Barcelona 1929

◈Chess at the world's fair

Barcelona 1929 was timed to accompany the International Exposition then filling the city, and it stands as the first significant international chess tournament ever held in Spain. The fifteen-player field was largely a home one — Ramón Rey Ardid, Manuel Golmayo, Josep Vilardebó, Valentín Marín and other Spanish masters — leavened by a handful of visiting internationals in Tartakower, Edgard Colle, Frederick Yates and Mario Monticelli.

Among the entrants was Vera Menchik, the reigning Women's World Champion, one of very few women of her era to compete in open master events; she finished mid-table, level on 7 points. With Capablanca and two or three foreign masters towering over a primarily local roster, the event has often been described as a glorified exhibition — but a memorable one.

◈Capablanca's procession

Capablanca simply overwhelmed the field, finishing on 13½ out of 14 — thirteen wins and one draw, without a loss — and conceding little to anyone. Tartakower, the strongest of the visitors, took second on 11½, with Colle a further half-point back on 11; the gap to the champion was enormous.

His wins here were admired less for fireworks than for their deceptive simplicity, the mature Capablanca tying opponents in knots with a move or two in quiet-looking middlegames and then converting with faultless technique.

◈Tartakower invents the Catalan

The tournament's most durable contribution came from its runner-up. The organisers asked Tartakower to devise a fresh opening in honour of the occasion, and he answered with a quiet system combining a queen's-pawn centre and a kingside fianchetto, which he named the Catalan after the host region. He called it simple but strong, and the description held: nearly a century later the Catalan is a mainstay of elite play, arguably the most significant of Tartakower's many opening legacies.