When Alekhine Attacks
Hello, my fellow Alekhine fans and welcome to another edition of the Osaka Papers. A little over a year ago, while attending an OTB tournament in Kyoto, Japan; I received a "door prize", which included annotations of 60 memorable games by none other than Alexander Alekhine.
It gives me great pleasure to play through these classic games: looking for tactics, observing the playing style of an earlier era and pretending that I'm a chess genius. So, my Dear Reader, I've decided to pick out 5 of my favorite miniatures and share them with you.
Two-time World Champion Alexander Alekhine.
Alexander Alekhine (pronounced: AL-YEH-KHIN...admit it, you've been pronouncing it incorrectly this whole time...) needs very little introduction. The Russian born grandmaster is considered by many to be one of the greatest chess players of all time, renowned for his sublime tactical awareness and ability to play complex positions.
Nonetheless, there are a few areas of his life that despite being incredibly interesting are not as well known...allow me to illuminate you.
Imprisonment
At the outbreak of World War I, Alekhine was playing in a tournament in Mannheim, Germany, this was in August of 1914, Germany had just declared war on the Russian Empire, and consequently all the Russian players in attendance were arrested and transported out of the city. Their train was stopped at one point, and the players were dragged off and beaten through the streets as enemies of the Fatherland. Eventually, he was imprisoned in Baden-Baden, his roommate being none other than, Efim Bogoljubov, a chess legend in his own right. The two are said to have played countless blindfold matches, to while away their time. Alekhine was eventually released and made his way back to Russia.
Stay of Execution
Alekhine came from a very wealthy family, his father was the equivalent of a state governor. A fact which benefited him for many years, right up until the Bolshevik Revolution, at which point his membership in the Russian nobility became a bit of a liability.
In 1919, while playing in a tournament in Odessa, Ukraine, he was again arrested, this time on suspicion of being a Czarist sympathizer and was sentenced to be shot by firing squad. He was saved at the last second. A clerk at the facility recognized his name and intervened, the clerk was a man by the name of Yakov Vilner, who just so happened to be one of the strongest chess players in Ukraine. Alekhine eventually fled Russia and emigrated to France.
Older Women
Alekhine was married four times, all of his wives were substantially older than himself. It seems that the chess masters of the time enjoyed teasing him about his taste in women.
Emanual Lasker related a tale from the end of tournament in 1913, in which he said that Alekhine would only dance with one woman at the closing festivities, who was twice his age and twice his circumference...
Ernst Grunfeld, of whom the defense is named, estimated Alekhine's third wife's age, a lady by the name of Nadine, to be somewhere between 70 and 80 years...
Alekhine's forth wife, was a widow named Grace Wishaar, a fairly strong chess player, she won the French Women's Championship in 1944. The chess circles in Paris took time to mock her age as well. They called her "the Widow of Philidor"...Philidor having died in the 1700s...why are people so mean? ;p
Straight Shot
Unfortunately, I was unable to find pictures for many of Alekhine's victims...I mean opponents, so the world famous hoodie guy will have to stand in.
The first such, is a man by the name of Vasic, this game from 1931, which lasted only 11 moves, took place in Yugoslavia as part of a simul.
Alekhine has his queen and bishop pair lined up for a killing shot, can you pull the trigger?
Multiple Threats
This 1924 game, played against a man named Leon Kussman, once again comes from a simul, this time played in New York City.
Alekhine is threatening checks, discovered attacks and forks. Can you find the greatest threat amongst them?
Knighty Knight
Here Alekhine beats Peter Potemkin in St. Petersberg in 19 moves, in 1912...
Peter Potemkin is trapped in the corner. Can you find right combination to put him to sleep?
Push it to the Limit
Friedrich Samisch (sometimes spelled Saemisch) was a German grandmaster best known for the King's Indian Variation that bears his name. The following game was an exhibition and took place in 1923 in the city of Berlin, Germany.
Alekhine's queen is under threat, how should you react to this threat?
The Five Queens
Our final game, may or may not have actually taken place. Alekhine had many vices, one of which was massive exaggeration. When he first described this game in a Russian magazine he said "...one fantastic variation is...", later in a memorable games collection he said "...the author played...". Well, I'm calling shenanigans, but the position is so deliciously complex that I could not resist including it.
The "game" took place in Moscow in 1915 and may have been played against a man named Grigoriev.
Incredibly there are five queens on the board, Alekhine begins by threatening mate.
And that's it, that was When Alekhine Attacks. What did we learn?
Well, for starters, when Alekhine attacks it usually results in mate...
Furthermore, his attacks are very direct, in many positions the Engine actually suggests some other more positional move, but it seems to me that Alekhine wanted to lay traps for his opponents. He wished to lure his victims into complex positions that only he could handle. Perhaps, he was a gambler at heart, setting puzzles for his opposition and hoping that they wouldn't come to the correct conclusions.
Well, in any case, he is certainly one of my all time favourite players, and I'll continue to enjoy quiet evenings at home playing through his games and pretending I'm a chess genius.
As always, thanks for reading and feel free to share these "games" with your friends down at the Bar or Elderly Women's Home.
Cheers, SheldonOfOsaka.
