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Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine (sometimes spelled “Aljechin or Alechin”) (October 31 or November 1, 1892 – March 24, 1946) was a Russian-born naturalized French chess grandmaster (officially naturalized in 1927 only three days before the World Champion title), and the fourth World Chess Champion. He was known for his fierce and imaginative attacking style.

Early life

Alekhine was born into a wealthy family in Moscow, Russia. His father Alexander Ivanovich Alekhine was a landowner and a member of the legislative Duma. His mother, Anisya Ivanovna Alekhina (née Prokhorova), was the daughter of a rich industrialist. Alekhine was first introduced to chess by his mother, an older brother Alexei, and an older sister Varvara.

Chess career

Alekhine’s first known game was from a correspondence tournament that began on December 3, 1902. He participated in several correspondence chess tournaments, sponsored by Shakhmatnoe Obozrenie chess magazine, in 1902-1911. In Autumn 1907, Alexander, at the age of 14, tied for 11th-13th at Moscow. His older brother, Alexei, tied for 4th-6th place. In Spring 1908, Alekhine won at Moscow. In August 1908, he took 4th-5th at Düsseldorf – B. In August 1908, he defeated Curt von Bardeleben in a match at Düsseldorf. In September 1908, he drew a match with Hans Fahrni at Munich. In October 1908, he won a match with Benjamin Blumenfeld at Moscow. In October 1908, he lost a match against Vladimir Nenarokov at Moscow (+0 –3 =0). In January 1909, he won at Moscow. In February 1909, he won at St. Petersburg (the All Russian Amateur Tournament). In August 1909, he won a tournament at Sevastopol. In March 1910, he won at Moscow. In July-August, 1910, he tied for 7th-8th at Hamburg. The event was won by Carl Schlechter. In May 1911, he won at Moscow. In August-September 1911, he took 8th-11th at Karlsbad. The event was won by Richard Teichmann. In February 1912, he won at St. Petersburg. In July, 1912 he won at Stockholm. In August-September 1912, he tied for 6th-7th at Vilna (Wilno, Vilnius), the All Russian Masters Tournament. The event was won by Akiba Rubinstein. In February-March 1913, he defeated Stefan Levitsky in a match with seven wins and three losses. In April 1913, he tied for 1st with Grigory Levenfish in the St. Petersburg (Quadrangular). In August 1913, he won at Scheveningen. In 1913, he defeated Edward Lasker in a match with three wins at Paris –- London. In December 1913, Alekhine lost in an exhibition match against José Raúl Capablanca at St. Petersburg (+0 –2 =0). In January 1914, he won his first major Russian tournament when he tied for first place with Aron Nimzowitsch in St. Petersburg, the All Russian Masters Tournament. Afterward they drew in a mini match for first prize (+1 –1 =0). In April-May 1914, another major tournament was held in St. Petersburg in which he took third place behind Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca. Czar Nicholas II conferred the title “Grandmaster of Chess” to Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, and Marshall after they took the top five places at St. Petersburg. In July 1914, Alekhine tied for first with Frank James Marshall at Paris.

In July-August of 1914 Alekhine was leading an international chess tournament, the 19th German Chess Federation (DSB) Congress in Mannheim, Germany, with nine wins, one draw and one loss, when World War I broke out. He and all the other Russian players were taken to Rastatt, Germany as a prisoner of war. Alekhine feigned madness and the Germans released him as unfit for military service on September 14, 1914. He made his way back to Russia (via Switzerland, Italy, London, Stockholm, and Finland). When Alekhine arrived back in Russia, he helped raise money to aid the Russian chess players who were still interned in Germany by giving simultaneous exhibitions. In 1915/16 Alekhine won at Moscow. In May, 1916, Alekhine served in the Union of Cities (Red Cross) on the Austrian front. In September 1916, he was playing five people in a blindfold display at a Russian military hospital at Tarnopol. In 1916, Alekhine won a mini-match against Alexander Evensohn with two wins and one loss at Kiev. In 1918, Alekhine won at Moscow (Triangular). In June 1919, Alekhine was briefly imprisoned in Odessa’s death cell by the Odessa Cheka, suspected of being a spy. He was charged with links with White counter-intelligence after the Russians liberated the Ukraine from German occupation. Rumors appeared in the West that Alekhine had been killed by the Bolesheviks. In January 1920, he won the Moscow City Championship (eleven wins out of eleven games). In October, 1920 Alekhine won the first USSR (retro-actively) chess championship (All-Russian Chess Olympiad) in Moscow (+9 –0 =6). His brother Alexei took third place in the tournament for amateurs.

In 1920 Alekhine married a Russian baroness, Sewerin. For a short time in 1920-1921, he worked as an interpreter for the Communist International (Komintern). In this capacity, he met a Swiss woman journalist and Comintern delegate Anneliese Rüegg (Annalisa Ruegg). Alekhine was also secretary of the Communist Education Department. On March 15, 1921, he married Anneliese Ruegg. In June 1921, Alekhine abandoned his second wife in Paris and went to Berlin; he never returned to Russia. Four years later, he became a French citizen and entered the Sorbonne Faculty of law. Although his thesis on the Chinese prison system went uncompleted, he nevertheless claimed the title of “Dr Alekhine”. In 1927 he married for the third time, to Nadezda Vasiliev (Nadezhda Vasilieff).

In 1921-1923 Alekhine played seven mini matches. In 1921, he won against Nikolay Grigoriev at Moscow, Friedrich Sämisch at Berlin, and drew with Richard Teichmann at Berlin. In 1922, he won against Ossip Bernstein at Paris, and Manuel Golmayo at Madrid. In 1923, he won against Arnold Aurbach, and Andre Muffang at Paris. From 1921 to 1927, Alekhine amassed an excellent tournament record, winning or sharing fourteen out of twenty-two first prizes in the tournaments he played. In July 1921, he won at Triberg. In September 1921, he won at Budapest. In October 1921, he won at The Hague. In April 1922, he took 2nd-3rd at Pistyan (Breyer Memorial). In August 1922, he took second place, behind José Raúl Capablanca, at London. In September 1922, he won, ahead of Akiba Rubinstein, at Hastings. In November 1922, he took 4th-6th at Vienna. In April 1923, he took 2nd-5th at Margate. In May 1923, he tied for first place with Efim Bogoljubow and Geza Maroczy, at Karlsbad. In August 1923, he won at Portsmouth. In April 1924, he took third place, behind Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca, at New York. In February 1925, he won at Paris. In March 1925, he won at Bern. In May 1925, he won at Baden-Baden. In 1925/26, he tied for first with Milan Vidmar, at Hastings. In March 1926, he took second place, behind Rudolf Spielmann, at Semmering. In April 1926, he took second, behind Aron Nimzowitsch, at Dresden. In May 1926, he won at Scarborough. In June 1926, he won at Birmingham. In October 1926, he won at Buenos Aires. In 1926/27, he won a match against Max Euwe, played in various Dutch cities (+3 –2 =5). In March 1927, Alekhine took second, behind José Raúl Capablanca, at New York. In July 1927, he won at Kecskemét.

World Chess Champion

In September–November 1927 at Buenos Aires, Alekhine won the title of World chess champion from José Raúl Capablanca, to the surprise of almost the entire chess world. Alekhine defeated Capablanca with six wins, twenty-five draws, and three losses.

After the world championship match, Alekhine returned to Paris and spoke against Bolshevism. Afterwards, Nikolai Krylenko, president of the Soviet Chess Federation, published an official memorandum stating that Alekhine was the enemy of the Soviets and should be treated as an enemy. The Soviet Chess Federation broke all contact with Alexander Alekhine until the end of the 1930s. By 1939 the Soviets killed his older brother Alexei Aljechin in Russia.

Although Capablanca was clearly the leading challenger, Alekhine carefully avoided granting a re-match, although a right to a re-match was part of the agreement. He avoided Capablanca by insisting that the winner get $10,000 in gold, just as he got in Buenos Aires. But after the stock market crash, there were no backers. Instead, Alekhine played matches with Efim Bogoljubow, an official “Champion of FIDE”, in 1929 and 1934, winning handily both times. The first match with Efim Bogoljubow held at Wiesbaden, Heidelberg, Berlin, The Hague, and Amsterdam in September through November, 1929. Alekhine won with eleven wins, nine draws, and five losses.

Alekhine traveled the world giving simultaneous exhibitions, including Hawaii, Manila, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong-Kong, and the Dutch East Indies. He was made an honorary Colonel in the Mexican army and appointed as chess instructor for the Mexican army. In July 1933, Alekhine played thirty-two people blindfold simultaneously in Chicago, winning nineteen, drawing nine, and losing four games. This was a new world record.

After defeating Capablanca, Alekhine dominated chess for quite some time. He lost only seven out of 238 games in tournament play from 1927 through 1935. In June 1929, he won at Bradley Beach. In February 1930, he won at San Remo (+13 –0 =2), ahead of Aron Nimzowitsch by a margin of 3½ points. In April 1931, he won a consultation tournament at Nice. In September 1931, he won at Bled (+15 –0 =11). He won by a margin of 5½ points (!) over his nearest rival (Efim Bogoljubow). In February 1932, he won at London. In March 1932, he tied for first-third at Bern (Quadrangular). In July 1932, he won the 36th Swiss Championship at Bern. In August 1932, he won at Pasadena. In October 1932, he tied for first with Isaac Kashdan in Mexico City. In 1933, he won a match with Rafael Cintron at San Juan. In October 1933, he won at Paris, and next he drew a match with Ossip Bernstein at Paris (+1 –1 =2). In January 1934, he tied for second, with Andor Lilienthal, at Hastings 1933/34. The event was won by Salo Flohr. In February 1934, Alekhine won at Rotterdam (Quadrangular). In July 1934, he won the 37th Swiss Championship in Zürich. In April 1935, Alekhine won at Örebro.

Alekhine played five times at Chess Olympiads on board one for France. In July 1930, at the 3rd Chess Olympiad at Hamburg, he scored his first 100% score when he won all nine games. In July 1931, at the 4th Chess Olympiad at Prague (+10 –1 =7). His loss to Latvian master Hermanis Matisons was his first loss in a serious chess event since winning the world championship. In June 1933, at the 5th Chess Olympiad at Folkestone (+8 –1 =3). He lost one game to Saviely Tartakower. In August 1935, at the 6th Chess Olympiad at Warsaw (+7 –0 =10). In August-September 1939, at the 8th Chess Olympiad at Buenos Aires (+9 –0 =7).

In April–June 1934, Alekhine defeated Efim Bogoljubow for the world championship in twelve German cities (+8 –3 =15). He then accepted a challenge from Max Euwe. On October 3, 1935 the world championship match between Dr Alekhine and Dr Euwe began in Zandvoort, The Netherlands. On December 15, 1935 Max Euwe fortunately had won with nine wins, thirteen draws, and eight losses. This was the first world championship match to officially have seconds. Alekhine had the services of Salo Landau, and Euwe had Geza Maroczy. The loss is largely attributed to Alekhine’s alcoholism as also corroborated by some players. In 1935 Alekhine married for the fourth time, to Grace Freeman Wishaar (Wishard, Wishart, Wishar), a lady sixteen years older than he. She was an American-born widow of a British tea-planter in Ceylon. She retained her British citizenship to the end of her life.

Alekhine played in ten tournaments after losing the title. In May 1936, he tied for first with Paul Keres at Bad Nauheim. In June 1936, he won at Dresden. In July 1936, he took second, behind Salo Flohr, at Poděbrady. In August 1936, he took sixth, behind Capablanca, Botvinnik, Fine, Reshevsky and Euwe, at Nottingham. In October 1936, he took third, behind Euwe and Fine, at Amsterdam, and tied for 1st with Salo Landau at Amsterdam (Quadrangular). In 1936/37, he won, ahead of Reuben Fine and Erich Eliskases, at Hastings. In March 1937, he won at Nice (Quadrangular). In April 1937, he took third, behind Paul Keres and Reuben Fine at Margate. In June–July 1937, he tied for fourth with Keres, behind Flohr, Reshevsky and Petrovs, at Kemeri. In July 1937, he tied for second with Efim Bogoljubow, behind Max Euwe, at Bad Nauheim (Quadrangular).

Alekhine gave up alcohol and regained the title from Max Euwe in December 1937 by a large margin (+10 –4 =11). In this return match, held in the Netherlands, Euwe was seconded by Reuben Fine, and Alekhine by Erich Eliskases. Alekhine played no more title matches, so he held the title until his death.

In March 1938 Alekhine won at Montevideo. In April 1938, he won at Margate. In September 1938, he tied for 1st with George Alan Thomas at Plymouth. In November 1938, he tied for 4-6th with Max Euwe and Samuel Reshevsky, behind Paul Keres, Reuben Fine, and Mikhail Botvinnik, but ahead of José Raúl Capablanca and Salo Flohr, at AVRO Tournament, the Netherlands.

Alekhine was representing France on board 1 at the chess olympiad in Buenos Aires when World War II broke out. He, as a captain of the French team, and Saviely Tartakower, as a captain of the Polish team, refused to allow their teams to play Germany. In September 1939, Alekhine won a tournament at Montevideo, afterward he won at Caracas. Supported by Latin-American financial pledges, José Raul Capablanca challenged Alexander Alekhine to a world title match in November. Tentative plans not, however, actually backed by a deposit of the required purse ($10,000 in gold), led to a virtual agreement to play at Buenos Aires, Argentina beginning April 14, 1940. In January 1940, Alekhine returned to Europe, staying first in Portugal. He later moved to France to enlist in the army and became an interpreter. When France was overrun, he tried to go to America by travelling to Lisbon and applying for an American visa. To protect his wife, Grace Wishard, who was an American Jew, and her French assets (a castle at Saint Aubin-le-Cauf, near Dieppe, which the Nazis looted), he agreed to cooperate with the Nazis. In March 1941 Alekhine signed six articles critical of Jewish chess players. He argued that there was a Jewish way of playing chess (cowardly), and an Aryan way of playing chess (aggressive and brave). He mentioned that the representatives of Aryan chess included Philidor, Labourdonnais, Anderssen, Morphy, Tchigorin, Pillsbury, Marshall, Capablanca, Bogoljubow, Euwe, Eliskases, and Keres. For Jewish players, there were Kieseritzky, Steinitz, Lasker, Janowski, Rubinstein, Nimzowitsch, Reti, Spielmann, Flohr, Fine, Reshevsky, and Botvinnik.

Alekhine participated in Nazi chess tournaments in Munich, Salzburg, Krakow/Warsaw, and Prague. In September 1941, he tied for second-third with Erik Lundin at Munich (2nd Europa Tournament). The event was won by Gösta Stoltz. In October 1941, he tied for first with Paul Felix Schmidt at Krakow/Warsaw (2nd GG Tournament). In December 1941, he won at Madrid. In 1941, he won a mini-match with Lopez Esnaola at Vitoria. In June 1942, he won at Salzburg. In September 1942, he won at Munich (styled the ‘1st European Championship’ though it had no official recognition outside Germany). In October 1942, he won at Warsaw/Lublin/Krakow (3rd GG Tournament). In December 1942, he tied for first with Klaus Junge at Prague (Duras Memorial). In March 1943, he drew a mini-match (+1 –1 =0) with Efim Bogoljubow at Warsaw. In April 1943, he won at Prague. In June 1943, he tied for 1st with Paul Keres at Salzburg. By 1943 Alekhine was spending all his time in Spain and Portugal as the German representative to chess events. In April 1944, he narrowly won a match against Ramon Rey–Ardid at Zaragoza (+1 –0 =3). In July 1944, he won at Gijon. In March 1945, he won at Madrid. In July 1945, he tied for 2nd-3rd with Antonio Medina–Garcia at Gijon. The event was won by Antonio Rico. In August 1945, he won at Sabadell. In August 1945, he tied for 1st with Lopez Nuñez at Almeria. In September 1945, he won at Melilla. In Autumn 1945, he took second at Cáceres, behind Lupi. Alekhine’s last chess match was with Francisco Lupi at Estoril, Portugal in January 1946. Alekhine won two games, lost one, and drew one.

After World War II Alekhine was not invited to chess tournaments because of his Nazi affiliation. While planning for a World championship match against Botvinnik, he died in his hotel room in Estoril, Portugal. His death, the circumstances of which are still a matter of debate, is thought to have been caused either by his choking on a piece of meat, or by a heart attack (someone wrote a letter to Chess Life stating that they had actually witnessed the autopsy and that choking on meat was the actual cause of death). Some have speculated that he was murdered, possibly by the KGB. His burial was sponsored by FIDE, and the remains were transferred to the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France in 1956.

Contributions

Alekhine was an avid student of the game. Several openings and opening variations are named after him. The Alekhine Defence (1.e4 Nf6 in algebraic notation) is the most important. There is also the Alekhine-Chatard attack (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4), a pawn sacrifice in the French Defence.

Many chess players were admirers of Alekhine’s style, such as Max Euwe who said, “Alekhine … is a poet who creates a work of art out of something that would hardly inspire another man to send home a picture post-card.” Gary Kasparov said that Alekhine was his early inspiration.

Nazi controversy

During World War II, Alekhine played in several tournaments held in Germany or German-occupied territory. In 1941, a number of anti-semitic articles entitled Aryan and Jewish Chess appeared under his name in the Pariser Zeitung. Extensive investigations (see Whyld) have not yielded conclusive evidence of the authenticity of the articles, but, as British chess historian Edward G. Winter writes:

Although, as things stand, it is difficult to construct much of a defence for Alekhine, only the discovery of the articles in his own handwriting will settle the matter beyond all doubt. [1]

After the war, Alekhine found that he was persona non grata to tournament organisers.

Trivia

It is less well-known that Alekhine was also an avid table tennis player, and claimed it to be his favourite way of relieving tension before a chess game. But Harry Golombek, who admired Alekhine’s chess and was personally friendly with him, claimed:

Alekhine was also a feeble table tennis player … I can still see him in my mind’s eye playing a gently clumsy game of table-tennis and spooning the ball up with his bat rather like someone participating in an egg-and-spoon race. [“World Champions I have Met.”]
Golombek also claimed in the same article:

What conclusion one should draw from the fact that Alekhine was a very weak bridge player whereas Capablanca was an efficient and capable bridge player I don’t exactly know.
Alekhine had a cat which he named “Chess”. He used to get the cat to walk over the board before he played games. One of his opponents — subsequently defeated — was quoted as saying “When I saw that damn cat I knew I was in trouble!”

Alekhine’s My Best Games of Chess was featured in the film A Matter of Life and Death (1946), notably in a scene that also included a table tennis match.

Source page: Wikipedia under Wikipedia license
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Alekhine

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