Last month, March, represented 110 years since the suave Cuban chess player Jose Raul Capablanca won the great San Sebastian Chess Tournament. The tournament was held in February-March 1911. In those times, there was no Candidates Tournament, but the chess world was aware that whoever won San Sebastian reserved the right to challenge the world champion for his title. Fifteen of the world’s finest chess players took part in San Sebastian. Emanuel Lasker, the world champion, was invited but declined the invitation. Chessbase reported that Lasker was married in March, 1911, the same month of the tournament which was perhaps the reason he refused.
The 15 chess masters who participated earned their right by obtaining excellent results in earlier tournaments. Some of the participants objected to Capablanca’s participation. It was felt he was not strong enough; he had no reputation and that San Sebastian was not for flashy amateurs.
Harold Schonberg wrote that Ossip Bernstein objected the loudest. Capablanca met him in the first round and he was the first to fall. In fact, Capablanca won the tournament’s only brilliancy prize for his crushing defeat of Bernstein. That game is still being replayed to this day.
Capablanca was unknown in Europe coming from an island in the Caribbean. He was admitted to San Sebastian owing to his 8 to 1 victory over Frank James Marshall, an internationally famous player who only two years previously (1907) had played Lasker for the world championship. Marshall was a fierce attacking player, or as they say in chess, a pure romantic. But attack in my view, is of no avail against a player’s supreme technique. It is said the well-rounded master will always beat the pure romantic.
Following his victory at San Sebastian, Capablanca challenged Lasker for the world championship title. But World War I brought negotiations for the match to a halt. It was eventually played in 1921 in Havana, Cuba and the Cuban won handily. He did not lose a single game during his encounter with Lasker.
For his victories at the San Sebastian Tournament and the Lasker match, one can say a Caribbean man won both the Candidates and the World Championship title.
