CHESS

The chess historian, Edward Winter, wrote a book on the Cuban chess genius, Jose Raul Capablanca in which he systematically compiled numerous articles and rare archival materials. Whilst on a simultaneous tour in England in 1919 that included an exhibition at the House of Commons in London, Capablanca was criticised for his conceit and vanity with statements such as the following: ‘I wish to say I have never played my best chess, for I have never been required to exert myself to defeat such players as I have encountered…I expect to open the eyes of chess players. I am inbued with an ambition to be acknowledged chess champion of the world’ (Capablanca) Inviting this response in the British Chess magazine: ‘To expect supreme genius to abstain from all self-laudation would perhaps be asking too much from human nature; but indulgence in that weakness should never be allowed to degenerate into an orgy.’ (J.H Blake) And the following defence: ‘There is no trace of conceit in Capablanca’s make-up, and his critics have not allowed or understood the difference between a Southern temperament and a British one.’ (J. du Mont) The following position is taken from a simultaneous display conducted by Capablanca in Bradford, England in 1919.