Chess lovers in Cuba surely remember as great tournaments organized in Cuba the world match between our José Raúl Capablanca and Enmanuel Lasker in 1921, or the 1966 Olympiad, but long before the largest of the Antilles hosted a World Championship, and there was no no native in action.
These days 132 years of that joust are celebrated, promoted by the Havana Chess Club, in which the then world champion Wilhelm Steinitz and Mijail Tchigorin faced each other.
That fight between the American of Austrian origin and his Russian challenger lasted more than a month, won by the northerner 10.5 points to 6.5. It was only the third official deputation of the crown of the world, and Steinitz remained as the successor of his compatriot Paul Morphy.
Although the monarch’s game was not the most attractive, as he was accused of being conservative, he was considered one of the first original thinkers of chess and was very effective against Chigorin, the precursor of what would later become the Soviet school of chess. science game.
Mikhail Tchigorin
Steinitz championed for his respect, while Chigorin began to make a name for himself based on good results, so the organizers did not hesitate to propose the match, accepted by the holder of the scepter. Let’s remember that at that time the champion decided who to face, and to what extent and how, reason that he would later play against Capablanca because Alekhine never gave him a rematch.
The confrontation was even until game 14 (the score was seven points to six in favor of the American), but then the defending monarch chained a series of three straight wins that sealed the match.
Incidentally, it is said that the $1,150 prize won by Steinitz at the end of the match was the smallest ever for a world chess champion.
Three years later both rivals meet again in Havana, and once again Steinitz was successful, although this time in a more closed manner: 12.5 points to 10.5. Before, the King had successfully defended his title against Isidor Gúnsberg, a Hungarian nationalized British chess player.
That rematch was the second of the three occasions in which the Cuban capital hosted the most important games on the planet, since the third we already know was the one won by Capablanca.
