Alexander Alekhine and his Two Greatest Games

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!