Alekhine dethrones the invincible Capablanca

World Championship 1927: Alekhine – Capablanca

16 September – 29 November 1927 · Buenos Aires, Argentina

Alekhine won 18½–15½

▦ 34 GAMES ← Event Index

José Raúl Capablanca had not lost a serious game in years and was widely thought unbeatable. Then Alexander Alekhine, armed with a fanatical study of the champion's rare flaws, outlasted him over thirty-four games — the longest title match yet played — and took the crown he would never surrender at the board.

Dates

16 September – 29 November 1927

Venue

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Format

First to 6 wins

Result

Alekhine 18½ – 15½ Capablanca

◈The unbeatable Cuban

Capablanca's chess seemed to approach perfection — clear, effortless, and almost impossible to defeat. Under the London Rules he himself had helped draft, any challenger first had to raise a $10,000 purse; Alekhine spent years finding backers, and finally secured the match in Buenos Aires. He arrived having dissected Capablanca's games for the smallest cracks in that flawless technique.

The match carried a personal edge for the challenger: a Russian émigré, Alekhine became a naturalised French citizen midway through, on 5 November 1927.

◈Thirty-four games, and no rematch

Alekhine stunned everyone by winning the very first game, and after early exchanges the two settled into long, dense Queen's Gambit battles. Ground down over weeks of attrition, Capablanca cracked at the end; Alekhine won the thirty-fourth and final game to finish +6−3=25, a score of 18½–15½. It was the longest World Championship match ever played until Karpov–Kasparov in 1984.

Capablanca demanded his return match, but could never raise the same $10,000 he had once required of others — and Alekhine, some said, was in no hurry to grant it. The two greatest players of their age never met for the title again.

18½–15½

Final score

+6−3=25

Wins–losses–draws

Games (longest until 1984)

$10,000

Challenge stake

◈Cross Table

Player	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	Pts
Alekhine	1	½	0	½	½	½	0	½	½	½	1	1	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	0	½	½	1	½	1	18½
Capablanca	0	½	1	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	0	0	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	0	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	½	0	½	0	15½

1 win · ½ draw · 0 loss — click a game number to replay it.

“If I couldn't win this game, I can't win the match.”

— José Raúl Capablanca, after failing to convert game 17

EXPLORE ALL 34 GAMES →