Alexander Alekhine was the fourth chess World Champion, and one of the strongest players in history. Below, I explore his life and games.
Photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, George Grantham Bain Collection, [LC-DIG-ggbain-36943], Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Table of contents:
Biography
Early life
Alexander Alekhine was born in Moscow in 1892. He began to play chess around the age of six or seven and received lessons from the master Duz-Khotimirsky. Moscow was a good city for a chess player to grow up in: it hosted the World Championship Match between Lasker and Steinitz in 1896/7, the first and second All-Russian tournaments, and a blindfold simultaneous exhibition given by Pillsbury in 1902. This last event had a particular impact on the young Alekhine, as he watched his brother achieve a draw against the famous master.
In these early years of the 20th century Alekhine played many correspondence games, which proved to be effective training. 1908 was a particularly memorable year for Alekhine, as he won the Moscow City Championship, and shared 4th place at the German Chess Congress in Düsseldorf. He also won matches against Bardeleben (4,5-0,5) and Fahrni (1,5-0,5), and attended the World Championship Match between Lasker and Tarrasch.
The world arena
1909 saw Alekhine earn the master title by winning the secondary tournament at the Chigorin Memorial. The following year, he gave his first simultaneous exhibition, and shared 7th place at the 17th German Chess Congress in Hamburg, scoring 8,5/16. This was significant, as it was his first big international tournament.
Alekhine shared 8th place at the very strong international tournament at Karlsbad 1911. That same year, he moved to St Petersburg, where he studied law. Alekhine also started writing a chess coloumn in a Russian magazine.
International success
In 1912, Alekhine travelled to Stockholm to win the 8th Nordic Championship, and shared 6th place at the All-Russian Master tournament in Vilna. 1913 saw the improvements in Alekhine’s game producing impressive results, as he shared 1st place with Levenfish at the St Petersburg Masters Quadrangular tournament, won a match against Levitzky in St Petersburg, and took clear first at a tournament in Scheveningen, scoring 11,5/13. At this last event, Alekhine finished half a point ahead of the recent World Championship Challenger, David Janowski.
Joining the world’s elite
The All-Russian Master tournament at St Petersburg in 1914 was a very important event, as the winner would have the chance to compete at the incredibly strong international tournament held in the same city later that year. Alekhine and Nimzowitsch shared first place with 13,5/17, and so a mini-match of two games was arranged between them. When the mini-match also failed to separate them, ending 1-1, it was decided that both players would be allowed to compete.
St Petersburg 1914 was a great success for Alekhine. He finished third, behind only World Champion Lasker, and the Cuban star Capablanca. Alekhine had thus proved himself to be one of the world’s strongest players.
WWI and the Russian Revolution
However, Alekhine’s fortunes were about to change. He was leading the 19th German Chess Congress in Mannheim when WWI broke out. The tournament came to a premature end, and Alekhine, along with the other Russian participants, were interned in Germany. He was eventually released and managed to find a circuitous route back to Russia, where he gave simuls to raise money for Russian chess players still held in Germany.
During the war, Alekhine worked to rescue wounded soldiers from battle, until he himself suffered injury, and spent a month in hospital. He also suffered great personal loss, as both his parents died during the war years. Things became even more difficult during the Russian Revolution in 1917, as Alekhine lost his family’s fortune and estates.
In 1918, Alekhine took first place at a small Russian tournament, and then travelled to Odessa to take part in a tournament and to leave Russia by boat. However, the tournament did not take place, and leaving via boat proved impossible. Alekhine therefore found himself stuck in Odessa. The following year, Alekhine was arrested by the secret police, and was sentenced to be shot. However, he was freed just hours before the shooting was due to take place. Alekhine decided to travel to Kharkov, where his brother was living.
A brighter future
After the war, Alekhine took first place at the Moscow City Chess Championship of 1919/20 with a perfect 11/11 score. In 1920, he won the first Soviet Championship with 12/15. 1921 was the year of Alekhine’s second of four marriages, to the Swiss Annaliese Rüegg. This was very influential in helping Alekhine to obtain permission from the Soviet Government to travel abroad, and he used this permission to travel to Paris. 1921 also saw Alekhine win matches against Teichmann and Sӓmisch. However, the highlight of the year was undoubtedly the trio of first place finishes at Triberg (7/8), Budapest (8,5/11) and The Hague (8/9), remaining undefeated in all three tournaments.
In the next few years, Alekhine performed well at various European tournaments. He shared 2nd at Pistyan 1922, 1st at Hastings, shared 4th at Vienna, shared 1st with Bogoljubow and Maroczy at Karlsbad 1923, 2nd at Margate behind Grünfeld, and 1st at Portsmouth.
Tour of Simultaneous Exhibitions
1923 was also the year in which Alekhine toured Canada and America, giving blindfold simultaneous exhibitions. This greatly enhanced his fame and prestige in the region. In 1924, Alekhine travelled to New York to take part in an incredibly strong tournament, which is still famous today. There he finished 3rd, behind only Lasker and World Champion Capablanca. He also set a new record by playing 26 blindfold games simultaneously, with the score +16 -5 =5.
Return to Europe
This record was broken the following year upon his return to Europe, where Alekhine played 28 blindfold games simultaneously in Paris against teams of four to a board. This was a very successful period for Alekhine, as he won a small Paris tournament before winning the very strong tournament in Baden-Baden ahead of Rubinstein, Sӓmisch and Bogoljubow, going undefeated. 1925 was also the year of Alekhine’s third marriage and the year in which he became a Doctor of Law. Alekhine finished the year with a tournament victory at Hastings.
Path to the World Championship
In 1926, he won tournaments in Scarborough and Birmingham, and came 2nd at Semmering (after Spielmann) and Dresden (after Nimzoiwtsch). Alekhine then travelled to Argentina, where the Argentine government declared that it would financially support his challenge to Capablanca for the World Championship.
Alekhine prepared for the World Championship Match by winning a training match against Euwe (5,5-4,5), which began at the end of 1926. He also took 2nd place behind Capablanca at New York 1927, and 1st at Kecskemet 1927, where he went undefeated.
World Champion
Despite this, Capablanca was still seen as the favourite going into the match, thanks to his dominating tournament victory at New York and his excellent personal score against Alekhine. However, Alekhine shocked the world by winning the clash in Buenos Aires by six wins to three, and thus became the third chess World Champion.
King of chess
He defended his title two years later against Bogoljubow in a one-sided match, winning 15,5-9,5. The next few years saw Alekhine dominating his rivals. In 1930, he took 1st at San Remo with the incredible score of 14/15, and scored 9/9 while representing France at the Olympiad in Hamburg. In 1931, he won a gold medal for board 1 at the Olympiad in Prague, and finished 1st in Bled with 20,5/26, a massive 5,5 points ahead of Bogoljubow in second place.
1932 saw more tournament victories, at London (9/11, ahead of Flohr, Maroczy and Tartakower), the Swiss Championship in Bern (12,5/15, ahead of Euwe, Flohr and Bogoljubow), shared 1st at Mexico City with Kashdan, and clear first at Pasadena. Alekhine also won the gold medal for board 1 at the Olympiad in Folkestone in 1933. That same year, he set a new record of playing 32 blindfold games simultaneously in Chicago. In 1934, Alekhine defended his title again against Bogoljubow in Germany, winning 15,5-10,5. He also dominated the incredibly strong tournament at Zürich, winning with 13/15, ahead of Euwe, Flohr, Bogoljubow, Lasker and Nimzowitsch.
Losing and regaining the crown
Alekhine was therefore widely expected to defend his title successfully against Euwe in 1935. However, the Dutchman produced an incredible performance to win the crown in an incredibly close and hard-fought match, and Alekhine lost his title (15,5-14,5).
Euwe immediately offered Alekhine a return match, which would take place in 1937. Alekhine worked hard over the next few years to evolve his chess and prepare for what could be his only chance of regaining the crown. Notably, he won a silver medal for board 1 at the Olympiad in Warsaw in 1935, shared first place with Keres at Bad Nauheim 1936, took clear first at Dresden that same year, and also won Hastings 1936/7. By the time the return match with Euwe took place, Alekhine was well prepared, and he won the match comfortably by 15,5-9,5. He was once again the chess champion of the world.
WWII
In the next few years Alekhine won several minor tournaments and shared 4th, with Euwe and Reshevsky, at the incredibly strong AVRO 1938 tournament. In 1939, he was in Beunos Aires, representing France at the Olympiad, when WWII broke out. Alekhine returned to Europe to join the French army as an interpreter, but when France fell, he found himself under German occupation.
He played in various German occupied tournaments during the war, before the Spanish Chess Federation invited Alekhine to Madrid. There he spent two years competing in minor tournaments, giving simuls, and giving lessons to Arturo Pomar, who would go on to become a grandmaster. It was around this time that Alekhine began to experience serious health problems. He moved to Estoril, a town in Portugal, in 1945.
After the war, Alekhine accepted a challenge for the World Championship from Botvinnik and began to prepare. However, before the match could take place, Alekhine was found dead in his hotel room. It is still unclear to this day exactly how Alekhine died.
Legacy
Today, Alekhine is remembered as the fourth World Champion, from 1927-1935 and from 1937 up to his death in 1946. One of the strongest players in the history of the game, he has authored many books, of which his tournament books on New York 1924, New York 1927, and Nottingham 1936 are particularly loved by chess players today.
Game Analysis
Alekhine won an instructive game against Teichmann in their Berlin match in 1921,
Lessons from this game:
- Activity can be worth more than material even in an endgame!
- An enemy pawn which restricts its own pieces is often worth leaving on the board. In this game, the e5 pawn restricts both black’s bishop and rook.
- If the rooks have no open files to control, create one! In this game, 17.a4! and 18.axb5 left the a1 rook powerfully placed on the open a file.
Puzzles
Réti – Alekhine, Baden Baden 1925
Alekhine – Khan, Scarborough 1926
Alekhine – Nimzowitsch, San Remo 1930
Alekhine – Euwe, World Championship 1935
Solutions
Further Reading
To learn more about Alekhine’s life and games, the following are useful sources:
Kasparov’s My Great Predecessors, Volume 1,
Alekhine’s chessgames.com page,
his chess.com page,
this YouTube video by Lucas Anderson,
this chessbase article by André Schulz,
and the seven-part series on Alekhine by Silman on chess.com:
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