Capablanca Memorial Chess Tournament Havana 1952
Capablanca Memorial Chess Tournament Havana 1952
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Capablanca Memorial Chess Tournament Havana 1952

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Author: signed by Larry Evans, Erich Eliskases, Nicolas Rossolimo , Edward Lasker, Herman Steiner and others

Year: 1952

Publisher: The Havana Chess Club

Place: Havana

Description:

Seven stamps issued in Cuba on Capablanca Memorial sheet with envelope. Issued in 1951 commemorating the tournament played in 1952.

The first Cuban tournament to honor Capablanca was held in 1951, but it was a one-time event. That year, Cuba issued the first postage stamp ever to feature a chessplayer-Capablanca, of course. On November 1, 1951 seven stamps were issued in Cuba as part of the 30th anniversary of Capablanca winning the world chess championship from Emanuel Lasker in 1921. This was the first portrayal of a chess player (Capablanca) on a stamp. Two stamps of Capablanca are based on a portrait by the Cuban artist E. Valderrama, and two stamps are from a photograph of Capablanca taken in 1941. One stamp shows the final position of the last game of the world championship match, 1921." - Bill Wall. Then in 1952, Havana began as a 23-player event. Early in the tournament, General Manuel Soto Larrea and Captain Jose Joaquin Araiza Munoz were recalled by the Mexican government and had to withdraw after six and five games, respectively as there was a coup d'etat and the president, Carlos Prío Socorras, who sponsored the tournament was disposed by Fulgencio Batista. Roberto Quesada Sr suffered a heart attack at some point prior to his 17th round game against Steiner and did not recover. All the chess masters present participated in his funeral. The loss of three players along with the regularly scheduled BYE, coupled with many adjourned games, made daily coverage of the race for first somewhat confused at times. Fulgencio Batista preempted the ongoing presidential election during the tournament by staging a coup. This seems to have had no substantial effect on the tournament, and is not even mentioned in the daily newspaper reports of the event. It was originally envisioned as a Capablanca memorial tournament, in honor of the ten year anniversary of Capablanca's death. Even so, this tournament is generally not considered part of the Capablanca Memorial series. After Batista was deposed by Castro, Che Guevara was instrumental in establishing the Capablanca Memorial tournaments. The contestants Miguel Najdorf representing Argentina and Samuel Reshevsky from America shared first with scores of 16.5. A point and half behind was the Yugoslavian, Svetozar Gligoric followed by America's Larry Evans (signed) and Erich Eliskases (signed), another Argentinian immigré, shared fourth and fifth. Sole sixth was Nicolas Rossolimo (signed), first a French immigrant and the an American with 12.5. Juan Carlos Gonzalez Zamora from Mexico followed in seventh a point behind. Tied for eighth through tenth were the young Spaniard Roman Toran Albero, Arturo Pomar Salamanca of Spain and the American Israel Albert Horowitz with 10.5 each. Lodewijk Prins from The Netherlands held sole eleventh half point behind. Eldis Cobo Arteaga, playing for his home land of Cuba and Carlos Enrique Guimard of Argentina shared twelfth and thirteenth places half point behind. In sole fourteenth was Eleazar Jimenez Zerquera of Cuba with a score of 9. Two of the Americans, Edward Lasker (signed) and Herman Steiner (signed), shared fifteenth and sixteenth with scores of 8.5. Ricardo Romero, two points behind, scored 6.5 for sole seventeenth. Roberto Quesada, Sr of Cuba died before the tournament was completed but still scored an even 6.0 for eighteenth position. In descending order and place finishing were Francisco Planas Garcia with 5.0, Miguel Aleman Dovo with 3.5 and Rogelio Ortega with 2.5.

Condition:

Mounted in a frame behind glass. There is some smudging to some of the signatures else a very good to fine representation.