Capablanca-Alekhine 1927

Capablanca-Alekhine 1927 was the World Championship match in Buenos Aires between champion José Raúl Capablanca and challenger Alexander Alekhine. Its central condition was first to six wins. Draws, games with no winner, counted as half a point in the total score but did not move either player closer to the required six victories.

The match lasted 34 games. Alekhine won six, Capablanca won three, and the remaining 25 were drawn. This produces two correct-looking scores: 6-3 when only wins are counted, and 18.5-15.5 when wins and draws are converted into points. After game 34 was suspended for later continuation, Capablanca did not return to the board and sent Alekhine a written resignation.

Alekhine thereby became the fourth world champion. The result was especially significant because Capablanca was regarded as exceptionally difficult to defeat. The match also connects two parts of Capablanca's legacy: his championship games and his instructional book Chess Fundamentals. Eleven years later, both men joined the elite field of AVRO 1938, but they never played another title match.