A hundred years ago: Moscow 1925

The International Chess Tournament in Moscow was the world's first state-sponsored chess tournament. It featured 21 players –eleven international stars and ten Soviet masters.

The feature from Social (February 1926, page 35) on the right (click to enlarge) was provided by Yandy Rojas Barrios of Cuba and appeared in the article Moscow, 1925 by Edward Winter. It contains almost everything you would want to know about the event.

The tournament marked a crucial step in the rise of Soviet chess, showing the world the emerging strength of Soviet players. It pitted them against leading foreign masters, including World Champion Capablanca and former World Champion Lasker. The event generated unprecedented chess enthusiasm, with thousands of spectators attending. There was also the production of a silent film, "Chess Fever." 

Chess Fever (Russian: Шахматная горячка) is a silent comedy film about the Moscow 1925 chess tournament, made by Vsevolod Pudovkin and Nikolai Shpikovsky. The film combines acted parts and footage of the masters at the chess board, with Capablanca appearing separately as himself.

The tournament was won by Efim Bogoljubow, who finished ahead of Lasker and Capablanca. It marked an exceptional year for him, one in which he had won the Soviet Championship for the second consecutive year, and finished first at the Open German Championships in Breslau – making him the only player to hold both the German and Soviet Chess Champion titles in the same year. The victory in the Moscow tournament solidified Bogoljubow's status as a serious contender for the world championship.

Chess historian Edward Winter wrote, in conjunction with Richard Forster, an extensive article entitled "Analytical Disaccord" on his Chess History site. It is stated:

One of the most complex games ever played was Capablanca v Bogoljubow, Moscow, 1925... The occasion itself was tense. The game was played in the nineteenth of 21 rounds, at which time the leading positions were: 1. Bogoljubow, 14½ points; 2. Lasker, 12½ points; 3. Capablanca, 11½ points; 4-6. Marshall, Réti and Torre, 10½ points. Capablanca (and Réti) had the handicap of a bye in one of the last three rounds. The Cuban world champion had lost two games to lesser lights (Ilyin-Genevsky and Verlinsky).

Scan by Edward Winter from Tartakower’s Shakhmatnaya pravda (Leningrad, 1926)

Here is the game between Capablanca and Bogoljubow, with annotations by Garry Kasparov in Mega Database:

If you want to know more about this game – go through all the discussions that have flamed up around it, you should take a look at the "Analytical Disaccord" article mentioned above.

The game has been dissected not only by both players but also by such luminaries as Lasker, Alekhine, Euwe, Spielmann and Tartakower. Many of their comments reflect profound disagreement, as seen in the article – which also includes an English translation of Capablanca’s annotations, published on pages 34-35 of Kagans Neueste Schachnachrichten, January 1926.

The remarkable Edward Winter even managed to obtain a copy of the Cuban’s original manuscript [click to enlarge].