Sergash: Jose Raul Capablanca was 12 years old when he disputed this game and was already probably the best player of Cuba (he would become national champion that same year). This is possibly the oldest known Capablanca game?It is also worth noting that the Sicilian Defense was quite rare at the time this game was played.
Capablanca is not a player that is associated with gambits and, here it is, a Smith-Morra Gambit!
<1.e2-e4 c7-c5 2.d2-d4 c5xd4 3.Ng1-f3!> More often, we see 3.c2-c3 played here. But the statistics are a little better for 3.Nf3, plus the program Stockfish 12 - 64 bits POPCNT also prefers developing the knight here.
<3...e7-e5! 4.c2-c3 Nb8-c6 5.c3xd4> Perfectly playable, even if the three main moves played here are, in order of number of appearances, 3...d7-d6, 3...Nb8-c6 and 3...e7-e6. The idea behind the game move, which was apparently first played by Howard Staunton in a match against Cochrane in London 1842, is that if 4.Nf3xe5?? Qd8-a5+ followed by Qa5xe5, winning for Black.
<5...Bf8-b4+ 6.Bc1-d2> Playable, but the main line nowadays goes like 5...e5xd4 6.Nf3xd4 Ng8-f6 7.Nb1-c3 Bf8-b4 8.Nd4xc6 b7xc6 (also playable is 8...d7xc6 9.Qd1xd8+ Ke8xd8 ⩲ A Strikovic vs J Mukic, 1988, draw) 9.Bf1-d3 d7-d5 = this position, with a different move order, occurred in J Perlis vs Znosko-Borovsky, 1909, 1-0.
<6...Qd8-e7?? 7.d4-d5! Nc6-d8 +-> Trying to play fancy... Capablanca is already winning! Black would have had a fine game after 6...Bb4xd2+ 7.Qd1xd2 e5xd4 8.Nf3xd4 Ng8-f6 ⩲ Jakub Chlevistan (1970) - Pavel Baier (2210), Ostrava Konik Open (Czech Republic) 1995, draw.
<8.Bf1-d3?! Bb4xd2+ 9.Nb1xd2! +-> Enough for the win, but more precise and quite stronger is 8.Bd2xb4! Qe7xb4+ 9.Nb1-c3 +- and Black is quite late in developing his pieces... Stockfish 12 - 64 bits POPCNT.
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