When The Unbeatable Gets Beaten

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.”

- Frank Lloyd Wright

*This is the second part of a series of three articles.

First part – Talent vs Hard Work:  https://www.chess.com/blog/BlitzKriegBoy99/talent-vs-hard-work-2

Third part – Under construction

One of my favorite parts about Greek Mythology is when the Titans were defeated. They were the all-powerful Earth gods, virtually invincible.[Nevertheless,] they lost the battle with their grown-up sons and daughters.

A special mention can be given to Cronus, the god of time and the leader of the Titans. After overthrowing his father, Uranus, and consolidating his power, he faced the same fate, being defeated by his son, Zeus.

The point is that even [things that seem] unbeatable can be overcome.

Chess Genius

José Raul Capablanca was born on November 19, 1888, in Havana, Cuba. It is said that he was four years old when he had his first contact with chess while watching his father playing a game, and learned it just by watching (like a pianist who learns a piece of music by hearing). Three days later he was beating his father, which indicated the overwhelming natural talent the kid possessed.

He evolved as a chess player, and became the national Champion of Cuba at the age of 13, in 1901. In 1904, his parents sent him to the United States to study at the prestigious Columbia University to become an engineer. After two years, he quit and fully dedicated himself to chess, winning important matches and tournaments.

Let´s take a look at some of Capablanca´s results:

- In 1909, he won a match against Frank Marshall, who was the American Champion and considered one of the top 5 players in the world, by the score of 8 wins, 1 loss, and 14 draws.

- In 1911, he won the strong tournament of San Sebastian, with a score of 9.5 ] out of 14 possible points.

- In 1914, he got second place in the tournament of Saint Petersburg, with a score of 13 out of 18 possible points. He was just a half-point behind Emanual Lasker, the World Champion at the time.

- He won the New York Masters tournament in subsequential years: 1915, 1916 and, 1918.

To see a bit of what I´m talking about, I would like to show you one of my favorite Capablanca´s games, which demonstrates a strategic concept he used with mastery: a piece out of play.

In the 1920s, Capablanca was virtually invincible, being considered a chess machine by his comrades. He won the World Championship title in 1921, from Emanuel Lasker, and nothing seemed to be able to stop him.

No one doubted he would maintain his WC title for a long time after his convincing win of the 1927 New York Masters tournament (scoring 14 out of 20 against the chess world´s elite), but, in the same year, he lost it.

How was that possible? How could a genius, in the fullness of his strength, lose a chess match?

Well, the one who managed to achieve “the impossible” was the second-place finisher in the same 1927 New York Masters tournament, three points behind Capablanca:, the Russian Alexander Alekhine.

The Man Who Loved and Revolutionized Chess

After the 1st World Chess Champion Wilhelm Steinitz had established the classic principles to the game, they were followed and carefully studied by chess masters of the 20th century. Capablanca, for instance, used and even had a natural feeling for them (he could feel which square each piece would be better placed). 

The first person to successfully challenge Steinitz’s principles was Alexander Alekhine. Don´t get me wrong, he made a deep study and mastered all of them. But, his creative and dynamic style of playing was ahead of his time. He dared to create a weakness in his own territory to activate his pieces. This was something we usually didn´t see at the beginning of the 20th century in master´s games.

Maybe it´s more correct to say that Alekhine didn´t challenge Steinitz principles, but that he could operate at their borders. In his games, he was very close to breaking them, but, with a lot of calculation ability and positional understanding, he usually didn´t overtake the limit of the acceptable. 

Alexander Alekhine was born on October 31, 1892, in Moscow, Russia. He was a true chess lover since his childhood.

There´s an anecdote when the young Alekhine, attending a math class, suddenly stood up. He had a look in his eyes as if he had found a difficult solution. His teacher asked if he solved the problem (obviously referring to the math problem), and Alekhine answered he had, and the answer was a knight sacrifice!

Alekhine developed a will to play for the initiative, always trying to introduce new ideas and imbalances in the positions.

To see a bit of all this creativeness and amazing chess, let´s see the following game together, where he scored a magnificent win over Richard Réti:

Alekhine was considered a deserved successor of Mikhail Chigorin, a former challenger for the throne, because, besides both of them being Russians, their game was full of creativeness. Yet, he surpassed Chigorin, as he had a superior positional understanding and, consequently, better technique.

Well, Alekhine was a great chess talent and was a hard worker too, as he was always thinking about chess and training. Yet, he wasn´t quoted as someone who could really dethrone Capablanca. If Alekhine was being considered great at the time, Capablanca was being considered outstanding.

Anyway, that´s not what Alekhine thought, and he proved to be right.

The Titans Battle

Capablanca and Alekhine first met in 1913, when Capablanca visited Moscow to play a tournament. Alekhine showed him the city, and it's said that they even celebrated together as friends on some nights.

Before the World Championship, the score between Capablanca and Alekhine was 5 wins in favor of the Cuban, and 7 draws. A huge difference, as Alekhine never accomplished a win against his rival, but was only able to get some draws. Still, it was one of these draws that gave hope to Alekhine.

In the 1924 New York Masters tournament, Alekhine noticed a weakness in Capablanca´s play. He perceived that the Cuban genius didn´t like to face a strong resistance by his opponents when they were in bad positions, and couldn´t play his “A game” in these situations.

With this new weapon at his side (knowledge is a weapon), Alekhine arrived at Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the match was going to be held, ready for a battle. And, my friends, what a battle the chess world witnessed.

The match conditions were that the winner would be the first player to reach 6 wins.

Right at the 1st game the Russian, using the French defense, won convincingly with Black (Capablanca didn´t play 1.e4 for the rest of the match). Capablanca´s answer was a win in the 3rd game.

After some draws, the World Champion won the 7th game too. He was now leading the match.

The way Capablanca conducted the 3rd game showed the Champion was in good shape.

But, then, the 11th game was played.

Still in shock with this game, Capablanca even managed to play well and take initiative in the following one, but, in the end, the invincible machine blundered and lost another game.

The score was 3-2 for Alekhine. People all around the world couldn´t believe their eyes, as Capablanca rarely lost, and, in 12 games, he already had lost 3, and to an opponent to whom he had never lost before.

The match continued, and, in the end, Alekhine won with 6 wins against 3, and 25 draws.

The opinion of the specialists, including Kasparov, was unanimous: that the Cuban´s talent and easy life (he never had encountered heavy difficulties over the board before) played against him. Alekhine was obstinate and willing to challenge his formidable opponent with all his forces, while Capablanca was unaware of the force he would have to face.

When the Cuban star realized he should give 100% of his strength, it was already too late. He wasn´t prepared for it, as this was something new for him.

As they never managed to acquire the conditions for a rematch for the supreme title, the rivalry between these two legends got even more accentuated.

They faced each other more times, and, in the end, Capablanca had a better score, with 9 wins for him, against 7 for Alekhine, with 33 draws. But, the one who died with the World Champion title was Alekhine.

Alekhine accomplished the unthinkable, and, by doing that, he showed the world that his dynamic chess style was something to be feared. He played concrete chess, justifying his ideas with precise calculations.

This proves that obstinacy aligned with talent can surpass even overwhelming natural talent, something that was seen by others, including Capablanca himself, as unbeatable.

Thanks for reading till here.

Bibliography

My Great Predecessors, Volume One - Garry Kasparov.

Endgame Strategy - Mikhail Shereshvsky.

A special thanks to @Copernicus9 for the corrections and tips about English writing.                   

BKB99