Capablanca’s 1926 Visit to Cleveland, Ohio

2026-09-08T11:05:15.945-04:00

Cleveland, Ohio is a city with a greater metropolitan area population of approximately 2.2 million that is located on the southern shore of Lake Erie.

In the late 1960s it was known by the well-known nickname of the Mistake on the Lake due to events like the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River catching on fire in 1969.

Capablanca visited Cleveland on about ten separate occasions between 1909 and 1926. In 1922, he set a record-breaking 103-board simultaneous exhibition in which he won 102 games and drew one. Pf his 1926 visit John S. Hilbert wrote, “When a player of Jose Raúl Capablanca’s stature and ability came to town for a simultaneous exhibition, even early in his career, people took notice.”

Hilbert is a retired senior attorney with the Social Security Administration living in Buffalo, New York, and is widely considered the country’s premier chess historian and one of the world's leading researchers of chess history. You can read his article on Capa’s 1926 visit to Cleveland HERE.

A game that I liked (Fritz 19 SE)

[Event "Cleveland simultaneous"] [Site ""] [Date "1926.12.11"] [Round "?"] [White "J. R. Capablanca"] [Black "E. Augustus"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C79"] [Annotator "Stockfish 19"] [PlyCount "79"] [EventDate "1926.12.??"] [EventType "simul"] [EventRounds "1"] [EventCountry "USA"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2002.11.25"] [SourceQuality "1"] {C79: Ruy Lopez} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 {[%mdl 32]} a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O d6 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 Na5 8. d4 Bg4 {This move is often played in the Ruy Lopez. but it is seldom good. Instead, vlack should play 8...Nxb3 and 9...Bb7. Even then white has the more promising position.} (8... exd4 {would be a very serious mistake.} 9. e5 dxe5 10. Nxe5 Be6 11. Nxf7 Kxf7 12. Bxe6+ Ke8 (12... Kg6 13. Qd3+ Kh5 14. Re5+ {1-0 Laiz Ibanez,H-Pita Argemi,A Granada 2009}) 13. Bd5+ Be7 14. Bxa8 {White has a winning position. Breyer,G-Lowcki,M Bad Pistyan 1912}) (8... Nd7 {is also vastly inferior.} 9. dxe5 Nxb3 10. Bg5 f6 11. exf6 gxf6 12. e5 dxe5 13. Nxe5 Nxe5 14. Rxe5+ Be7 15. Qh5+ {amd black resigned after a few more moves. Edouard,R (2620)-Tkachiev,V (2639) Belfort 2010}) (8... Qe7 {isn't much better.} 9. Nc3 Nxb3 10. axb3 c6 11. Bg5 Bg4 12. d5 Qb7 13. dxc6 Qxc6 14. Bxf6 gxf6 15. Nd5 {White is winning. Zapata,A (2465)-Pascua,R (2025) Atlanta USA 2014 1-0 (31)}) 9. dxe5 Bxf3 (9... dxe5 {results in disaster after} 10. Qxd8+ Rxd8 11. Nxe5 {with a decisive advantage.}) 10. Qxf3 dxe5 11. Qc3 Nxb3 12. Qxe5+ Qe7 13. Qxe7+ Bxe7 14. axb3 O-O {Black has lost a P, but he has play on the open d-file however that is not sufficient compensation for the P.} 15. Bg5 Rfd8 16. Nc3 h6 17. Bxf6 Bxf6 18. e5 $1 Bg5 {This is actually a very complicated position and white should play 19.g3 to deprive black's B of the f4 square.} 19. Ne4 Be7 (19... Bf4 {attacking the e-Pawn was a much better defense. It would best be met by} 20. Nc5 Rd2 21. c3 Rd5 22. Nxa6 Rxe5 {and white's advantahe is minimal.}) {Rad1} 20. Red1 Rxd1+ 21. Rxd1 Rd8 {Although black's position is lost he would have done better to keep the Rs on. The flaw with 21...Rd8 will be apparent in a few moves. As it is white's extra P and active N leave Capa with a routine win. Still, it's instructive to see hoe he plays the ending.} 22. Rxd8+ Bxd8 23. Nc5 a5 24. Nb7 Bg5 25. Nxa5 {Thanks to black's 21st move white has won an important P.} Bc1 26. Nc6 Bxb2 {Black has regained the P, but the N dominates the position. Now both sides centralize their K.} 27. f4 {[%mdl 32]} Kf8 28. Kf2 Ke8 {The Ns position prevents the direct approach via e7.} 29. Ke3 Bc3 30. Ke4 Kd7 31. Kd5 b4 32. f5 {Black has no useful moves/} Bd2 33. e6+ fxe6+ 34. fxe6+ Ke8 35. Ke5 g5 36. g4 Bf4+ 37. Kf6 Bd6 {Black has succeeded in holding up the e-Pawn and defending the h-Pawn, but the Q0side Ps are vulnerable.} 38. h3 Bc5 39. Kg6 Bf8 40. Na7 {Black resigned. Near;y flawless play by Capablanca. In fact, black's play was actually quite good, nut he never recovered from a poor opening.} 1-0

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Capablanca’s 1926 Visit to Cleveland, Ohio