Author: Jose Raul "J R" Capablanca y Graupera (1888-1942) inscribed
Year: 1935
Publisher: Self Written
Place: Berlin
Description:
3 pages on Hotel Hessler stationery with accompanying original mailing envelope . Quarto (8 1/2" x 11') pages on Hotel Hessler stationery, dated June 18, 1935. Envelope addressed in his hand, with German Reich postage and Berlin cancellation; return address of the Cuban Legation, Rauchstraße 7, Berlin.
An intimate personal letter written during Capablanca's diplomatic posting in Germany. He discusses financial difficulties, health concerns, and complications in Cuba, noting that "one needs money to live," and expressing emotional strain in their relationship. In a revealing passage, he writes that he feared she might think he had "another woman" and that he no longer loved her, and closes affectionately, sending "kisses and tender embraces."
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera was a Cuban chess player who was the third world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he was widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Capablanca excelled in simple positions and endgames; Bobby Fischer described him as possessing a "real light touch". He could play tactical chess when necessary, and had good defensive technique. He wrote several chess books during his career, of which Chess Fundamentals was regarded by Mikhail Botvinnik as the best chess book ever written. Capablanca preferred not to present detailed analysis but focused on critical moments in a game. His style of chess influenced the play of future world champions Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov.
Olga Evgenyevna Choubaroff was born on September 23, 1898 in Tbilisi, the Caucasus region of Georgia. She was able to speak Russian, French and English fluently as an adult. She married four times during her life but never had any children. Her first husband was a White Army officer with the surname Chagodaeva. They escaped together from the Red Army in 1920. He was, according to Olga, a descendant of Genghis Khan, and prince, who left her his title. Olga met her second husband, Jose Raoul Capablanca, in the spring of 1934 at function given at the Cuban Consul in New York. At the time of their meeting Capablanca was an employee of the Cuban Foreign Office. He had been give a post in 1913, with the title Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary General from the Government of Cuba to the World at Large, which allowed him to travel the world playing tournament chess. He was married to Dona Gloria Simoni Beautucourt, and was was world champion form 1921 to 1927. In 1937 Capablanca divorced his wife and her family had him demoted to the post of Commercial Attache. In 1938 Capablanca and Olga were married in New York. Capablanca died in New York while at the Manhattan Chess Club in 1942. After his death it was not easy for Olga the first few years and turned to Mario Figueredo for assistance. She was interested in publishing a biography on Capablanca. Olga then married a third time to an Olympic rowing champion, but divorce. In 1963 she married her four husband Admiral Joseph James Clark.
Condition:
Mailing folds and light edge wear; envelope with opening tear and minor paper loss along right edge else very good or better.