Claudia on College, Cuba and the Capablanca Variations

  Claudia Munoz is well known to the US Chess community, through her social media presence and precocious accomplishments, including winning the 2014 US Girls Invitational. Now a freshman at Texas Tech University, Claudia is majoring in Math and working on an exciting documentary project with director Karney Hatch, "the Capablanca Variations."  The film will involve a trip to Cuba for the Texas Tech team, to play in the 2017 Capablanca Memorial in Matanzas, Cuba and also to explore and learn from Cuban chessplayers. "We're going to Cuba you guys", said Texas Tech coach Grandmaster Alexander Onischuk. Claudia is looking forward to exploring a new culture and learning from her opponents. Claudia was also influenced as a young chess player by the games of Jose Raul Capablanca, who was World Champion from 1921-1927. Claudia points out this victory over Levinfish as one of her favorites.

[pgn]

[Event "Moscow"]
[Site "Moscow URS"]
[Date "1935.03.14"]
[Round "19"]
[White "Jose Raul Capablanca"]
[Black "Grigory Levenfish"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D49"]
[PlyCount "51"]
[EventDate "1935.02.15"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3
a6 9. e4 c5 10. e5 cxd4 11. Nxb5 Nxe5 12. Nxe5 axb5 13. Qf3 Ra5 14. O-O b4 15.
Bf4 Be7 16. Rfc1 O-O 17. Qh3 Rc5 18. Rxc5 Bxc5 19. Bg5 h6 20. Ng4 Be7 21. Bxf6
gxf6 22. Nxh6+ Kg7 23. Qg4+ Kh8 24. Qh5 Kg7 25. Nxf7 Rh8 26. Qg6+ 1-0

[/pgn]

Claudia told US Chess: "It has been a challenge balancing chess, school work and projects. I do my best to keep organized by writing things out and sticking to my priorities. It has been a learning experience, but I thank God for each opportunity." If you'd like to support the documentary, find the GoFundMe page here. [vimeo 214126145 w=640 h=360]