Alekhine was a drunk, and made some mistakes admittedly, but he wasn't a despicable human being. Maybe he made anti-Communist statements, or even anti-Semitic ones ? In the context of his life, there were reasons for that.
As for Capablanca's gossips, they were just that.
There is a thread on the American Checker Federation Forum, at http://www.usacheckers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1570 (Multi-gamers) to which I have posted about 95 checker games played by Harry Nelson Pillsbury. There is some duplication. Pillsbury was a checkers Master who was not quite at the top of American checkers, but who beat a few very strong players. And, according to Wikipedia, he was born Dec. 5 1872 and died Jun. 17 1906 (33 years).
Pillsbury caught syphilis in Russia before the start of the 1895 St. Petersburg tournament. We're not living in the Victorian era. We can say it. He was a human who acquired a human ailment. One source for this is Chess Life magazine, but I don't remember what issue.