I wonder what kind of impression this game made on WC Petrosian the first time he saw it.

1) Capablanca was not 12 when this game was played but he had just turned 13 (born 19 Nov 1888, game played 6 Dec 1901);

2) As Capablanca wrote in his "My Chess Career," much of the game was a prepared variation by him:

"We had played this variation in a previous game, and Corzo had answered B-K2 [10.Be2] to this check [9...Qe7+]. The game ended in a draw, but I should have won. Corzo analyzed the position and told someone that he should have played K-B2 [10.Kf2]. When I heard this I analyzed the situation myself and decided to play it again, as I thought that Black should win with the continuation which I put in practice in this game."

However, having said that, I consider it likely that even if Capablanca had not prepared this line at home, when the position arose again over the board he would have played his improvement: 9...Qe7+, 10.Kf2 g3+, 11.Kg1 Nxd4!, 12.Qxd4 Qc5; 13.Ne2 Qb6!

And given Capablanca's normal speed of play, he probably wouldn't have taken much longer than 5 minutes, given that once he embarked on the game continuation, most of the moves would have been obvious to him (Corzo himself only spent 40 minutes on the game).

click for larger view

19 ... ♘g8-f6 <interpose: b2-h8@f6+f7>

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<King Death: I doubt that I could come up with this in 5 hours. 5 minutes? Un frigging believable.>

This game never fails to astonish me everytime I play through it. If it had not been documented I would never believe a 12 to 13 year old had completed it in 5 minutes. Even if his name is Capablanca and he had prepped the opening.

<TheFocus: <visayanbraindoctor> Here are the times for all the games in the Capablanca - Corzo match.

The times are from <The Unknown Capablanca> by Hooper & Brandreth. Originally from British Chess Magazine.

1 Capablanca – Corzo (0:40 – 0:20)
2 Corzo – Capablanca (0:17 – 0:17)
3 Capablanca – Corzo (0:38 – 1:15)
4 Corzo – Capablanca No times given.
5 Capablanca – Corzo (0:45 – 1:10)
6 Corzo – Capablanca (0:21 – 0:10)
7 Capablanca – Corzo (0:20 – 0:40)
8 Corzo – Capablanca (0:40 – 0:05)
9 Capablanca – Corzo (0:24 – 0:43)
10 Corzo – Capablanca (0:55 – 0:35)
11 Capablanca – Corzo (0:42 – 1:35)
12 Corzo – Capablanca (1:02 – 0:19)
13 Capablanca – Corzo (0:28 – 0:40)>

Note game 11 above. Capablanca vs J Corzo, 1901

This 12 to 13 year old played a kind of game that even a super GM would be proud of; and more than that he sacked his Queen in a complicated middlegame and proceeded to play a freakishly precise 60 move ending, all in a freakishly unbelievable 42 minutes. That's less than a minute per move. How can any one play that well that fast? And this a mere kid?

Jose Raul Capablanca

< "His real, incomparable gifts first began to make themselves known at the time of St. Petersburg, 1914, when I too came to know him personally. Neither before or afterwards have I seen, nor can I imagine as well such a flabbergasting quickness of chess comprehension as that possessed by the Capablanca of that epoch.">

The mainline with Bxf4 is perfectly playable even in 2025 as modern NNUE engines show.

But of course without any definite knowledge of what is correct or incorrect this was how opening theory developed.

In fact, modern opening disasters often happen because players (even ones of extremely high standard) often don't know why the standard move order is played and on top let their guard down when they think they are in prep.