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Alexander Alekhine and his Two Greatest Games

Submitted by GM Julio_Becerra on Wed, 06/10/2009 at 9:19am.

When I was writing my last article about brilliancy prizes, I remembered the observation made by Alekhine about his two best games. “I consider this (Reti-Alekhine, Baden-Baden 1925) and the game against Bogoljubow at Hastings, 1922, the most brilliant tournament games of my chess career. And by a peculiar coincidence they both remained undistinguished as there were no brilliancy prizes awarded in either of these contests!” Alekhine

To talk about the best two games of Alekhine, is almost equivalent to talking about the best two games in chess! These games: Bogoljubow-Alekhine, Hasting 1922 and Reti-Alekhine, Baden-Baden 1925, were both played as black by Alekhine.

From my point of view, Alekhine was the most brave chess player of the history of the game, perhaps the only comparables being Fischer and Kasparov. Nowadays Topalov could be included in this select list. Also, as Alekhine is considered ones of the best chess writers, I will include his own comments in the key moments.

I hope you enjoy the next two games, like I enjoyed them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments:

by nakamuta - 2 years ago
Noyabrsk Russia
Member Since: Nov 2009
Member Points: 101

i don't see any comments of Russian players... there's nothing bad in that, because Alekhine was an emigrant which knew a lot of languages.

the given games are both great compositions that everybody in the whole world might understand.

thx :)

by Vimes - 2 years ago
Bielefeld Germany
Member Since: Jul 2009
Member Points: 8

I wonder what would happened in Reti-Alekhine if Reti had played 22.e4 instead of Rc1? Please no Engine talk, I just wanted to think about the possibility playing in the center with white instead on the wing (maybe even followed by f4 and pressure).

Anyone an idead about that?

by hwatuseke - 2 years ago
Jakarta Indonesia
Member Since: Dec 2008
Member Points: 1044

I can understand  Reti-Alekhin  this game my favorite game in the history of chess, this is always at the top of a talk I thank you in the successful management Chess.com always and God bless this site.

by gramps33 - 2 years ago
Detroit United States
Member Since: Apr 2009
Member Points: 1905

The games speak for themselves.

by General_Lee - 2 years ago
Arlington, Tx United States
Member Since: Jun 2009
Member Points: 85

I believe Alekhine to be the best player chess has ever produced. You must think, in his era there were no chess programs, only players. In our day and age, there are computers and so much material to study and produce excellent players with those 2 things combined. Anyway, I love how Alekhine lets Bogo clear his back rank to obtain a queen position at the time, the first time i saw that game i was apalled that someone would do that. Now i understand a bit more it was JUST a queen position....

by IM Antwasa - 2 years ago
Medford MA United States
Member Since: Mar 2009
Member Points: 247

I think Alekhine was better than me for sure but I really do not see that those two games were historical,I have seen many stronger games - - - .

by gambitattack - 2 years ago
Singapore Singapore
Member Since: Dec 2008
Member Points: 385

Wow, truly Alekheine was a superb player. I still prefer Tal though. =)

by tongo - 2 years ago
perth Australia
Member Since: Sep 2007
Member Points: 34

al was quite a good player but i think it shouldn't go unmentioned that Reti usually lost games because he was an idealist (in this game he did not go for the draw because it would have achieved nothing in terms of gaining more knowledge about the position). it is said he once lost a won game because he started going through an endgame composition over the board and all through the night instead of thinking about the game.

by nevin - 2 years ago
Tucson, Arizona United States
Member Since: Apr 2008
Member Points: 73

the second game was pretty amazing.

by dgwalo88 - 2 years ago
Diliman, Quezon City Philippines
Member Since: May 2009
Member Points: 57

Its a novelty!

by NinjaBear - 2 years ago
LOL, I'm not really in China
Member Since: Oct 2007
Member Points: 1327

I absolutely love the 2nd game (Reti, Richard vs. Alekhine, Alexander).

by Mediocris - 2 years ago
Bratislava Slovakia
Member Since: Apr 2008
Member Points: 553

Thanks for great article

by uhavebeenserved - 2 years ago
las vegas United States
Member Since: Aug 2008
Member Points: 244

Alekhine did not know he was worse than Capa, what a crock, he kicked his butt al lover the board for the world championship, you huckleberry.

by Archaic71 - 2 years ago
Texas United States
Member Since: Nov 2008
Member Points: 853

The Reti game is a classic, Re3 is Morphy-esque.  Alekhine was a marvel and his games are great learning tools . . . BUT, he hid from Cappy for a reason - he could never have matched Capablanca over the board and they both knew it. 

by jpd303 - 2 years ago
west virginia United States
Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 1735

i think the re3 move in thte reti game might be my favorite move in chess history, its up there with frank marshal's Qg3 in the golden coins game. 

by Philip_Lu - 2 years ago
United States
Member Since: Dec 2007
Member Points: 536

very nice!

by fury_pk - 2 years ago
Beckley, West Virginia United States
Member Since: Dec 2008
Member Points: 275

In the end he was a great chess player. The games will live forever.

by normajeanyates - 2 years ago
london [often in calcutta india] England
Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 2596

Well Alekhine is long dead: his games can be learnt from. May be Pythagorus beat his wife: who knows? Still, in euclidean space you'd better believe that the theorem that goes by his name is true...

by mariomilano - 2 years ago
Milan Italy
Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 4

every time I see the name of Alekhine I go in goose pimples. He was yes a good player, but he was alcholized in the last part of life, antisemitic and avoided to play against Capablanca to make a revenge and to play against Nimzowitch at the top of his form. Maybe a good player but really a bad bad man, really not worthy to be remembered.

by normajeanyates - 2 years ago
london [often in calcutta india] England
Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 2596

Very nice: a display of superb positional understanding from which these deep combinations flow [to convert the positional advantage into a win] (and, of course, spotting those incredibly complex combinations!) - but -many people are have the following concerns about brilliancies, and so do I:

Will computers deflate the games? Has someone run say rybka 3 on the critical moves long enough? May be there was a more routine win in both games? May be both sides made mistakes (objectively speaking)?

(Engines do sometimes deflate all the mystique and often deflate some of it ... There are exceptions, e.g. R. Byrne - Fischer 1963-64: that one, including the losing mistake of Byrne (15.Qc2 ??)was well understood (the '??' is objectively speaking) long before chess computer programs became good enough to only confirm it...)

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