Notes About The Poem

“An hour’s history of two minds is well told in a game of chess.”
— José Raul Capablanca

On the Game Botvinnik vs Capablanca

José! Your mind of lofty, lucid flow,
Reputed justly for its logic strong;
In every case, the course correct to know;
But then that day, your plan, it was quite wrong.
Full well you knew an idle pawn is vain;
You knew, and surely others must have told,
A knight in distant corner keeps no gain;
But knowing that, the fatal plan took hold.
Too wandering way, too puttering on the path;
Too little eye toward the gathering storm;
Too little care to cold and crushing math;
And so a spirit sank to Soviet form.
An hour or two upon that game you spent,
By which a light on all of life was lent.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2026

Poem

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