Until the 1927 world championship match, challenger Alexander Alekhine had never beaten champion Jose Raul Capablanca at chess. So Capablanca was probably a little overconfident heading into the match, and then a very well-prepared challenger surprised him, and took the title from him.
The shock prompted Capablanca, who was lazy by nature, to get off his butt and work to regain his title. He played some of the best chess of his life while showing the world that he deserved a rematch, but Alekhine dodged and evaded at every opportunity. The shame of all that was that both players were playing at such a high level then that a rematch surely would’ve produced some historically great games.
I would’ve liked to have heard Alekhine admit in his last hours that he didn’t want to grant a rematch because he knew he would’ve lost it.