Not well at all.
Timeless legends of chess history like Capablanca certainly deserve the legacy they left behind. The Cuban World Champion was infamous for his creativity in quiet positions, his sharp endgame tactics, and his utter dominance of his era.
So then, why is it that top players of today could crush guys like Capablanca so well? The answer’s simple: players today are born in a better time.
See, every top player today is born in the age of computers. In the chess world 40+ years ago, making moves was simply a matter of high-level guesswork. But today, a computer can tell you what the objectively best move is.
Today, the best players can simply memorize and prepare the top engine lines in a game in order to win. It’s less about creativity, and more about memorization. I think Bobby Fischer puts it well:
I hate chess [today]. It’s all about memorization, it’s all about pre-arrangement…creativity is lower down on the list. It’s ridiculous! It gets harder [over the years], you need more and more computers.
Just the last few years, chess has changed dramatically with all this computer stuff. If you analyze chess objectively, it’s been a lousy game.
Today’s era of chess is all about theories and preparation. At the top level, a win or loss can really come down to who memorized more lines.
So no, top players 100 years ago wouldn’t stand much of a chance today.
In the 1920s, the most dominant players were Capablanca, Alekhine and Rubinstein. These three legends had great chess understanding and were clearly ahead of their time.
Capablanca vs Alekhine
I don’t think most people give these players enough credit. Without the help of computers, they were able to come up with new, creative and strong ideas that have influenced generations of players. However, chess has undergone drastic changes in the last 100 years, so they would have to work hard to update their game in order to stay competitive in modern chess.
Hypothetically, if we were to bring these players to the modern day, providing them with powerful computers and a good coach to update them on modern developments, I think that they could easily break 2700 within a year, and probably even reach the top 10.
