Capablanca's 100 Best Games of Chess

First published in 1947. Jose Capablanca was a phenomenon who burst onto the chess world and took top prize in the first ever elite tournament in which he participated. This was at San Sebastian - otherwise known as Donostia - in the Basque country of Spain in 1911. Capablanca's style was serene - no position seemed to trouble him, and he crushed most of the established European grandmasters with seemingly little effort. Only against the mighty Lasker did he experience serious problems. Then in 1921 Capa - as he was known - obliterated Lasker in their world title match and took the championship without losing a single game. Other triumphs followed, such as London 1922, and Capablanca acquired the legend of an invincible superman when he went for 8 years without losing a game! His supreme moment was in New York 1927 - a quadruple round trial of strength between Capa himself Alekhine, Nimzowitsch and three other contenders for the crown. Capa whitewashed the field, creating a fresh masterpiece practically every day. Possibly this easy victory left him over-confident for later the same year he lost his world title to Alekhine. Grandmaster Emeritus Harry Golombek was from his early days a worshipper at the shrine of Capablanca's genius. In this book he lucidly expounds the thinking behind the Cuban champion's greatest achievements and faithfully records every subtle nuance of his extraordinary ability to cut to the essence of what was truly transpiring amongst the myriad complexities of the chess board. If any player truly exemplified the classical style, it was Capablanca. Harry Golombek was perhaps the king of chess writers. Chess correspondent for The London Times and The Observer, he possessed an unrivalled gift for transforming a chess game into an heroic saga with himself as the bard, singing the exploits of his chosen heroes of the mind. Several times British Champion, Golombek also played top board for England in the Olympiad and represented the British Chess Federation in the FIDE World Championship cycle. He was fluent in Russian and personally attended the World Chess Championships of 1954, 1957 and 1958 as a judge