16th May, 2003

On the twentieth anniversary of the great José Raúl Capablanca‚s death
in 1962, Cuba paid tribute to one of the greatest names in the game by
staging a memorial event in his honour.

Cuba has been chess-mad ever since Capablanca wrested the world crown
from an aging, out of favour Emanuel Lasker at Havana in 1921; in the
process, ending his 27-year reign. Nicknamed „The Chess Machine‰,
Capablanca was perhaps the greatest natural talent the game has ever>seen.
The aura of invincibility surrounding him continued to grow as he
dominated the game from the end of the First World War until 1927 when,
due to complacency as he was similarly blessed by being bone idle, he
lost the world title to Alekhine.

Unfortunately, Capablanca could never raise the funds for a return match
to bring the title back home, although he continued to play successfully
in tournaments. And, of all the world champions, he must have suffered
the lowest proportion of defeats in all his match and tournament games.

To this day, he‚s still idolized in Cuba, which, despite the
long-standing economic sanctions, boasts more grandmasters for any other
nation of its size. The chess-boom reached its zenith there after the
Castro revolution in 1959, when the game became a mass sport run along
Soviet lines with state funding of top players.

Havana even staged one of the all-time great Chess Olympiads in 1966,
where avid chess addicts Che Guevara and Fidel Castro were to be seen on
a daily basis kibitzing in and around the playing hall with the top
players of the day, such as Petrosian, Spassky, Tal and Fischer.

The 38th Capablanca Memorial is now underway in Havana. This year's
tribute to Cuba's fallen hero is a mix of events, the main attraction
being a category 13 (average 2557) round-robin. The participants in the
main group are Granda Zuniga, Bruzon, Dominguez, Andersson, Ikonnikov,
Morovic, Vera, Nogueiras, Leitao, Zapata, Arencibia and Gonzalez.

J Zuniga Granda – Y Gonzalez
38th Capablanca Memorial, (1)
Caro-Kann Advanced
1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 Bf5 4 Nf3 e6 5 Be2 c5 6 Be3 cxd4 7 Nxd4 Ne7 8 Nd2
Nbc6 9 N2f3 Bg4 10 0-0 Bxf3 11 Nxf3 Nf5 12 Bf4 Be7 13 Bd3 Nh4 14 Nxh4
Bxh4 15 Qg4 g6 16 Rad1 h5 17 Qf3 g5 18 Bc1 g4 19 Qf4 Qc7 20 Rfe1 Rg8 21
Qh6 0-0-0 22 g3 Nxe5 23 Rxe5 Qxe5 24 gxh4 g3 25 hxg3 Rxg3+ 26 fxg3 Qxg3+
27 Kf1 Qf3+ 28 Ke1 Qg3+ 29 Kd2 Qf2+ 30 Kc3 Qc5+ 31 Kd2 Qf2+ 32 Kc3 Qc5+
33 Kb3 Qb6+ 34 Ka4 Qc6+ 35 Ka3 Qc5+ 36 b4 Qc3+ 37 Ka4 b5+ 38 Kxb5 d4 39
Ka4 a5 40 Qd2 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON