Editing José Raúl Capablanca (section)

=== World title contender ===
In 1911, Capablanca challenged [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]] for the [[World Chess Championship]]. [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]] accepted his challenge while proposing 17 conditions for the match. Capablanca objected to some of the conditions, which favored [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]], and the match did not take place.<ref>Hooper & Whyld 1992, pp. 67–68.</ref><ref name="graemecree1921WorldChessChampionship">{{Cite web
 | url=http://members.aol.com/graemecree/chesschamps/world/world1921.htm
 | title=1921 World Chess Championship
 | access-date=21 November 2008
| date=20 January 2005
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050120165616/http://members.aol.com/graemecree/chesschamps/world/world1921.htm |archive-date = 20 January 2005}} This cites: a report of [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]]'s concerns about the location and duration of the match, in ''New York Evening Post''. 15 March 1911; Capablanca's letter of 20 December 1911 to [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]], stating his objections to [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]]'s proposal; [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]]'s letter to Capablanca, breaking off negotiations; [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]]'s letter of 27 April 1921 to Alberto Ponce of the Havana Chess Club, proposing to resign the 1921 match; and Ponce's reply, accepting the resignation.</ref>
[[File:Capablanca vs Alekhine 1914.jpg|left|thumb|First Match game between [[Alexander Alekhine|Alekhine]] and Capablanca on 14 December 1913 in an exhibition in St. Petersburg ]]
In 1913, Capablanca won a tournament in [[New York City|New York]] with 11/13, half a point ahead of Marshall.<ref name="Golombek1959Capas100BestResults" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Hooper |first=D.|author2=Brandreth, D.|title=The Unknown Capablanca|year=1975|publisher=R.H.M. Press|pages=170|isbn=0890582076}}</ref> Capablanca then finished second to Marshall in Havana, scoring 10 out of 14 and losing one of their individual games.<ref name="Golombek1959Capas100BestResults" /><ref name="MarshallBestGames">{{cite book|last=Marshall|first=F.J.|title=Frank J. Marshall's Best Games of Chess|publisher=Dover|year=1960|pages=19–20|isbn=0-486-20604-1}} Page 19: "My two 1913 tournaments took a curious course. At New York, Capa beat me out by half a point, but a month later I reversed the procedure at Havana." P. 20: Marshall thought the crowd were "after my blood for defeating their idol and asked for an escort to my hotel. It turned out, however, that the good Cubans were just showing their sportsmanship and were cheering ''me''!"</ref> The 600 spectators naturally favored their native hero, but sportingly gave Marshall "thunderous applause".<ref name="MarshallBestGames" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Winter|first=E.G.|title=Capablanca chess|publisher=McFarland|chapter=Rapid ascent|isbn=0-89950-455-8|year=1989}}</ref> In a tournament in New York in 1913, at the Rice Chess Club, Capablanca won all 13 games.<ref name="Reinfeld1942ImmortalGamesOfCapaBio" /><ref name="Golombek1959Capas100BestResults" />

In September 1913, Capablanca accepted a job in the Cuban Foreign Office,<ref name="Dumont1959MemoirOfCapa" /> which made him financially secure for life.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGamesCapa" /> Hooper and Whyld write, "He had no specific duties, but was expected to act as a kind of ambassador-at-large, a well-known figure who would put Cuba on the map wherever he travelled."<ref>Hooper & Whyld 1992, p. 68.</ref> His first instructions were to go to [[Saint Petersburg]], where he was due to play in a major tournament.<ref name="Reinfeld1942ImmortalGamesOfCapaBio" /> On his way, he gave [[simultaneous exhibition]]s in London, Paris and Berlin, where he also played two-game matches against [[Richard Teichmann]] and [[Jacques Mieses]], winning all four games.<ref name="Dumont1959MemoirOfCapa" /><ref name="Reinfeld1942ImmortalGamesOfCapaBio" /> In Saint Petersburg, he played similar matches against [[Alexander Alekhine]], [[Eugene Znosko-Borovsky]] and [[Fyodor Duz-Chotimirsky]], losing one game to Znosko-Borovsky and winning the rest.<ref name="Dumont1959MemoirOfCapa" />

The [[St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament]] was the first in which Capablanca confronted [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]] under tournament conditions.<ref name="Reinfeld1942ImmortalGamesOfCapaBio" /> This event was arranged in an unusual way: after a preliminary single [[round-robin tournament]] involving 11 players, the top five were to play a second stage in [[Round-robin tournament|double round-robin]] format, with total scores from the preliminary tournament carried forward to the second contest.<ref name="Reinfeld1942ImmortalGamesOfCapaBio" /> Capablanca placed first in the preliminary tournament, 1½ points ahead of [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]], who was out of practice and had made a shaky start. Despite a determined effort by [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]], Capablanca still seemed on course for ultimate victory. But in their second game of the final, [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]] reduced Capablanca to a helpless position and Capablanca was so shaken by this that he blundered away his next game to Tarrasch.<ref name="Reinfeld1942ImmortalGamesOfCapaBio" /> [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]] then won his final game, against Marshall, thus finishing half a point ahead of Capablanca and 3½ ahead of Alekhine.<ref name="Dumont1959MemoirOfCapa" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Soltis|first=A.|title=The Great Chess Tournaments and Their Stories|publisher=Chilton Book Company|year=1975|pages=96–103|isbn=0-8019-6138-6}}</ref>
Alekhine commented:

<blockquote>His real, incomparable gifts first began to make themselves known at the time of St. Petersburg, 1914, when I too came to know him personally. Neither before nor afterwards have I seen—and I cannot imagine as well—such a flabbergasting quickness of chess comprehension as that possessed by the Capablanca of that epoch. Enough to say that he gave ''all'' the St. Petersburg masters the odds of 5–1 in quick games—and won! With all this he was always good-humoured, the darling of the ladies, and enjoyed wonderful good health—really a dazzling appearance. That he came second to [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]] must be entirely ascribed to his youthful levity—he was already playing as well as [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]].<ref name="AlekhineTribToCapa">{{cite book
| last=Alekhine|first=A.|author2=Winter, E.G.|title=107 Great Chess Battles'|publisher=Dover|date=1980|pages=157–158|isbn=0-486-27104-8
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ErJqoQ8oZ3wC&q=Capablanca+%22london+rules%22&pg=PA157 | access-date=2009-06-02
}}</ref></blockquote>

After the breakdown of his attempt to negotiate a title match in 1911, Capablanca drafted rules for the conduct of future challenges, which were agreed to by the other top players at the 1914 Saint Petersburg tournament, including [[Emanuel Lasker|Lasker]], and approved at the [[Mannheim]] Congress later that year. The main points were: the champion must be prepared to defend his title once a year; the match should be won by the first player to win six or eight games, whichever the champion preferred; and the stake should be at least £1,000 (worth about £26,000 or $44,000 in 2013 terms<ref>Using average incomes for the conversion; if average prices are used, the result is about £66,000. {{cite web | url=http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php | title=Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound Amount, 1830–2006 | access-date=9 June 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331194822/https://measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php | archive-date=31 March 2016 | url-status=dead }}</ref>).<ref name="graemecree1921WorldChessChampionship" />