Alexander Alekhine: Fourth World Chess Champion

2010

Prologue

Among the greatest players of all time, Alexander Alekhine stands out because of the magnitude of his creative heritage and the aesthetic attractiveness of his games. From 1908 to his last years, he participated in 94 tournaments, winning 64 and finishing second in 12. He played 26 matches, including five world championship matches, and was the only champion in chess history who died while still wearing the crown.

He influenced the chess life of dozens of countries and peoples owing to his brilliant performances in tournaments, matches, exhibition tours, as well as his literary works. Thinking about the most important tendencies in his creative work, we have come to the conclusion that the greatness of his chess lies primarily not in his combinative talent, as is universally contended, but in deeply penetrating the strategic secrets of a position’s struggle, resulting in the apotheosis of Alekhine’s combinations that the world admires.

Admittedly, Alexander Alekhine developed as a chessplayer in the best traditions of the Russian Chess School, assimilating many of his predecessor’s, Mikhail Chigorin, sound principles. But, the phenomenon of Alekhine lies in the fact that he also naturally imbibed everything that was new (and sometimes truly revolutionary) in the contemporary chess milieu. Specifically, he was tremendously influenced by Emanuel Lasker. Alekhine, seven years after becoming world champion, admitted that [w]ithout him, I could never have become what I have become. Only with this approach to the study of his creative heritage can one understand how he succeeded in synthesizing the scientific and artistic treatments of the game, thus raising his style to an universal one, and in systemically preparing for competitions, which enabled him to defeat the other incomparable geniuses and triumphantly ascend chess Olympus. The epic struggle of his match with Capablanca and the sudden reversals of situations in their correspondence match that lasted many years, as well as the story of his two duels with Bogoljubow and the other two with Euwe, constitute full-blooded, drama-saturated pages of the struggle for the world championship. Without their knowledge and objective coverage, one cannot understand the regularities governing the more than one-hundred-year long history of rivalry at the top nor its modern stage of development.

Alekhine’s activities directed toward raising the ancient game to the level of high art, his rivalry with the other outstanding masters of the game in the struggle for the world championship proceeded under the conditions of a highly complex (and acute in its collisions) societal process. The two world wars, the October Revolution, and the other political repercussions were a heavy trial for Alekhine – with his unusually complicated and contradictory personality.

Endowed with enormous will power and strength of character, Alekhine was able, under these exceptionally difficult conditions, to achieve ever new sporting successes, including the highest of them, winning the title of world chess champion. Today, there are also a number of issues in the theory and practice of chess art, which, in solving, we check against Alekhine for the truth of chess positions and views. Chessplayers are attracted by his credo expressed in his aphoristic saying: For me, chess is not a game, but an art. Yes, I regard chess as an art and accept all obligations which it imposes on its followers. His predecessors, Lasker and Capablanca, made statements in the same spirit. Subsequently, his great successors have repeatedly stressed their commitment to chess as an art.

There are several lines of research in chess in which the authoritative views and practice of the first four world champions are very helpful, namely, correspondence play, blindfold play, and issues of work in chess literature. Alekhine was an outstanding chess writer, analyst, and annotator. His books of his best games of 1908-1923 and 1924-1937, as well as the international tournaments in New York (1924 and 1927) and Nottingham (1936) should be closely studied by everyone who is seriously interested in chess art (Mikhail Botvinnik).

The most important thing in the creative heritage of a great master is his games. The depth of strategy and the brilliance of combinative ideas represent the eternal value of the chess genius Alexander Alekhine.

Isaak Linder

Vladimir Linder

Moscow 2012

Chapter 1: Life and Destiny

Childhood and Adolescence

Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was born on October 31, 1892 in Moscow, a city that, at the turn of the century, had become one of the centers of Russian and international chess life. Here, the return match Lasker-Steinitz was held. Here, the tours of the famous chess masters Harry Pillsbury, Jacques Mieses, Georg Marco, and Oldrich Duras took place. In Moscow, the first (1899) and second (1900-1901) All-Russia tournaments were held, which were won by Mikhail Chigorin – the first Russian player to contend for the world championship.

It was in this chess climate that the young Alekhine was initiated into this wise game. He was strongly impressed, for example, by the performance of American master Harry Nelson Pillsbury, who, during his Moscow tour, played a simultaneous blindfold exhibition against twenty-two opponents. I perceived Pillsbury’s exhibition as a wonder, recalled Alekhine in later years. This is especially interesting to note because three years prior José Raúl Capablanca had been equally astounded by the abilities of the American master. So, Pillsbury’s influence on the development of these two future world champions proved to be surprisingly similar.

At that time Alekhine also attended other events organized by the Moscow Circle (the chess club on Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street). Among the common and noble intelligentsia, there were enthusiasts who arranged chess evenings at their homes. The house of the high-ranking official and hereditary nobleman Alexander Ivanovich Alekhine (1856-1917) located on Nikolsky Lane, near the Arbat, had become such a salon where Moscow chessplayers would gather. He had three children: the eldest son, Alexei (1888-1939), a daughter, Varvara (1889-1944), and the younger son, Alexander.

They all were captivated by chess. Their parents were their first teachers and supported their interest in chess by all possible means. True, they used to spend much time living abroad, which only very well-off people could then afford. Alekhine’s father had graduated from the Department of History and Philosophy of Moscow University. In 1904, he was elected a Marshall of Nobility of the Voronezh Governorship and later became a member of State Duma (Russian Parliament). He was also a landowner in the Zemlyansky district. Alekhine’s mother, Anisia Ivanovna Prokhorova (1861-1915), came from the family of a textile manufacturer, who owned the Trekhgornaya (Three Mountains) manufacturing firm, which was well known in Moscow and throughout Russia.

In the late 1980s, new evidence emerged about Alekhine’s parents and earlier ancestors. The historian Igor Lazebnik, who examined these documents, came to the conclusion that good memory, aptitude for abstract thinking, observation, initiative, inherent in Alekhine, were also noted in his ancestors. In 1901, Alexander was sent to one of the best private gymnasia of Moscow – Polivanov’s, where, in a mansion on Prechistenka Street, the children of the writers Leo Tolstoy and Alexander Ostrovsky (a famous playwright) studied, as well as Valery Bryusov and Andrei Belyi, who, in later years, became famous Russia poets.

Alekhine’s parents Alexander Ivanovich and Anisia Ivanovna.

The Polivanov gymnasium became popular because of its methods of instruction, which were far from formal drill. These methods cultivated the ability of the students to think independently and fostered their interest in history and poetry. Alexander was a good student; however, he took greater interest in the humanities, though, even then, he preferred chess to all other disciplines. Having started to play chess at the age of seven, he soon felt its irresistible attraction. And, only a serious illness (encephalitis) could result in a three-year break in his chess studies. When the doctor’s ban was removed, he started playing in correspondence tournaments organized by the Moscow magazine Shakhmatnoe obozrenye.

The Alekhines – Prokhorovs

On the right – mother Anisia Ivanovna Alekhine (Prokhorova); in the center – the grandmother Anna Alexandrovna Prokhorova with the grandchildren: Alexander (embracing her), Alexei, and Varvara.

Alexander’s brother and sister were not the only ones among his first teachers and opponents. Their home was visited by strong Moscow chessplayers who subsequently became chess masters – Fyodor Duz-Khotimirsky, Vladimir Nenarokov, and Beniamin Blumenfeld.

They also performed the function of chess teachers. As Duz-Khotimirsky recalled, the Alekhines even paid him for chess lessons. Nevertheless, Alexander realized early that the best method of improving one’s game was to do original work. So, he tirelessly analyzed games of outstanding players, which became embedded in his uncommon memory for his entire life. And, of course, he carefully analyzed his own games.

If anyone happened to drop by his room, that person would notice how the youth’s eyes were burning while he was absorbed in the officiating of chess pieces on the board. His own people nicknamed him Tisha (the quiet one) or Tishaishyi (the very quiet one), and Alexander got used to it. Accordingly, in his chess correspondence he soon started signing his name as T. Alekhine.

From 1902 to 1904, Alexander participated in correspondence battles against his elder brother, Alexei, playing for the most part unsuccessfully. But his aptitude for analysis and persistent study of chess theory were bearing fruit. In a brief biographical reference to him, the magazine Shakhmatnoe obozrenye (1909) mentioned that A.A. Alekhine had made his first appearance in our 16th (gambit) correspondence tournament, played in 1905-1906, and took first prize in it. This must have been what Alekhine was referring to when he recalled that he has played since [he] was seven years old, but … started to play seriously when [he] was twelve.

Alexander Alekhine, a scholar of the Polivanov Gymnasium in Moscow

A copy of young Alekhine’s scorebook was preserved, with cuttings from Chigorin’s chess column, in the St. Petersburg magazine Niva and with it the records of his correspondence games played during 1902-1907. Here is one of them, played against Manko from the town of Kamyshin in the tournament of 1906-1907, sponsored by Prince F. Shakhovskoi. It shows that, even at this young age, the feel of the position was not alien to Alekhine, who correctly evaluated the advantages of exchanging the queens, to wit, the lead in development, possession of an open file, and the threat of an effective rook invasion to the seventh rank…

(1) Alekhine – Manko, V.M.

corr Russia 1906

Scotch Game [C45]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Bd3 d5 7.exd5 cxd5 8.0-0 Be7 9.Nc3 0-0 10.Bg5 c6 11.Qf3 Ng4?! The main line is 11…Rb8. 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 13.Rae1 Qd6 14.Qg3 Qf6?! 14…Qxg3 15.fxg3 Be6 16.Na4 Rae8 17.h3 Nf6 18.Nc5 Re7 was the lesser evil, especially against the attacking genius Alekhine. 15.h3 Nh6 16.Re5 g6 17.Ne2?! Slightly slow. 17.Rfe1!? Nf5 18.Qf4 Kg7 19.Na4 applies even more pressure. 17…Bf5 18.f4 Rfe8?! It is more natural to address the problem of the h6-knight immediately with 18…Bxd3 19.Qxd3 Nf5. 19.Qe3 Rxe5? This exchange plays into White’s hands because he can use the resulting e-pawn as a battering ram. 19…Qd8 is called for, to meet 20.Nd4 Bd7 21.c4 with 21…Qb6. 20.fxe5 Qh4?! 21.Nd4 Bxd3 22.Rf4? is fully sufficient for a comfortable advantage. 22…Qe7? This retreat is too passive. 22…Qg5 23.cxd3 c5 24.Nf3 (24.Ne6? Qe7 25.Nxc5 Nf5 26.Qf2 Qxe5=) 24…Qe7 is only slightly better for White. 23.cxd3 Rc8?! 24.Rf6 c5 24…Kg7? runs into 25.Qxh6+ Kxh6 26.Nf5+. 25.Nc6 Qe8 (D)

26.e6 Alekhine opens the floodgates. 26…Nf5 26…fxe6 27.Rxe6 Qd7 28.Ne7++– 27.exf7+ 27.Rxf5? is met by 27…fxe6!=. 27…Qxf7 28.Rxf5! 1-0 Black resigns, because, after 28…gxf5, White wins a piece: 29.Ne7+ Kf8 30.Nxc8 Qc7 31.Qe6.

Correspondence play was instrumental for the rapid progress of the young talent. Already, by age 14, he had surpassed many of his opponents in the assessment of a position, the length of analysis, and tactical complications. And Alexander started playing in over-the-board competitions – tournaments organized by the Moscow Chess Circle. It should be noted that in the first round of such a tournament, Alekhine adopted, as in the game with Manko, the Scotch Game. Later, he justified his decision by saying that [i]t was a line that [he] learned by heart. It was based on the Maroczy-Janowsky game from the London tournament of 1899… [he] decided to follow the book line not because [he had] hoped to get some (even slight) advantage as a result of the opening. [He] could, in this case, just be sure that [he] would not find [himself] in a lost position after only a few moves. Curiously enough, five years later, meeting world champion Emanuel Lasker over the board for the first time in his life, Alekhine again adopted the same opening.

(2) Alekhine – Rozanov

Moscow 1907

Scotch Game [C45]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Bd3 d5 7.exd5 cxd5 8.0-0 Be7 9.Nc3 0-0 10.Bg5 c6 11.Qf3 Bg4 12.Qg3 Bh5 13.Qe5? This hands Black the initiative. After 13.Rfe1, White is slightly better. 13…Bg6 14.Bxg6 hxg6 15.Rad1 Bd6 16.Qd4 Qc7 17.Qh4 Nh7 18.Be3 f5 19.f4 Kf7 20.Bd4 Rh8 21.Rde1? White’s queen should leave its exposed position with 21.Qf2. 21…Nf6 22.Qg5 Ng4? (D) Running into a powerful blow. The knight should go to h5, when Black is clearly on top.

23.Re6!! Kxe6? This brings Black to the brink of disaster. He had to play 23…Rh6 24.Rfe1 Rb8, which seems to lead to a draw: 25.h3 (25.h4 Qd7 26.Bxg7 Bc5+ 27.Kh1 Kxg7 28.Re7+ Qxe7 29.Rxe7+ Kf8 30.Re5 Re8 31.g3 Kf7 32.Kg2 Bd4 33.Ne2 Be3 34.Rxe8 Kxe8 35.h5 Bb6 36.hxg6 Rh2+ 37.Kf1 Rh1+ 38.Kg2 Rh2+=) 25…Rb4 26.hxg4 Rxd4 27.gxf5 Rxf4 28.fxg6+ Kg8 29.Qxf4 Bc5+ 30.Qe3 Bxe3+ 31.R1xe3 Qh2+ 32.Kf2 Qf4+ 33.Rf3 Qd4+ 34.Rfe3 Qf4+=. 24.Qxg6+ Kd7 25.Qxf5+ Kd8 26.Qxg4 Bf8?! (D) 26…Re8 27.Bxg7 Qe7 is slightly more harmonious.

27.Re1? . 27…Qd7 28.Qg5+?! 28.Qg3!? 28…Kc7 29.Re3 Kb7 30.Na4 Re8 31.Rb3+ Ka8 32.Qg3 Rh6 32…Bd6!?= is more precise. 33.Qd3 Rhe6?! Again, not the best defense because 33…Qc8, in order to meet 34.Be5 with 34…Bd6, is called for. 34.Be5 c5 35.Rb5 (D)

35…Rc8? . 36.c4! a6? Losing directly, but 36…Ra6 37.Nc3 d4 38.Nd5 is also hopeless in the long run. 37.Nb6+ Rxb6 38.Rxb6 Ka7 39.Qg6 Qa4 40.Rb3 Qc6 41.Qf7+ Ka8 42.cxd5 1-0

This game became memorable for Alekhine not only because it was his first tournament game. The game reflects both the merits and shortcomings of the fourteen-year-old’s play. It testifies to the deficiencies in his knowledge of opening theory, as well as the lack of strategic depth. At the same time, it clearly shows his acute apprehension of danger, maximum concentration of thought in searching for counter-chances, ability to see combinations, and accurate calculation of variations. The import of this game was great for Alekhine because he saw it molding his style. He recalled that:

This game had a profound influence on my play and development in the years to come. Evidently, it aroused my ambition and desire for perfection. On the other hand, the game generated in me a peculiar psychological weakness which, for a long time and with much effort, I had to expunge, namely, the impression that I, having got in a tight spot, shall always or almost always be able to think up some unexpected combination and with its help extricate myself from all the difficulties. A dangerous delusion!

The first over-the-board competitions had not yet brought him any marked success. Thus, in the 1907 autumn tournament held by the Moscow Circle, he found himself in the lower half of the field. Nevertheless, even then, the public had noticed the talented youth. His chess strength was progressing very rapidly, spurred on by his insatiable ambition, single-mindedness, capacity for work, and without a doubt, the natural talent of the young gymnasium scholar.

As early as 1908, the youth who was dreaming of gaining a master title went to Düsseldorf to participate in the 16th Congress of the German Chess Union, at that time one of the most prestigious European competitions. The program of the congress included a number of tournaments: international, where only masters could play, main (or two main tournaments, as was the case, for example, in Düsseldorf), and side events. To gain the title of master, one had to win a main tournament.

Although Alekhine’s result was not all bad for his first international appearance – he won eight games, lost three, and drew two – he did not succeed in overcoming the master barrier, sharing 4th and 5th places, two points behind the winner. There might have been some consolation for Alekhine in that he scored as well against the first eight finishers as did the tournament winner F. Köhnlein (+4 –1 =2) and that his game against the winner himself was won on move 16 by a spectacular shot.

(3) Alekhine – Köhnlein

Düsseldorf 1908 (D)

16.Qxd6!! A thunderbolt. The prosaic 16.Nf7+? Rxf7 17.Bxf7 Bd7 18.Be6 wins as well, but is not as clear of course. There follows a last desperate attempt: 16…Qxg2+ 16…cxd6 17.Nf7+ Rxf7 18.Re8+ Rf8 19.Rxf8# 17.Kxg2 1-0

After the end of the congress, Alekhine did not make haste to return to Moscow. He tried his hand in two small training matches, defeating the well-known German master Curt von Bardeleben (1861-1924) and drawing his match with Swiss champion Hans Fahrni (1874-1939). It is interesting to note that just then, August 17, the world championship match between Emanuel Lasker and Siegbert Tarrasch had started, and the young Alekhine had the opportunity to witness the historic contest for the world chess crown.

On his return home, Alekhine played one more match against a master, defeating Beniamin Blumenfeld (1884-1947) by the same score (4½-½) that he had beaten Bardeleben. Shakhmatnoe obozrenye magazine reported that [t]he match was won by Alekhine in excellent style.

Young Alekhine – A drawing by the painter A. Kiprianovich.

More surprising was his failure in the next match against the 1908 Moscow champion, and one of the strongest Russian masters of the time, Vladimir Nenarokov (1880-1953). The same magazine mentioned that [t]his match, which had promised to be very exciting, ended unexpectedly quickly. Nenarokov’s young opponent, having lost the first three games, resigned the match. The resignation was undoubtedly premature, which was pointed out in the chess media.

The same year (1908), in the autumn tournament held by the Moscow Chess Circle, Alekhine finished first, gaining the right to play in the All-Russia Amateur tournament. Winning that event brought him the title of master. Previously, that title could only be earned by playing in tournaments abroad. During the tournament Alekhine also showed himself to be an excellent game commentator. Shakhmatnoe obozrenye magazine, and later the book, The International Chess Congress in Memory of M.I. Chigorin (also known as St. Petersburg 1909), had lent him their pages to analyze a number of games between Russian players. In his annotations, the young master showed a good knowledge of games played in the current competitions, searching for the truth in critical positions, doing his best to evaluate chances of both opponents objectively. By the way, a book in which all games of this international tournament were annotated by world champion Lasker was very carefully studied by Alekhine, as he himself admitted, and this was very helpful in improving his game. In later years, he used to say that already at that time, in his creative searches, he began to feel Lasker’s influence on him.

At about that time, Alekhine’s first simultaneous exhibitions in Moscow took place. He was also invited to make tours. Thus, he gave simultaneous exhibitions in the town of the Russian gunsmiths, Tula, played a demonstration game against Tula’s strongest player Konstantin Vasilevsky, and played three games against seven to ten consultants. Such resounding successes and boundless passion for chess could have given rise to a natural desire to devote himself, after graduation from the gymnasium, to his beloved art. But, his faculties and knowledge were so versatile that his parents did not seem to have much trouble directing their younger son to acquire a prestigious civil profession that would enable him to take a suitable place in the hierarchy of society.

The profile of classical education that Alekhine had received was quite suitable for further study at the Law Department of Moscow State University, where he studied for one and a half semesters (September 1910 to February 1911) and at St. Petersburg Imperial School of Law, which he entered in the autumn of 1911.

Family

His first love had already visited him when he came to St. Petersburg. The chosen one of the student and already well-known chess master was the Russian painter, baroness Anna von Severgin. On December 15, 1913, their daughter Valentina was born. In 1921, Anna left for Austria with her daughter; Alekhine and Anna were destined to see each other again only one more time, during the Vienna international tournament of 1922.

Alekhine’s first marriage to Alexandra Lazarevna Batayev, a widow and a clerk (as was indicated in the archival document found by Yu. Shaburov), occurred in Moscow on March 5, 1920. A year later the marriage was dissolved.

Alekhine soon joined his future with another woman. The new marriage proved fateful for his chess career. In the summer of 1920, Alekhine, who spoke the principal European languages (French, German, and English) very well, started working as an interpreter in the Comintern. There he met the journalist Anneliese Ruegg, an active figure in the Swiss Social Democratic Party. On coming to Moscow, she was soon granted an interview with Lenin. In Russia, she addressed audiences with reports, Alekhine interpreting for her. He also accompanied her on trips to other Russian cities. Thus, early in 1921 he went with her to the Urals.

Anneliese Rueg

On February 13, 1921, he left his work in the Comintern and a month later married Ruegg (curiously, the same day the world championship match between Lasker and Capablanca started in Havana, Cuba). In the marriage certificate, one finds the following information: the bridegroom: born in 1892; profession; interpreter; civil status: divorced from first wife and is getting married a second time; the bride: born in 1879; delegate, unmarried, getting married for the first time. The spouses expressed the wish to bear the common surname – Alekhine. They rented room #164 at the Luxe Hotel on Tverskaya Street. And, six weeks later, Alekhine obtained permission to leave Russia. It read: The People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs sees no obstacles for citizen Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine going to Latvia via Sebezh, which is testified to by the signature and application of the hand. Deputy People’s Commissar Karakhan, No. 01139, April 29, 1921

It should be noted that late in April, the match in Havana had ended, and the telegraph brought the news: José Raúl Capablanca had become the third world chess champion. For Alekhine, this news sounded like a call to action, as the necessity to subordinate all his life to the motto Excelsior – forward to the very top!

When abroad, Alekhine went from Latvia to Berlin, where his battles with German players began. Then, there was a series of brilliant tournament performances. In 1922, he permanently settled in Paris. Anneliese Alekhine went from Berlin to Switzerland, where she gave birth to a son, named Alexander, on November 2, 1921. She was raising the child herself, while continuing her political and literary activities.

Alekhine visited the son infrequently: a picture taken in Zürich shows them together. Anneliese died May 2, 1934, and the son was taken to live on a pension. At present, the only son of the fourth world chess champion lives near Basel. He was twice invited to Moscow, where he attended the Alekhine Memorial Tournaments. During the celebration of Alekhine’s centennial, the authors of the present book met him and gave him their book dedicated to the chess genius. He shared with them his reminiscences of his father and told us about his father’s two last wives, whom he happened to meet in different circumstances. Already, in the middle of the 1920s, Alekhine had found a new spouse, the kind-hearted and thoughtful Nadin, as he used to call her. Nadezhda Semyonovna Vasiliev (née Fabritsky), the widow of a Russian general, was born in Odessa March 19, 1884. Alekhine met her at a ball in Paris in 1924.

Alekhine with his son Alexander, Zürich, 1926.

Their life together lasted less than a decade. But those were the most difficult and important years in Alekhine’s chess career – the period of preparation for storming chess Olympus and the days of great jubilation – winning the world champion’s crown in his struggle against Capablanca. There were also months of strenuous work on his main chess books, and years of great tournament successes. And Nadin was always at his side. The reason for their parting is still unclear.

On March 24, 1934, Alekhine was married for the last time: his American-born wife Grace Wishart was the widow of the British captain Archibald Freeman. This took place in the French Riviera. He was not yet forty-two, and his bride was fifty-four-years old. Adolf Pavelchak, one of the first biographers of Alekhine, finds that

[t]he distinguishing feature of Alekhine’s nature was that he always chose spouses who were considerably older than himself. From this, it follows that he did not seek in marriage a realization of amorous feelings, that he was incapable of the true great sacrificial love in weal and in woe, for his nature, focused on his ego, nipped such sprouts in the bud. He sought in a woman not an ideal of beauty but a mother caretaker.

Still one could say that Alekhine finally had found the one he was looking for! She is the only one who understands me, he would say. Grace freed him from daily cares, managed his affairs, looked after his correspondence, and advised him on some matters. And, last but not least, she was the only woman in his life who was not alien to chess. She even played by correspondence and participated in household blitz tournaments. Moreover, Grace was well-off, for her late husband had left her a substantial sum, as well as a castle in the north of France, near Dieppe.

The Second World War had destroyed the idyllic life of this Alekhine’s family, too. The Nazis had commandeered part of their property and were putting pressure on Wishart to subdue the world champion. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Wishart made a will in which she forbade the opening of the family archives until fifty years after her death. In 1956, the grave joined them forever. In Montparnasse cemetery, their bodies are buried under the same tombstone.

Personality

The purpose of a human life and the meaning of happiness, Alekhine used to say, is to do the maximum a person is capable of. Saviely Tartakower’s memoirs Meetings with Giants poignantly captures Alekhine’s other two credos. Alekhine once told Tartakower that [o]ne should not be surprised if nothing at all comes from the Nothing Principle, and that [o]ur fate does not chase us. It is we who ought to chase our fate. For Tartakower, [t]hese two phrases contain his contemplation of life and his attitude to matters of life.

Alekhine was above all a single-minded man with a boundless love for chess, ready to give himself unreservedly to the glorification of this ancient game, raising it to a level of high art. Generated by the collision and rivalry with other outstanding masters, the art of chess also required other qualities: ambition, great will power and strength of character, colossal memory and capacity for work. All these qualities Alekhine possessed in excess, allowing him persistently, day after day, to achieve ever new sporting successes and finally the highest of them all: winning the world chess championship.

Alekhine impressed his contemporaries greatly, as a man remembered because of his unusual appearance, phenomenal memory, analytical skill, fantasy of combinative revelations, and broad cultural demands. The third world champion, Capablanca, just before his match with Alekhine, gave a flattering description of Alekhine. He is

…a representative of the Slavic nation, over six feet tall, about 200 pounds in weight, fair-haired and blue-eyed, he catches the eye of the public because of his appearance when he enters the tournament hall. He fluently speaks six languages, and holds the academic rank of a Doctor of Law. And his intellect is much above that of the average man. It appears that Alekhine has the most remarkable chess memory that has ever existed. He is said to remember by heart all the games played by the chess masters in the last 15-20 years.

Alekhine’s remarkable memory was mentioned by many of his contemporaries. In his younger years, he astounded his friends and acquaintances. Sergei Shishko recalls that

[i]n St. Petersburg, on Znamenskaya Street, in the apartment of Professor P. Tsitovich, the young Alekhine was among the guests. Someone suggested that it would be good to verify the rumors of the unusual memory of Alekhine – a future lawyer, an advocate who hopes to deliver flaming speeches and conduct complex processes in the court of law without consulting the files. So the host took at random a book from the bookshelf, opened it to page 277, and handed it over to Alekhine. It turned out to be a translation of a novel by a little known Spanish author. Alekhine sat down in an armchair and immersed himself in viewing the text. Three or four minutes later he returned the open book to the host, stood up and, with half-closed eyes, confidently and quickly repeated in a loud whisper word for word the text of one and a half pages without making a single mistake.

But, as Saviely Tartakower wrote that while Alekhine possess[ed] an amazing memory for chess, [he] was very absent-minded in everyday life. He often left behind his wallet in Montparnasse cafés. Once, during his chess tours of Yugoslavia, he fell asleep while holding a burning cigarette between his teeth, and nearly perished.

Kharlampy Baranov, who encountered Alekhine in Moscow tournaments of 1918-1919, paid attention to the following trait of Alekhine’s character, also mentioned by many other contemporaries. Alekhine treated any opponent with equal attention and correctness, always ready to explain patiently the mistakes that had been made, and to show long variations to players of any strength. We never perceived in him either arrogance or carelessness and always got from him exhaustive answers to any questions.

Two more traits of Alekhine deserve mentioning – exceptional self-restraint and will power. Lev Lyubimov remembers that "[d]uring the