José Raúl Capablanca (1888–1942): playing style, games and openings

3rd World Champion, 1921–1927. Crystal-clear simplicity: he traded into endgames he understood better than anyone and converted with almost no visible effort.

1888–1942 · Known for: Simplicity & endgame technique · 596 games in the collection

Explore José Raúl Capablanca's games in the analyzer Compare with your own games

Playing style: Positional player

Prefers trading down into favorable endgames and winning them slowly over attacking directly.

Aggression 35 / 100

Risk-taking 13 / 100

Endgame bias 50 / 100

Solidity 52 / 100

Simplification 76 / 100

These scores come from the 588 games used for the style profile (classical-length games), measured the same way the analyzer measures your own games.

Results

José Raúl Capablanca scored 295 wins, 250 draws and 43 losses (71% score) in 588 games.

With White: 169 wins, 114 draws and 19 losses (75% score) in 302 games.
With Black: 126 wins, 136 draws and 24 losses (68% score) in 286 games.

Favourite openings

As White

Queen's Gambit Declined: 78 games, 73% score
Ruy Lopez: 40 games, 90% score
Nimzo-Indian Defense: 22 games, 75% score
French Defense: 18 games, 72% score
English Opening: 16 games, 81% score
Four Knights Game: 14 games, 64% score

As Black

Queen's Gambit Declined: 65 games, 55% score
Ruy Lopez: 38 games, 75% score
Queen's Pawn Game: 35 games, 79% score
Queen's Indian Defense: 18 games, 78% score
Nimzo-Indian Defense: 18 games, 58% score
Slav Defense: 17 games, 53% score

A famous game

Refuting the Marshall Attack (Capablanca, Jose Raul vs Marshall, Frank James, 1-0, 1918) — replay it move by move and see Stockfish's verdict.