Word: raul
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Buenos Aires 32 small statues stood upon a polished piece of wood. Sixteen of them were white; behind these sat a middle-aged Cuban, Jose Raul Capablanca, chess champion of the world. Behind the other 16, which were black, sat Alexander Alekhine, a Russian nobleman, who, for a prize of $10,000 offered by the Argentines, wished to beat the champion. A crowd surrounded the two men. The voices in the crowd became a whisper, then a silence...
After his defeat, José Raul Capablanca wrote an article for the New York Times. In this, with the justified arrogance of a king who spends more thought on the government of 16 statues than any ruler has ever spent upon a million living subjects, Capablanca, using the royal idiom, explained his downfall. Said he: ". . . We are not as strong as we were a few years ago. . . . We are very anxious to try to prove that we are yet capable of at least holding our own against anybody in the world.... As to our adversary, he has evidently played better than...