April 16 1911
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Sunday, April 16, 1911
Off For South America.
Capablanca En Route to Buenos Ayres After Entertaining Europe's Chess Centers.
Jose R. Capablanca, the Cuban chess champion, according to advices from the other side, sailed from Cherbourg for Buenos Ayres in the Argentine Republic on Friday. The hero of San Sebastian has been engaged by the Buenos Ayres Chess Club tor a month, and he will play against the leading experts of the republic in single match games, and in addition will give exhibitions of his skill at peripatetic chess and lecture on the theory of the game. Last year Dr. Emanuel Lasker visited the South American metropolis and the enthusiasts there will have an opportunity of comparing the styles of the two masters, who are likely to meet for the world's championship at no distant date.
South America is developing a keen enthusiasm for chess, which has spread to the republics of Venezuela and Columbia. President Gomez of Venezuela has offered a golden cup for a telegraphic match, which is now in progress, between Caracas and Bogota, and Dr. Restrepo, president of the republic of Colombia, will donate an object of art which is to go to the losing side. Three games are to be played altogether, one at a time, moves being exchanged under a time limit of twenty-four hours. Martin Ayala, formerly member of the Manhattan Chess Club, for the championship of which he tied one year, is on the Caracas team, together with Dr. Rafael Ruiz, vice president of the Caracas club; Simon Soublette, Rafael Pittaluga and Antonio Toro Key. The players representing Bogota are Dr. Antonio Jose Caro, Dr. Restrepo Tamayo, Guiliermo Carizosa and Manuel Caro. The first game, at last accounts, had progressed to the twenty-ninth move, with the position practically even.
After visiting Paris, Jose R. Capablanca accepted the invitations of the chess clubs of Frankfort, and Nuremberg, giving remarkable exhibitions of simultaneous play in each case. At the Anderssen Chess Club of Frankfurt he conducted twenty-three games, and in the very fast time of two and one-half hours he won nineteen, drew three and lost one. The Cuban champion offered to replay all of the twenty-three games from memory, but after replaying the moves of the game he lost without a mistake, the spectators declared themselves satisfied. Equally sensational was his performance at the Tarrasch Club of Nuremberg, where he was pitted against thirty-three opponents, making a score of twenty-seven wins, one loss and three drawn games in three and one-quarter hours. A notable feat in simultaneous chess was also performed by A. K. Rubinstein. Russian champion and the only master to win from Capablanca at San Sebastian, at the Cafe Kerkau, in Berlin. Rubinstein conducted forty games at one and the same time, and of these he won thirty-six, drew three and lost one, a performance, especially in view of the strength of his opponents, which ranks with the best ever made.
