José Capablanca defeated Alexander Alekhine from the Black side of a Ruy Lopez to win the second game of their exhibition match at St. Petersburg and decide the contest in his favor by the score of 2-0. With this latest victory Capablanca raised his combined total in the now-completed St. Petersburg series of short exhibition matches to 5-1, the Cuban hero having previously dispatched Fyodor Dus-Chotimirsky by the same 2-0 score and drawn his match vs. Eugene Znosko-Borovsky 1-1, the two players taking one game each. Znosko-Borovsky thus wins the gold cup offered to the opponent making the best score against Capablanca; the Cuban for his part received an honorarium for each game played, irrespective of the result, plus the winner's purse of 25 rubles for each of his five victories.
The Alekhine-Capablanca contest saw the two young stalwarts contend on equal terms for nearly 30 moves, with neither gaining the upper hand. Capablanca's 29...Nd3 initiated a skirmish that might have turned to his disadvantage had Alekhine in place of 31.Ra1? selected 31.Bxc4 Rxd1 32.Bxf7+ Kxf7 33.Qxd1, winning a pawn. As played, Black soon obtained a superior position on the Queen-side, and after 33...Qc2 a winning one, the collapse of Alekhine's game being accelerated by an acute shortage of time. White resigned at the 42nd move after the appearance on the board of a second Black Queen.
Capablanca travels next to Riga, where, in addition to a pair of simultaneous displays, an exhibition game vs. Niemzowitsch has been arranged for sometime next week, an encounter that we expect to present to our readers.
There follows the score of the Alekhine-Capablanca contest.
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We take our leave today by offering to all our readers our warmest wishes for a most Merry Christmas.
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