Thee_Ghostess_Lola wrote:
they took him out cuz he was bigger than life. and when that happens they give u death.
I like the way you put that.
Was Alekhine assassinated?
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I think Botvinnik was a puppet of the Soviet state and it's easy to see why the authorities disliked Alekhine's penchant for the bottle and the image he represented internationally as an ambassador of sport, especially in the tense geopolitical climate surrounding WW2.
May 14, 2021
0
#244
From the time Alekhine left the Soviet Union until WW2, he lived in and represented France in competitions. When the Nazis invaded France, he collaborated by playing in Nazi-sponsored tournaments in Germany (Munich, Salzburg, Krakow/Warsaw, Prague) and occupied territories (as did Keres and Bogoljubov, among others). Alekhine was able to escape through Vichy France into Spain and Portugal.
He also reportedly authored anti-Jewish chess articles.
OMG
JamieDelarosa wrote:
From the time Alekhine left the Soviet Union until WW2, he lived in and represented France in competitions. When the Nazis invaded France, he collaborated by playing in Nazi-sponsored tournaments in Germany (Munich, Salzburg, Krakow/Warsaw, Prague) and occupied territories (as did Keres and Bogoljubov, among others). Alekhine was able to escape through Vichy France into Spain and Portugal.
He also reportedly authored anti-Jewish chess articles.
The last point could have been ample reason for certain people to knock him off.
May 15, 2021
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#247
JogoReal wrote:
Alekhine was never a "national socialist". He was a Russian aristocrat, a czarist, a White Russian. This kind of men were never socialists of any kind.
But he was also Anti-Semitic.
May 15, 2021
0
#248
Thee_Ghostess_Lola wrote:
they took him out cuz he was bigger than life. and when that happens they give u death.
I think his being a Nazi Sympthizer had a little bit more to do with it.
If being "larger than life" was the worst of his sins, I am sure they woulda forgiven him.
varelse1 escreveu:
JogoReal wrote:
Alekhine was never a "national socialist". He was a Russian aristocrat, a czarist, a White Russian. This kind of men were never socialists of any kind.
But he was also Anti-Semitic.
He was probably anti-jews, yes, but that's because he opposed the Bolshevik Movement and he was sympathiser with anyone opposing USSR, not because he was himself any kind of a national or international socialist. Anyway, in the context surrounding WWII, and that's what we are talking about, anyone was anti-some other nationality or ethnic group. Nothing new.
May 15, 2021
0
#250
that he was killed is a literal given*
*NOUN
a known or established fact or situation.
I wonder what police reports say about this.
It looks like the choking was a setup. I mean, the dishes haven't fallen off the table and even the chair cloth cover is still perfectly in place. Unless he was heavily intoxicated, noone would choke on a 3-inch long piece of meat (no 'that's what she said' jokes here please 
) and not get up from the chair or make a mess from thrashing around like a blind pig.
Nov 2, 2022
0
#252
The photographer got to Alekine's room before the police and rearranged the scene (including picking up the dishes, placing the board near the body etc) to get better pictures - the most famous pic does seem to have a somewhat artistic touch - albeit gruesome.
I think the photographer probably moved Alekhine's body as well - I recall reading somewhere that he was found on the floor and then placed in the chair.
BISHOP_e3 wrote:
In addition to playing chess, didn't Alekhine run a battery factory?
yes, he used to test 9-volt battries w/ his pierced tongue.
navinashok wrote:
He quit smoking in 1936
not really..unless u see vaping as smoking.
JamieDelarosa wrote:
From Wikipedia article on Alexander Alekhine:
After World War II, Alekhine was not invited to chess tournaments outside the Iberian Peninsula, because of his alleged Nazi affiliation. His original invitation to the London 1946 tournament was withdrawn when the other competitors protested.
While planning for a World Championship match against Botvinnik, Alekhine died aged 53 in his hotel room in Estoril, Portugal on March 24, 1946. The circumstances of his death are still a matter of debate. It is usually attributed to a heart attack, but a letter in Chess Life magazine from a witness to the autopsy stated that choking on meat was the actual cause of death. At autopsy, a three-inch-long piece of unchewed meat was discovered blocking his windpipe.
Some have speculated that he was murdered by a French "death squad". A few years later, Alekhine's son, Alexander Alekhine, Jr., said that "the hand of Moscow reached his father". Canadian Grandmaster Kevin Spraggett, who has lived in Portugal since the late 1980s, and who has thoroughly investigated Alekhine's death, favors this possibility. Spraggett makes a case for the manipulation of the crime scene and the autopsy by the Portuguese secret police PIDE. He believes that Alekhine was murdered outside his hotel room, probably by the Soviets.
(Footnotes and hyperlinks in the original have been removed for greater ease of reading)
"Are you an Alekhine fan? Do you have an opinion either way about his death? I’d love to hear them--feel free to leave a comment!"
I think he died from assasination
mpaetz wrote:
He choked to death on a piece of meat.
Which is exactly as suspicious as it sounds.
I don't think anyone had a clear motive to kill him, but who knows after almost 80 years.
edited moderator AndrewSmith
the French resistance had murdered many, many other Nazi collaborators, even years after the Second World War. On their list of potential candidates were 200,000 nazi collaborators on whom they wanted to take revenge, because the Nazis simply killed too many of their friends for forgiveness to be possible.
And yes, when someone was killed in Portugal in this way, it always followed exactly the same pattern as with Alekhine, namely the murder was covered up because Portugal did not want any political complications. So, you have to understand that Alekhine was just one of many, and that in almost all cases it was covered up just like in the Alekhine case!
I am German and I can understand these people of the French resistance...
Alekhine was never a "national socialist". He was a Russian aristocrat, a czarist, a White Russian. This kind of men were never socialists of any kind.