Before 2024, José Eduardo Martínez Alcántara hardly had an imprint inside or outside his native country, the football-crazy South American nation of Peru. But his decision to change nationality, moving to Mexico for better opportunities, has resulted in an uptick in his fortunes.
Even when Martínez Alcántara was yet to break through in over-the-board (OTB) chess, his online presence was fast-growing. A regular in chess.com’s “Titled Tuesday” event, he was turning out to be an online expert, a specialist in blitz games.
When the results of Martínez Alcántara, fondly known as ‘Jospem’ in online chess circles, started catching the eye, he inevitably became another target of unsubstantiated cheating allegations by former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik.
Kramnik’s statistical analysis had targeted a bunch of players, including Martínez Alcántara, and the latter
accepted that the charges affected him greatly.
“Me and the 200 people he indirectly mentioned in the stats – for some people it’s OK, they don’t care – they will care,” Martínez Alcántara told chess YouTuber Levy Rozman.
José Eduardo Martínez Alcántara takes on Alexey Sarana in a FIDE World Cup round 4 clash. (PHOTO: FIDE/Michal Walusza)
Unlike many of those at the receiving end of Kramnik’s allegations, suffering in silence was not an option for Martínez Alcántara. He decided to fight fire with fire. And soon, Jospem was up for a one-on-one clash against Kramnik to put these allegations to bed.
“I don’t have any direct emotion against him (Kramnik). I just want to play my best chess and prove myself…,” he added.
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A hybrid face-off dubbed “Clash of Claims” was set up with a great deal of ostentation in Madrid in July 2024, with both online and OTB blitz games between Martínez Alcántara and Kramnik to settle the matter.
As it turned out, the Peruvian-Mexican outsmarted the Russian legend in a battle of 36 blitz games marred by more controversy. Kramnik refused to accept his defeat despite Martínez Alcántara winning 15.5-11.5. There was a huge disagreement as Kramnik wanted the online games to be played on Lichess instead of chess.com.
The drama took another turn when Kramnik later convinced Martínez Alcántara for another face-off, this time named “Clash of Blames” in August 2024 in London. Kramnik arranged the clash on his terms; this time it was played with even more pretentiousness and the Russian managed to beat Martínez Alcántara 19.0-17.0 in a close contest with the latter still dealing with the grief of his mother’s demise just weeks before the showdown.
Poise under pressure
Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura praised the grace with which Martínez Alcántara took everything that was thrown at him. Veteran American Grandmaster Gregory Serper also praised him.
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“I was impressed by the behaviour of this young man. Even before the match, he faced a huge psychological burden: he was playing a formidable opponent, and yet a loss might irreparably damage his reputation,” Serper wrote in his column for chess.com. “Add to this the series of incidents and scandals before and during the whole match. Nevertheless, Martinez earned everyone’s respect with his gentlemanly behaviour.”
The odds were always stacked against Martínez Alcántara. A win would only have proved that his current form was better than Kramnik’s, but the shadow of doubt would linger regardless. A loss, however, would have severely hurt his reputation. Yet, he chose to withstand an opponent whose obsession with “cheating in chess” has put the sport in a crisis.
Moving forward, Martínez Alcántara chose the simplest path: to grind his way up in both online and OTB chess, and is reaping the rewards. At the ongoing FIDE Chess World Cup in Goa, he has impressed with his serene progress.
After rolling over South Korea’s Isaak Huh and Serbia’s Velimir Ivic in the first two rounds, he stunned one of the heavy favourites, Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, with two straight wins in the classical section.
INTERACTIVE: José Eduardo Martínez Alcántara vs Alexey Sarana
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Martínez Alcántara followed it up by making short work of another Serbian, Alexey Sarana. He won the first game of the fourth round for his third consecutive classical victory and then completely outmanoeuvred his opponent in the subsequent contest. He eventually accepted a draw to become the first player to confirm his spot in Round 5, where he will face the winner of the P Harikrishna-Nils Grandelius match.
Regardless of Kramnik’s allegations, José Eduardo Martínez Alcántara may just be leaving a big imprint in chess – not just in Peru and Mexico, but the entire world.
As five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand tweeted: “Jose Martinez continues his spectacular run in the FIDE world cup. His brilliant combination sacrificing his piece on a7 leading to a won position. It has been a dramatic event so far, and looks poised to get even more exciting over the next few days.”
