Capablanca and the Nimzo-Indian

By Alexander Yermolinsky

Capablanca lost his World Championship title to Alekhine in an epic battle in Buenos Aires in 1927. It took Alekhine 34 games to reach the required six wins in a monumental upset. Thirty-one of those thirty-four opened with the Queen's Gambit Declined. Capa vented his frustration by declaring the game of chess "dead" because the best ways of playing it had already been found and demonstrated during the match. Then he sailed for Europe where he played one tournament after another obviously trying to drum up some public support for the return match.

In spite of declaring the game “dead” he had clearly decided he needed to shake things up, and it was a bit of a shock to his rivals when he began playing the Nimzo-Indian. What? The Nimzo? Capa had never played it when he was Champion, although he did have a few wins on the black side of the Queen's Indian Defense, including a crushing one over Alekhine himself in the opening round of the 1927 New York Tournament.

Yet, from his first appearance as Former Champion in Bad Kissingen 1928 Capa made the opening named after one of his rivals his own mainstay defense against 1. d4. Some quick learning from a man who was rumored not to keep a chess set in his house....

Hans Kmoch vs José Raúl Capablanca (Budapest 1928)

The following game shows what Capablanca learned from the near disaster against Kmoch.

Paul F. Johner vs José Raúl Capablanca (Karlsbad 1929)

The next game is known for its big Oops. Perhaps the most atrocious blunder in Capablanca's entire career. Still, it was his second Nimzo-Indian in Karlsbad 1929.

Fritz Saemisch vs José Raúl Capablanca (Karlsbad 1929)

It was perhaps a shot of confidence to the opening's creator since Aron Nimzowitsch would ultimately score the greatest victory of his career, taking clear first, just a half point ahead of Capablanca himself. It was a time of manly-man tournaments, and Nimzowitsch scored 15.0/21, to Capa's 14.5/21. That's right, it was a 22-player round-robin.

Just for the record, here is the mammoth crosstable. Click on it to see the full thing.

The next game, played in 1931, featured a Queen's Indian Defense, an opening that seemed to suit Capablanca better, judging from his results. In it, he found a great improvement against a trick that had been plaguing Black until then.

Max Euwe vs José Raúl Capablanca (Amsterdam 1931)

Capablanca played a 10-game match against Euwe in 1931, winning 6.0 - 4.0

Nikolay Nikolaevich Riumin vs José Raúl Capablanca (Moscow 1935)

Riumin facing Capablanca in Moscow, 1936

Rather a poor effort by Capa, who missed a lot of tactics. I guess this is the real reason for his repeated failures on the black side of the Nimzo as age was catching up with him. One can throw in the more famous losses to Lilienthal, Hastings 1934-35 (remember the queen sac there?) and to Botvinnik in the AVRO tournament. Does it mean Capa made a wrong choice by abandoning his trusted QGD in favor of new ideas? Hard to tell, but the fact is, the following year, 1936, was arguably the most successful in Capa's post-Championship career. He notched two tournament wins shared with Botvinnik, in Moscow and, especially important, in Nottingham, along with a clear first in a smaller event in Margate. Throughout all this he never played the Nimzo, only QGD with some occasional Slavs. Go figure. He did however employ the Queen's Indian, which includes a famous win over Botvinnik in Moscow 1936, but that's another story.

One of Capablanca's famous wins, as he overcame the rising star Botvinnik in 1936, sharing first at Moscow