A natural born chess player, often called the “Mozart of Chess”, Jose Capablanca was born on November 19, 1888 at Havana, Cuba.  He was the second son of a Cuban military officer.

Jose Capablanca learned how to play chess at the age of 4 as he watched his father play the game.  Eventually, Capablanca got to play chess with his father—a chess game that Jose won on the first match.   Proving no match to his son, Capablanca’s father brought him to the Havana Chess Club at the age of 5 to meet stronger chess players.

At the age of 12, Jose Capablanca played an exhibition game with Cuban national champion Juan Corzo.  The young Capablanca went on to win the match with a record of 4 wins, 6 draws and 3 losses.  A year after that match, Jose Capablanca played in the Cuban national championship and finished fourth.

Jose Capablanca spent 1904 to 1908 schooling, although he has been frequenting the Manhattan Chess Club where he played some games with the reigning World Champion, Emanuel Lasker.  In 1908, however, he dropped schooling to focus all of his time on playing chess.

In 1909, Jose Capablanca had an exhibition match with U.S. Champion Frank Marshall.  Capablanca won the match with a record of 8 wins, 14 draws and a loss.  Amazed with Capablanca’s performance, Marshall would later invite Jose Capablanca to his first-ever major match.

In 1911, Frank Marshall invited Jose Capablanca to a chess tournament in San Sebastian, Spain.  The event was actually Capablanca’s first major tournament.  In the said tournament, Capablanca was rated poorly by other great chess players, particularly by Ossip Bernstein and Aaron Nimzowitsch.  Capablanca, however, went on to prove his worth by defeating both players.  At the end of the tournament, the 23-year-old Capablanca emerged victorious, winning a major tournament on his first try.

By winning the San Sebastian tournament, Capablanca quickly became the second ranked chess player in the world.  With the win, Capablanca also earned the chance to challenge the current chess World Champion, Emanuel Lasker.  Jose Capablanca actually challenged Lasker on the same year, but the planned match never really took place because the two camps weren’t able to agree on the rules of the said match.

Jose Capablanca continued to play several matches in several chess tournaments and in September of 1913, landed a job in the Cuban Foreign Office.  Capablanca was bestowed with the title of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary General from the Government of Cuba to the World at Large.  The position, however, indicated no specific duties, allowing him to play several matches in various places in the world.

In 1914, Jose Capablanca finally met Lasker in a tournament held in St. Petersburg.  Capablanca had a good start but finished only a close second after Lasker, who edged him in the race for the top spot with only a half point.  Far third against Capablanca was Alekhine, who would be a major rival in future tournaments.  Together with four other top finishers in the said tournament, Capablanca was vested with the title of “Grandmaster of Chess”.

After the 1914 tournament, Jose Capablanca again proposed to play against Lasker, but his proposal was killed by the outbreak of the First World War.  But even during the war, Capablanca played several matches, particularly with Frank Marshall and Boris Kostic of Hungary.  With the said matches, Jose Capablanca never lost a game.

Seeing Capablanca’s ever improving capabilities in chess, Lasker decided to resign the World Championship title to him in 1920 even without a match.  Jose Capablanca and the public, however, wanted a match for the title.  Lasker eventually yielded to Capablanca’s request, but insisted that he be the challenger in the said event.  On March 1921, the scheduled 30-match tournament began.  The tournament, however, was cut short because of Lasker’s poor health.  Capablanca won the title with a record of 4 wins, 10 draws and no loss and was officially declared the third World Champion.

From 1921 until 1927, Jose Capablanca held on to his title as World Champion while actively engaging in several major tournament and exhibition games.  It was also in the said period when Capablanca wrote his book called “Chess Fundamentals”.  Several challengers actually challenged Capablanca for the World Champion title, like Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch, but they weren’t able to meet the conditions for a World Championship match.  It was only in 1927 when a chess player was actually able to satisfy the said conditions.

In 1927, Alexander Alekhine, with the aid of various Argentinean businessmen and the President of Argentina, was able to meet the conditions to challenge Jose Capablanca in a world championship.  In a major upset, Jose Capablanca lost the title to Alekhine.  Capablanca could have had the chance to regain the title through a return match, which was actually a condition in the said world championship match.  Alekhine, however, refused to play the return game and in the next few years, never played a chess tournament with Capablanca.

It was only in 1935 when Jose Capablanca again found the chance to regain the World Championship title, after Max Euwe defeated Alekhine in the World Championship.  In 1936, Capablanca and Alekhine met again, and Capablanca emerged victorious in their matches.  Capablanca ended the tournament in a tie for the first place with Mikhail Botvinnik.

All the hopes of Capablanca to regain his title ended in 1937 when Alekhine regained the title of World Champion in the return match against Euwe.  Capablanca still played a couple of good games after 1937 but he never had the chance of regaining his title as Alekhine never played a world championship again until his death.

On March 7, 1942, Jose Capablanca played his last game, although not in a major tournament.  While playing a chess match at the Manhattan Chess Club, Capablanca collapsed from a stroke.  The next morning, the great chess player died in Mount Sinai hospital.