José Raúl Capablanca: Chess and poetry

Jose Raul Capablanca was born in Havana, Cuba on the 19th of November 1888. He learned chess at the age of four by watching his father play and in 1901, at the age of 12, he beat Juan Corzo, the Cuban champion. Capablanca was regarded as the most naturally talented chess player anyone had ever seen. He was educated in America, studied engineering at Columbia University and spent much of his free time playing masters at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York City, where he achieved a sensational win in a match against US Champion Frank Marshall crushing him by 8 wins to 1 with 14 draws in 1909 when he was 20 years old. Frank Marshall had unsuccessfully played Lasker in a World Championship match only two years earlier. Read more