16 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



A Cuban Chess Genius 



Jose R. Capablanca, the Cuban chess 

 master and Pan-American champion, is 

 now attempting to break the world's record 

 for simultaneous plaj' established by him- 

 self during his first tour of the United 

 States, when he surprised the chess-playing 

 public by losing only 14 of 720 games 

 played. Those who have encountered this 

 master well realize his marvellous skill, the 

 most striking feature of which is the ra- 

 pidity with which he goes from board to 

 board, merely glancing at the positions, and 

 rarely failing to discern the strongest re- 

 ply. His skill in chess is intuitive ; his 

 movements unhesitating. He is beyond 

 question the fastest chess player in the 

 world to-day, and is thought by many to 

 be the greatest natural chess genius since 

 Murphy. 



Capablanca is a dark, prepossessing 

 youth, always well groomed, modest and 

 unassuming. He was born on November 

 19, 1888. At the age of five he played 

 the game, having learned the moves merely 

 by watching his father. On the advice 

 of physicians the boy was permitted to play 

 only at very long intervals, sometimes a 

 year elapsing between times ; but at 11 

 years of age he took the field and so 

 rapidly did he progress that in three 

 months' time he advanced from the fourth 

 class to the rank of a first-class player. 



and thereafter played on even terms with 

 the best players of Cuba. 



Improving Havana Harbor 



The Atares Warehouse Company, which 

 has a concession to build wharves at the 

 Atares inlet, proposes to dredge that part 

 of Havana harbor and to use the material 

 extracted to refill the low marshes con- 

 tiguous to the wharves north of the track 

 of the Havana Central Railroad, which 

 cross the property of the company. 



The dredging will be to a depth varying 

 from ten to twenty-five feet and extending 

 out into the harbor .320 meters by ICO 

 meters in width. 



The plans of the company have received 

 the approval of the engineers of the Bu- 

 reau of Harbors and Rivers. 



A New Observatory 



The new building, of the College Our 

 Lady of ]\lonserrat, maintained by the 

 Jesuit order, was inaugurated at Cien- 

 fuegos November 26th, with special cere- 

 monies. The college also exhibited its 

 new observatory, the second best in the 

 island, after Belen College in Havana, 

 which is among the first in the world. 



The observatory is supplied with the 



liringiiig fooder fvuni llie coiintry to tlie city market. 



