Capa or Morphy I think.
Who is this player?
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I don't know about this story, but Karpov learned chess watching his father playing chess with a friend. When he asked him to teach him chess, his father told him that he was too young, so he learned all the rules just watching his father's games.
When his father finally told him that he was old enought to learn the rules, he already knew everything. :-)
So its possible that was Karpov.
Very nice read . Thanks Scottrf for sharing.
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The father won the game and he chuckled at the discomfiture of his old friend. Then he was astounded to hear his son say: “You won, Father, but not fairly. You moved a knight from one white square to another. That is not fair.” |
| Both men looked at the child in amazement. José’s father was not conscious of the fact that he had inadvertently cheated. His opponent, too, had missed the play. Oh, but truly they were poor chess players. However, they went back over the game and found the place where Capablanca senior had made that false move. His annoyance over his clumsy mistake was overshadowed by the discovery that his five-year-old chico could play chess. |
| “Who taught you to play?” the father demanded. |
| “Nobody,” José Capablanca, Jr., said calmly. “I have watched you play many times, Father. And now I can play. It is easy to play chess, isn’t it?” |
| “Sit down, my little cabbage,” the puzzled father said, “and we’ll see if you can play.” |
| “Okay, Pop,” the kid said, only he said it in Spanish, for it was not until many years afterwards that he learned English. And he defeated his father very easily and that father was the proudest man in Havana. |
Nice find Scottrf. It was Capablanca after all.
A long time I read an old book about a GM or famous player who learned to play chess by watching his father play. At one point his father was playing a friend and the father actually cheated by moving a piece to a place where it cannot go. But the son correctly pointed this out and embarrased his father. Anyway, the son became a famous chess player and I don't remember who it was. I would guess Spassky, but that is completely a guess. Does anyone know?