Here’s Capablanca playing speed chess with a variety of opponents. Insofar as it goes: what we’re really meeting here is the same old problem of poor quality film and bad camera angles that we saw in the case of early football films. Was chess any good then? It’s hard to tell from this:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b8If7_Z4Us]
And here’s a longer version of the first film. At least this one comes with helpful subtitles: