Jose Raoul Capablanca
The glamour boy of world chess, Capablanca, had been champion of Cuba at the age of 12, and from that time to his death in 1942, he had the totally undeserved reputation (as Petrosian does today) of being the greatest living endgame player. I recall a game Capablanca played Vera Menchek in which he made three colossal blunders in the endgame, and that instance, while not quite typical, is representative of the fact that Capablanca didn’t know the simplest Rook and Pawn endings. The story is that he played over thousands of Rook and Pawn endings, but I cannot believe this to be true.
Capablanca was among the greatest of chess players, but not because of his endgame. His trick was to keep his openings simple, and then play with such brilliance in the middle game that the game was decided – even though his opponent didn’t always know it – before they arrived at the endings.
Capablanca never really devoted himself to chess, seldom made preparations for a match. His simplicity is a myth. His almost complete lack of book knowledge forced him to push harder to try to squeeze the utmost out of every position. Every move he made had to be super-sharp so as to make something out of nothing. His play was forced. He had to try harder than anybody else because he had so little to begin with.
He matured early, and played his best games in his twenties. He was the only great Latin player ever to emerge on the world scene.
who was the greatest chess player ever ?? Only God knows