Alekhine

By Dániel Lovas

The fourth world champion of chess, Alexander Alekhine (1892–1946) was one of the greatest chess players ever. This interactive book contains 50 chess diagrams, each showing a critical position in which a very strong Alekhine move follows. You can also take part in the interesting chess fights by trying to find the moves in question. The game itself is shown on the page after the diagram. And the chess great whose games you can review is Alekhine, who created works of art on the chessboard.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Panton
• Release date: Mar 30, 2019

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WORLD TEAM OF CHESS GENIUSES

ALEKHINE

Edited by Dániel Lovas

PANTON BOOKS

Alekhine's Career

Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine, the fourth world champion of chess, was born on November 1st, 1892, in Moscow, in a rich landowner's family. He received an excellent education in all fields of life, and spoke French and German fluently at a very young age. He was taught to play chess by his parents and older brothers. He was not a chess prodigy, but his talent manifested itself at an early date. He was ten years old when first took part in the correspondence competition of a Russian chess journal. In 1908, he won his first competition at the board: the Spring Tournament of the Moscow Chess Club. As an adolescent youth he devoted a great part of his life to chess. He profoundly analyzed the games of the best players. Thanks to his family background, he could afford to play in foreign countries, too. He gained his first international tournament experiences in Dusseldorf and Munich.

He was awarded the title of Master in 1909 after winning the All-Russian Championship in Saint Petersburg. In 1912, he moved to the Tzarist capital and studied law till the outbreak of war, meanwhile taking part in all events of the St. Petersburg Chess Society. It was here that he won a really high-ranking tournament: in 1914, at the All-Russian Masters Tournament, tying for first place with Nimzovich, he acquired the title to participate in the legendary international tournament organized under the patronage of Tsar Nicholas II. In the St. Petersburg super-tournament organized not long before the outbreak of  World War I, to which only winners of international competitions were invited, outstanding chess players of the era took part, with world champion Lasker and pretender Capablanca among them. Alekhine, the youngest participant, performed excellently, finishing in third place, and Tsar Nicholas II conferred the title of Grandmaster of Chess on him, too.

When the knighthood of chess was ceremoniously conferred on the 22-years-old Moscow law student, nobody, including himself, thought, that a decade later, as a French citizen, he would become world chess champion.

The world war broke out, adventurous years followed, during which chess did not play the leading part in Alekhine's life. It would be too much even to enumerate the events the promising young chess grandmaster had undergone in these messy times. As the outbreak of war found him playing at a tournament in Germany, he was interned as a person arrived from a hostile country. After his release, he moved to Switzerland, where he married, and entered into the service of Red Cross. There he undertook field service, and for his bravery shown in the course of saving the wounded he was decorated with several Russian military medals. He himself was severely wounded and spent several months in hospital.

The outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution found him in Russia, and it is no wonder that in 1919 in Odessa the son of the one-time tsarist officer was arrested by the Reds and sentenced to death on charges of spying. According to the legendary story, his life was saved by his knowledge of chess. From this messy period of young Alekhine's life several stories (or legends?) have survived. One of them says that when he was arrested and sentenced to death in Odessa, one of the highest-ranking Bolshevik leaders, Trotsky visited him in his death cell to play a game of chess with him. During the game lasting several hours, Alekhine experienced utter excitement as he was not sure which would be better for him: to win or to let Trotsky triumph. In