[1] They intended to invite the present top twenty chess players, with world champion Emanuel Lasker, challengers José Raúl Capablanca and Akiba Rubinstein, and the two winners of the All-Russian Masters' Tournament 1913/14 (Alexander Alekhine and Aron Nimzowitsch).
From the other side, Oldřich Duras, Géza Maróczy, Carl Schlechter, Rudolf Spielmann, Savielly Tartakower, Milan Vidmar and Max Weiss declined due to tensions of Russia with Austria-Hungary in the year 1914.
In an upset, co-favorite Rubinstein failed to achieve a top five spot, while the still relatively unknown Alekhine qualified for the final round.
The results of the preliminaries carried over into the finals, so Capablanca with a 1½-point lead was a heavy favorite to win the tournament.
[9][10][11][12] Luděk Pachman remarks that Lasker's choice of opening was a masterstroke, since Capablanca was intent on simplifying the game to obtain a draw, and the line Lasker chose requires Black to play actively in order to exploit his advantage of the bishop pair and not allow White to exploit his superior pawn structure.