The second game of the night was from a clash of the titans: Capablanca vs Alekhine 1927, Buenos Aires
From 1921 to 1927, Alexander Alekhine laboured to become José Raúl Capablanca’s logical challenger, winning or sharing first prize in 12 of 20 tournaments (he also won or shared six second prizes during this period). He also began a minute study of Capablanca’s games, searching for weaknesses.1 In the age of luminaries such as Rubinstein, Bogoljubow, and Nimzowitsch, Alekhine was not the only legitimate contender to the crown. He was, however, the only leading player able to secure the necessary finances to allow the match to take place. In 1927 the two giants met over the chessboard in Buenos Aires with the World Championship title at stake. Capablanca was, of course, a heavy favorite in this match. In addition to his own record, his heads-up record against Alekhine was far superior. They had met in four previous tournaments, and in each case Capablanca had placed higher. Their head-to-head record was an exceptional +5 -0 =7 for Capablanca. Grandmaster predictions were heavily in his favor. Rudolf Spielmann predicted that Alekhine would not win a single game, while the optimistic Bogolubov thought that he might perhaps win 2 games. In Argentina, from September 16 through November 29, 1927, the world witnessed the longest World Championship Match in the history of chess. The conditions for the match was the first to win 6 games. The star opening of this match was the Orthodox Defense to the Queen’s Gambit which appeared in every game but two. After a titanic struggle of 34 games, Alekhine achieved the impossible: he defeated Capablanca 6 to 3, and became the 4th World Chess Champion. The game score, and the crosstable for our own tournament so far, appears here
Game Number 4
(was game 1 of the actual tournament)
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. exd5 exd5 5. Bd3 Nc6 6. Ne2 Nge7 7. O-O Bf5 8. Bxf5 Nxf5 9. Qd3 Qd7 10. Nd1 O-O 11. Ne3 Nxe3 12. Bxe3 Rfe8 13. Nf4 Bd6 14. Rfe1 Nb4 15. Qb3 Qf5 16. Rac1 Nxc2 17. Rxc2 Qxf4 18. g3 Qf5 19. Rce2 b6 20. Qb5 h5 21. h4 Re4 22. Bd2 Rxd4 23. Bc3 Rd3 24. Be5 Rd8 25. Bxd6 Rxd6 26. Re5 Qf3 27. Rxh5 Qxh5 28. Re8 Kh7 29. Qxd3 Qg6 30. Qd1 Re6 31. Ra8 Re5 32. Rxa7 c5 33. Rd7 Qe6 34. Qd3 g6 35. Rd8 d4 36. a4 Re1 37. Kg2 Qc6 38. f3 Re3 39. Qd1 Qe6 40. g4 Re2 41. Kh3 Qe3 42. Qh1 Qf4 43. h5 Rf2
And the crosstable:
| 1 | Michael Freeman | 4.0 | +B14 | +W15 | +B3 | +B2 |
| 2 | Daniel Davis | 3.0 | +B12 | +W4 | +B5 | -W1 |
| 3 | William Lynn | 3.0 | +B11 | +W14 | -W1 | +B7 |
| 4 | Matt Crombie | 3.0 | +W16 | -B2 | +B8 | +W10 |
| 5 | Murray Tuatini | 3.0 | +B17 | +W8 | -W2 | +B9 |
| 6 | Eddie Tan | 2.0 | +B7 | +W10 | — | — |
| 7 | Richard Jackson | 2.0 | -W6 | +B18 | +W13 | -W3 |
| 8 | Gary Judkins | 2.0 | +W9 | -B5 | -W4 | +W15 |
| 9 | Sivoram Manoharan | 2.0 | -B8 | +W11 | +B15 | -W5 |
| 10 | Stefan Wagner | 2.0 | +W18 | -B6 | +W20 | -B4 |
| 11 | Ian Kennedy | 2.0 | -W3 | -B9 | +W18 | +B21 |
| 12 | Mike Absolam | 2.0 | -W2 | -B16 | +BYE | +W17 |
| 13 | Joel Crombie | 2.0 | -B15 | +W17 | -B7 | +W14 |
| 14 | Darius Hasan-Stein | 1.0 | -W1 | -B3 | +W21 | -B13 |
| 15 | Adam Hasan-Stein | 1.0 | +W13 | -B1 | -W9 | -B8 |
| 16 | Brandon Cuellar | 1.0 | -B4 | +W12 | — | — |
| 17 | Elijah Dewit | 1.0 | -W5 | -B13 | +W19 | -B12 |
| 18 | Graham Nolan | 1.0 | -B10 | -W7 | -B11 | +B20 |
| 19 | Sam Kim | 1.0 | — | — | -B17 | +BYE |
| 20 | Finlay Buckel | 0.0 | — | — | -B10 | -W18 |
| 21 | Josh Posa | 0.0 | — | — | -B14 | -W11 |
Hamilton Chess Club 