This would have been the one hundereth anniversary of the World Championship match between Jackson Showalter and Jose Capablanca. Strange how history changes things.
Wait a minute. Wasn’t Emmanuel Lasker the World Champ until the end of the 1910’s? I don’t believe that Jackson Showalter was ever in a world champ match.
Where was Emmanuel Lasker at the time? What was he doing? Teaching school?
Capablanca began his World Championship Match with Lasker in January, 1920. He was not WC until then, hence he could not have played a WC Match with Showalter or anybody else before that time.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Lasker
This article also addresses the question of what EL did during that decade. (Many things!)
Xplor, I believe they were playing for the “U.S. Championship.” This was the title that Showalter was considered to hold at the time. Whether this was an “official” title is a matter to be questioned. Showalter had defeated several players in matches over the previous decades and was considered the best US player by his peers. It is not clear that Capablanca ever said he was actually playing for the title, however.
Capablanca had already played Marshall and was denied the US Championship. He was meeting in the fall of 09 with Showalter to plan for the World Championship match. This was reported in the local newspapers. Emmanuel Lasker had given up chess and moved to Europe. He will do this several times. Only when he was broke after investing in German war bonds would he give Capablanca a match.
What? He did not PLAY Showalter, he only MET with him to just discuss it? And Lasker had not resigned the title or anything? Some anniversary!
This is about original and derivative material. There is a danger in regurgitating someone else’s interpretation of history. It is best to look at the information that was available at the time.
Even the ‘record’ is subject to error and interpretation, not to mention revision.
And as Orwell noted:
Given the amount of deliberate mis-information that’s on the web these days, I have some serious concerns about what future historians might consider factual records.
On the next day nobody mentioned him. On the third day Winston went into the vestibule of the Records Department to look at the notice-board. One of the notices carried a printed list of the members of the Chess Committee, of whom Syme had been one. It looked almost exactly as it had looked before – nothing had been crossed out – but it was one name shorter. It was enough. Syme had ceased to exist: he had never existed.
Just to wrap this up, especially in the light of the above couple of comments, Capablanca NEVER played Showalter for the World Championship.
Nobody ever said he did.
Jim
Lasker had not quit chess. He played world championship matches with Marshall (1907), Tarrasch (1908), Schlecter (1910), and Jankowski (1910) during this time, beating all save Schlecter decisively. He also tied for 1st in a 1909 St. Petersburg tournament with Rubinstein.
Capablanca also defeated Marshall decisively in a match (1909), but he did not win a major international tournament until San Sebastian in 1911.
What is this ? Are you channeling Emmanuel Lasker or do you have original documents?
Jim, just introducing you to the guy below.
- From the first post to this thread:
He said “would have been”.
Jim
Not even “would have been”. Neither man was world champion. Even if Lasker had died, that would not have made Capablanca World Champion.
You have to ask.
When did Capablanca first challenge Lasker for the title?
When was the first time Lasker abdicated?
xplor, irrelevant. What makes you think that Capablanca would have automatically succeeded Lasker without having to win some event, like Botvinnik had to do after Alekhine died (i.e.the World Championship Tournament of 1948)?
Irrelevant and not stated.
Who were the people calling for Emmanuel Lasker to be stripped of the tittle in 1909, like Fischer in 1975.
Why was Alekhine killed?
Why wasn’t Carl Schlechter invited to Russia?