1912 to 1924- Formative Years for Alekhine

1912 was a great year for Akiba Rubinstein.

"Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein was born on 1 December 1880 in Stawiski, Congress Poland to a Jewish family. He had several siblings, but only one sister survived to adulthood.^[2][3] Rubinstein learned to play chess at the relatively late age of 16, and his family had planned for him to become a rabbi.^[4] He trained with and played against the strong master Gersz Salwe in Łódź and in 1903, after finishing fifth in a tournament in Kiev, Rubinstein decided to abandon his rabbinical studies and devote himself entirely to chess.

Between 1907 and 1912, Rubinstein established himself as one of the strongest players in the world. In 1907, he won the Carlsbad tournament and shared first at St. Petersburg."-Wikipedia
"The year 1912 was Rubinstein's magical year. He won four consecutive major tournaments: San Sebastian (1912), Bad Pistyan (1912), the 18th DSB Kongress (1912) and Vilnius All-Russian Masters (1912)."-Chessgames.com

In Vilnius, 1912, at the All-Russian tournament, Rubinstein placed 1st, and Alekhine did not have a great tournament. He lost 8 games, of which I have 4 here. Alelkhine got some severe spankings from some more experienced masters. Take a look!

In 1914 there was a great tournament: St. Petersburg 1914:

As you can see, in this tournament Alekhine did much better. He lost only two games: 2 to Lasker and 2 to Capablanca:

In their lifetime record, Lasker had a plus score against Alekhine:

"Emanuel Lasker beat Alexander Alekhine 3 to 1, with 4 draws"

Alekhine writes about Lasker:

"Lasker was my teacher, and without him I could not have become whom I became. The idea of chess art is unthinkable without Emanuel Lasker."

And here is Alekhine, writing about Capablanca:

"Capablanca was snatched too early from the chess world. With his death we have lost a great chess genius, the like of whom we will never see again."