5, 13. Victor Wahltuch 5, 14. John Morrison 4.5, 15. Charles Watson 4.5. 16. Davide Marotti 1.5. That is not a bad lineup with an elite top half.
The opening is the Orthodox Defense of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. I used notes from Maroczy, who lightly annotated most of the games in the tournament book. I added some additional sources and my notes. Game scores and references include Capa’s other games at London using this line with either color.
