Alexander the Fourth

5
"The purpose of human life and the meaning of happiness is to give the maximum of what a person can give"
A.A. Alekhin


Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhin was born on October 31 1892 in Moscow and was the third child in the family. His father - Alexander Ivanovich - was a major landowner, and later a deputy of the State Duma and the leader of the nobility of the Voronezh province. Alekhina's mother, Anisya Ivanovna Prokhorova, was from a family of manufacturers, owners of the famous Trekhgorny manufactory. She paid very little attention to her children, traveled a lot, and later became addicted to alcohol. Nevertheless, it was she who taught Alekhin to play chess when the boy was seven years old. Alexander's father worked a lot, and was also not engaged in raising children. This duty rested entirely on the shoulders of a grandmother - Anna Alexandrovna Prokhorova.



As a child, Alexander was a very calm boy, his family even jokingly called Tisha (as a contraction from Quietest). As he got older, he did not want to be confused with his elder brother Alexey (by the way, quite a strong amateur chess player), signed his first chess games played in family tournaments like T. Alekhin. The boy's passion for this game was so strong that his parents even tried to limit his training. And at the age of nine years, Alexander suffered an inflammation of the brain, which is why he had to postpone for a while not only chess, but also entry to the gymnasium.

In 1901, Alekhin was enrolled in the Polivanov gymnasium, one of the best in the capital. Together with him, the future musicologist George Alekseevich Rimsky-Korsakov, who described Alexander as follows: “An unremarkable lad, with a simple, surprisingly ordinary appearance. Snub nose, big mouth, tightly compressed thin lips, reddish-blond hair. Freckles on a pale face ... ". He also noted that "Alekhine, who was present at the lessons, did not live in the interests of the class." Indeed, in the classroom, Alexander very often with his head went into the analysis of chess games. The same Rimsky-Korsakov described the following case: “Class work on algebra. Everything was silenced, and then Alekhine got up with a radiant face, twisting his hand of hair in his usual habit. The teacher asks him: “Well, Alekhine, have you decided?”. "I decided! I sacrifice a horse, walk an elephant, and White wins! "Everyone is shaking with laughter."
In 1906, Alexander, honing his skills, met with the famous chess player Fedor Duz-Khotimirsky in those years. And Alekhine took his first participation in the international tournament at the age of sixteen (in 1908). In the same year, he sensationally defeated the famous German chess theorist Kurt von Bardeleben. And next year, Alexander has already won the All-Russian Amateur Tournament and was awarded the title of Maestro. The famous chess player Peter Romanovsky, who participated in the competition, noted: “Alekhin takes the first place not only in sports, but mainly from the side of full brilliance and fire of creative thought”.

At 1911, Alexander Alexandrovich moved to St. Petersburg and entered the prestigious Imperial School of Law. He studied there diligently, and, having graduated from an educational institution in 1914, received the title of a titular adviser with an appointment to the Ministry of Justice. In the same year, 1914, in the northern capital, an international chess tournament was held, which brought together almost all the leading chess players in the world. The winners of the All-Russian Masters Tournament - Aron Nimzovich and young Alekhin were allowed to compete. The tournament consisted of two stages. At the qualifying round, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich took fifth place, which allowed him to get to the main stage, where he was third. Forward, he missed only world champion Emanuel Lasker and the closest contender for this title - José Raul Capablanca, ahead of the Pole Akibu Rubinstein, the American Frank Marshall, the German Siegbert Tarrasch and many other recognized masters. After this tournament, Alekhine officially became the grandmaster. And, despite the fact that Capablanca and Lasker easily beat Alexander, it was clear to everyone that the world had received a new great chess player.

The First World found Alekhin in Germany, in the city of Mannheim, where he hosted a major international chess tournament, in which he unconditionally led. The tournament was interrupted six rounds before the end, the first place was awarded to Alexander Alexandrovich. He was awarded the main prize, and immediately, among other participants from Russia, he interned. Due to an annoying misunderstanding (a photo in which Alekhin was depicted in the form of a pupil of the Law School, the policeman took the form of an officer) the chess player was first placed in a military prison, and only some time later was transferred to a civilian prison. Aleksandr Aleksandrovich ended up in the same chamber as the outstanding Russian chess player Efim Bogolyubov, his future opponent in the battles for the chess crown. In order not to be bored, they played blindly with each other every day. And soon the German medical commission recognized Alekhine unfit for military service, and on this basis he was released in mid-September 1914.

Returning home, Alexander Alexandrovich spoke a lot with simultaneous play sessions, and also worked on debriefing games. To get into the army chess player did not allow health, but he did not want to stay away from the events at the front. In the summer of 1916, Alekhin, as the head of the Red Cross detachment, went to the Galician front. Here he rescued the wounded from under the fire and was contused twice. For his courage, he was awarded two St. George medals and the Order of St.. Stanislav with swords. And soon there was a February, and then the October revolution. Alexander arrived at Odessa in 1918, where he intended to take part in one of the tournaments, which, by the way, did not take place. However, he lingered in this city, and in order to earn a living, he played in local cafes at a rate. Exists storyas the best player of one “chess” cafe he offered the stranger (and this was Alexander Alexandrovich) to play chess with him for money and gave him a rook as a hand. Alekhin deliberately lost the game, and then said that he would play without a rook, and, of course, won. Opponents continued the game, and by the efforts of the guest, each time the one who did not have a rook won. In the end, the grandmaster, trying to remain serious, said that the second rook only interferes with chess.

In April, 1919 Odessa was occupied by the Red Army troops, and Alexander Alexandrovich was arrested by representatives of the Cheka, who accused him of contacts with the White Guards. At that moment, the life of a brilliant chess player almost ended. The intervention of an unknown, but undoubtedly, a high-ranking Soviet leader saved Alekhin from execution. According to one legend, he was personally rescued by Leon Trotsky. Others, more believable versions, claim that Alekhina’s savior was an employee of the Cheka and an ardent chess lover, Yakov Vilner, or Dmitriy Manuilsky, a member of the All-Ukrainian Revkom who knew Aleksandr Aleksandrovich well. After his release, Alekhin took a job at the Odessa provincial executive committee, and after the start of the offensive, Denikin moved to the capital. In Moscow, he stayed with her sister Vera, who after the revolution became a professional actress and starred in the films of the Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio. She persuaded Alekhine to try her hand at acting. The competition in the First State School of Cinematography was enormous, but the ingenious chess player withstood the test with honor. He diligently attended all classes and starred in crowd scenes, but he never finished school. At first, organizational confusion prevented him, and then other matters were swallowed up, among which chess was of course in the first place. It is curious that many years later Alexander Alexandrovich was invited to act in Hollywood, but he refused.

In addition to studying at cinema courses in 1920-1921, Alekhin worked as an investigator at the Tsentrorozysk General Police Directorate. His task was to inspect the crime scene and search for people who disappeared in the turbulent military and revolutionary years. At the same time, a new denunciation of a chess player came to the Cheka, in which he was accused of having linked with counterintelligence of Denikin. Alexander Alexandrovich was interrogated several times, but in the end the case was closed. And in October, 1920 Alekhin confidently won the First All-Russian Chess Olympiad, becoming the first Soviet champion.

In parallel with the investigative work, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, fluent in German, French and English, acted as an interpreter in the Comintern. There he met with the Swiss journalist Anna-Lisa Rygg - a fairly well-known public figure. At the end of 1920, Alekhin and Ryugg, on the Comintern delegation, took part in a trip around the country, and on returning were married. It should be noted that the biographers of the great chess player do not have a common opinion on how many times he has been married. There is indirect evidence that Alexander Alexandrovich married for the first time back in 1913 — the baroness and artist Anna von Severgin, although there is no documentary evidence of this. At 1920, a chess player registered a marriage with Alexandra Bataeva, who worked as a clerk, but did not live long with her.

A few weeks after the wedding, Alexander Alexandrovich received permission to travel to Latvia, and in May 1921 arrived in Riga, and soon moved to Berlin. To this day, the reasons that prompted Alekhine to leave Soviet Russia have been arguing. Despite the fact that the revolution has deprived the chess player of a vast fortune, it is known that he resigned to the new government and honestly served it, considering joining the CPSU (b). The “chess” version seems to be the most likely - Alekhin perfectly understood that, while staying in Russia, he would not be able to take part in foreign tournaments, meet with leading players and, consequently, fulfill his long-cherished dream - to become a world champion. By the way, in the first years of life abroad, Alekhine was not considered an emigrant. The grand master was regularly published in Russian chess publications, and his book "Chess Life in Soviet Russia" was published in 1921.

After Berlin, Alexander Alexandrovich moved to Paris. It was very difficult to live only with a game of chess, because the cash prizes at the tournaments were not too large, and besides, they still needed to be won. Famous grandmasters collaborated with chess editions, gave private lessons or played on a bet. Alekhine returned to jurisprudence. At 1925 in the famous Sorbonne, he successfully defended his thesis and became a doctor of law. Unfortunately, his family life did not go well. By that time Rygg and Alekhin had a son, named Alexander. However, the grandmaster was absorbed in work and chess, and his spouse in social activities, and the child was brought up for the most part by their close friends. And in 1924, Alekhin met the widow of Russian General Nadezhda Vasilyeva and, divorcing him officially with Ryugg, began living in a civil marriage with her. Nadezhda Semenovna managed to create a cozy family atmosphere for Alekhin, so that he could devote himself entirely to his beloved work.

The era between the two world wars was the "golden time of chess", a period of unprecedented interest in this game. Matches and tournaments became not only a place of collision of chess players, but also an arena of confrontation between various ideas and schools. Stefan Zweig wrote in those years: “The narrow definition of“ game ”is offensive to chess. This is not art or science, or rather, something that hovers between these two concepts. ” And Alekhin added: “Chess is taught to be objective. You can become a great master in chess only by realizing your own shortcomings and mistakes. Just as in real life. ” In 1921, in Havana, the brilliant Cuban chess player, José Raul Capablanca, confidently overcame the already elderly Emanuel Lasker, who was a chess king for twenty-seven years. About the new champion in the people there were many legends, for example, that Capablanca learned to play only by watching the game of his father and his friend. So it was or not, but at the age of twelve José Raul became the champion of his country. In addition to the brilliant game, Capablanca amazed contemporaries with elegance and charm, acted in films, spoke fluently in many languages ​​and enjoyed tremendous success with women. To meet him in the battle for the chess crown, Alekhin needed not only to show high tournament and match results, but also to save a considerable sum of money. The point was that at 1922, Capablanca actually forced the world's leading chess players to sign the “London Agreement”, according to which the challenger pledged to provide a prize fund of a ten thousand dollars match, as well as to bear all the costs of the match. To most chess players, this amount seemed astronomical, the grandmasters were outraged, but they could not help it.

Alexander the Fourth
From left to right: Alekhin, referee Carlos Augusto Kerencio, Capablanca


However, the Russian chess player did not despair. He took part in an incredible number of tournaments, practically in all showing good results and ahead of other contenders for a meeting with a champion, among which the most powerful in those years were Nimzowicz and Rubinstein. Unfortunately, in all tournament matches against Capablanca, the Russian grandmaster was inferior to him. And at the tournament in New York (1924 year), which brought together the best chess players of the planet, he gave in to the unfading Lasker, who brilliantly won the competition and convinced everyone that it was too early to write off. Here is how one of the reporters described Alekhin in those years: “The expression of the face of this slim, tall, young man is constantly changing, he is an embodied nervousness. With impulsive movements of the hands, then he holds up impetuously through his hair, then he grabs the outgoing figures. After each move, he swiftly jumps up and moves in rapid, gusty steps from table to table. If the opponent manages to put him in a difficult position, he becomes impatient and nervous, he is annoyed by the slightest noise, and his bright eyes look at the opponent with suspicion, as if trying to penetrate ideas, and a smile illuminates his face at the moment when he is looking for a decent answer. .. "

In addition to participating in tournaments, Alekhin worked a lot on improving his style, for which he analyzed and commented on his own and other people's fights. He also wrote a number of works (“International Tournament in New York”, “Towards Higher Chess Achievements”), which earned him a reputation as one of the best chess writers in history. In addition, in order to earn money for the match for the world title, Alexander Alexandrovich conducted a chess game from an airplane, demonstration games with live figures played by actors, as well as a number of blind simul games. Simultaneous games of Alekhin "blindly" always made a lasting impression. Subsequently, the Russian chess player brought their number to thirty-two. According to Capablanca: “Alekhin had the most phenomenal chess memory,” it is known that he did not forget any of the games played, and even after years he could repeat them exactly. But the most curious thing was something else - able to hold an incredible amount of positions in mind, in everyday life Alexander Aleksandrovich often complained about his memory and always forgot keys, glasses, cigarettes.

In the end, Alekhine’s dream came true - in 1926, the Argentine government, acting as a philanthropist, allocated the required amount for the planned match in Buenos Aires. In the same year, the Russian chess player, expressing gratitude to the Argentina Chess Union, made a four-month tour in South America. He conducted simul sessions, lectured and won all the serious games during that time. Alekhine wrote: “The results of the trip deeply satisfied me. In terms of skill, I feel quite ripe. " However, at the end of the year, the expected match by all of a sudden was under threat. In New York, it was decided to hold a new tournament of the strongest grandmasters, and one of the points of the regulations said that "the participant who won the first (or second, if Capablanca is first) place gets the right to play with the world champion." In vain Alekhin sought to cancel this condition, which crossed out all previous agreements. It is appropriate to add that the organizers of the tournament also made sure that uncomfortable for Capablanca rivals did not come to him - and, first of all, Lasker. As a result, the current champion won the tournament. Alexander Alexandrovich, demoralized by the nervous atmosphere, played poorly at the start, but then he got together and became the second.

22 August 1927 Alekhine and his spouse boarded the Massalia steamship and set off for Argentina. Before the legendary battle of the chess titans, very few people believed in the victory of the challenger, and many chess players were generally convinced that Capablanca would win the match dry. One of them was Siegbert Tarrasch, who claimed that “the champion is unbeatable, and his stylistic simplicity will surpass the craving for complications of the Slavic master”. Supporters of Alekhine, who remained in a clear minority, objected: “Capablanca's natural talent pushes him up, but he does not like chess. He does not have the energy needed for hard training work, only an amazing nervous system that helps in all situations. But in Alekhin’s asset there is an indomitable combinational spirit and considerable baggage of theoretical novelties. His creativity belongs to the future. " It is curious that José Raul himself did not in the least doubt his victory. In a conversation with fans who were going to make bets, he said: "One hundred to one, of course, too much, but five to one is quite enough."

16 September 1927 Capablanca moved the pawn, and the match before 6 victories, which most chess players consider the greatest fight in the history of the game, has started. Unfortunately, Alexander Alexandrovich had inflammation of the periosteum the day before, and six teeth were immediately removed. The courageous Russian chess player did not lose heart, darkly jokingly that for every tooth torn out he would win against his opponent in the game. So in the end what happened. The first game Alekhin won with black. For many, it was a shock, bordering on a misunderstanding. World champion, gathered, prevailed in the third and seventh games. However, in the extremely difficult and informative eleventh game Alekhin turned the tide. He played with black, he mated, when on the chessboard there were just four queens (!) - two for each player. After this game, Capablanca admitted: “I don’t know how to win that way!”. Alexander Alexandrovich won the next game, after which his opponent lost heart. According to Alekhin: “After that, in each game he became more and more nervous ... He then declined to admit me in a draw, he argued that the game would never end, he would generally resort to little tricks in order to lead me. For example, he held his fingers over a figure for a long time, and then another walked. ” After a long series of draws, the Russian chess player won the twenty-first duel for the fourth time. In the twenty-ninth, the Cuban closed the gap, giving hope to his fans, but Alekhin won the thirty-second game again. The last “round” of this battle was the thirty-fourth meeting, postponed with a large margin of the Russian chess player. Capablanca did not show up to play the game - he never found the strength to personally congratulate his opponent. His messenger handed Alekhine a note to read as follows: “November 29 1927. Dear Mr. Alekhin, I hand over the game. So you are the world champion, and I congratulate you on your success. ” A jubilant crowd in their arms carried the new chess king through the streets of Buenos Aires. The wise Lasker wrote: “It was a victory of an unshakable fighter over a genius who was averse to all that was unclear. Through scientific methods, Capablanca strives for accuracy, while Alekhine seeks a searching artist. His work is higher, especially if it is manifested in the struggle. "

In Europe, Alexander Alexandrovich was waiting for a rainbow reception. Of course, the special enthusiasm experienced by our compatriots. Writers Alexander Kuprin and Boris Zaitsev wrote essays on the victory of the Russian grandmaster. In January, 1928 Alekhin attended a banquet at the Paris Russian Club. Many speeches were made in his honor. Alexander Alexandrovich also made a reply. And in the morning the newspapers published a retelling of his speech, in which the champion allegedly expressed wishes “about the disappearance of the phantasmagoria reigning in his homeland.” It is curious that in different editions the fateful phrase was transmitted differently, and in some it was not mentioned at all. Whether Alekhin said these words or not, the researchers disagree, but he had never before allowed himself to attack the Soviet regime. Perhaps it was a provocation from the emigre circles, who learned that the world champion is going to return to Russia. Be that as it may, the response of the Soviet authorities was immediately followed by Nikolai Krylenko, who is the chairman of the All-Union Chess Section, declared: “It's all over with citizen Alekhin — he is our enemy, and now we will interpret him only as an enemy.” From now on, the way home Alekhinu was closed.

Considering that the world champion is obliged to promote chess, in 1932-1933, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich traveled all over the world, in total having played over one and a half thousand games. He won almost all the major competitions in which he took part, and his lead over his closest rivals was colossal. For example, in San Remo in 1930, he overtook the second runner-up on 3,5, and in Bled in 1931 - on 5,5 (a huge lead by chess standards). But all the strongest chess players of the planet played in these tournaments. Aaron Nimzowitsch said: “He is cracking down on us like with yellow-headed fledglings!”. Alekhin himself said about the reasons for his victories: “I don’t play chess, I fight in them.” Soviet chess player Gregory Levenfish recalled: “Playing with him required constant stress. Insignificant weakening of attention, and Alekhine stunned you with a new tactical strike. His fantasy was truly inexhaustible. ”


Alekhine gives a simultaneous game session in Berlin (1930)


In the early years after the loss, Capablanca wanted to play a rematch with Alekhine. However, the Russian chess player agreed to him only on the conditions that the Cuban himself put forward. Negotiations lasted a long time, but they did not lead to anything. It is not known whether Capablanca really wanted this meeting, who saw the ever-increasing strength of his rival, but Lasker publicly refused to claim the title of champion: "I would fight with Capablanca, but with Alekhine! .." By the way, since then, a feud has developed between Capablanca and Alekhine. So much so that in 1938, they not only did not communicate with each other, but did not even want to sit together at the same board. Their games went like this - one grandmaster made a move, immediately rose and left. The other sat at the board, considered the answer, made a move and gave way to the enemy. All negotiations (in particular, the proposal of a draw) were conducted through a judge. Nevertheless, in conversations Alekhin invariably spoke of Capablanca: “I am only a simple worker, and he is the greatest chess genius.”

In 1929, Alexander Alexandrovich with a difference of six points won Efim Bogolyubov in a world championship match. In the post-match interview, the challenger said: “Now no one has a chance to beat Alekhin”. When asked if the champion would rest on his laurels, he replied: “Capablanca rested on his laurels, and Alekhine will defeat everyone he meets. I do not admit to being finally defeated, and we will meet again in four to five years. ” The second meeting, by the way, really took place at 1934 and again ended with Alekhin's convincing victory. It seemed that the hegemony of Alexander Alexandrovich in the chess world no one could threaten ... However, during one of his trips, the grandmaster met the widow of the governor of Morocco, American Grace Viskhar. Relations between them broke out, and soon Alekhine broke up with Nadezhda Vasilyeva, who had been his support for many years. Unlike other wives of Alekhine, Vishar knew a lot about chess and even participated in a number of tournaments. They were married, and the new spouse traveled with Alekhin to all the competitions, but unlike Vasilyeva, her influence was far from beneficial. The new wife was prone to alcohol, to which, due to hereditary predisposition (alcohol, in fact, caused the death of her mother, brother and nephew Alekhin) and Alexander Alexandrovich.

Each athlete has "uncomfortable" opponents - games with them always run hard. For Alekhin, one of such rivals was the Dutchman Max Euwe. In 1934, Euwe summoned Alexander Alexandrovich for the match for the title of champion, held next year. The beginning of the fight left for the champion. He led the 5: 2 account, but then the old disease intervened, and Alekhine began to allow himself to drink. The match took place in Holland, and the judges were also not completely impartial, for example, once they refused a time-out to the Russian chess player who felt badly. The champion had a number of very weak games, and Euwe took the lead. When Alekhin pulled himself together, it was already too late. With a minimum advantage, the Dutchman brought the match to victory, becoming the fifth world champion.

After losing, Alexander Alexandrovich quit smoking and drinking, made out his own mistakes. At 1937, Euwe, not doubting his success, agreed to a rematch. However, this time he met with a completely different Alekhin, who won in ten games and lost only four. By the way, at present, history knows only two world chess champions who managed to regain it again after losing the title - Alekhine and Botvinnik. Euwe admitted: “The rival played amazingly, and I am not ashamed that I was defeated. He is the greatest chess player of all time. ” Alexander Aleksandrovich himself said jokingly that he had just lent the chess crown for two years.

After the match, Alexander Alexandrovich continued to successfully perform at tournaments, although without the former unconditional advantage. In the late thirties in the world of chess there was a change of generations. Lasker and Capablanca performed less and less, Reti and Nimzowicz died. An entire placer of young and talented grandmasters appeared on the scene - Mikhail Botvinnik, Royben Fain, Paul Keres, Samuel Reshevsky, Salomon Flor. The games with the members of the old guard were held with varying success, and it became clear that the contender for the chess crown, and perhaps the new world champion, was among them. Alekhina over the years, more and more overpowered longing for the motherland. The writer Leo Lyubimov, who knew him closely, noted: “Alexander Aleksandrovich was a strong, strong-willed person of great passions. The foreigner, the realization that he was not at home, that only in his “home” could he be truly recognized, and at the same time his unwillingness to admit the fallacy of his separation from his homeland - all this deprived him of internal support, broke down ... ". By the way, the world champion was looking for different ways to reconcile. For example, in the autumn of 1935, he sent a letter to the Soviet chess magazine "64": "As a person who understood the great importance of what was achieved in the Soviet Union in various areas of cultural life, I send sincere greetings to USSR chess players on the occasion of the eighteenth anniversary of the October Revolution." He also offered cooperation to domestic chess publications and soon received an invitation to the Moscow tournament. It seemed that the return of the great chess player home was not far off, but the war broke out.



World War II, like the First, caught the chess player at the next competition held in Argentina. Some of the players immediately ceased their participation, and Alekhine and Tartakower, sharply reacting to the news, called for a boycott of the German chess players. At the end of the tournament, Alexander Alexandrovich decided to return to Europe and in January 1940 arrived in Lisbon, and then moved to France. Due to his age and state of health, he was not subject to appeal, but having decided that he could be useful even as a translator, he signed up as a lieutenant in the French army. But he did not serve long - France chose to capitulate to the Nazis. At the beginning of 1941, Alekhine went to Portugal, but the German authorities allowed him to leave only after he had written a number of articles on chess history. Soon, in a German-language newspaper, a note by a chess player called “Aryan and Jewish Chess” appeared, which after a long time was blamed on him. In fact, the article was almost completely rewritten by the editor of the newspaper, the famous anti-Semite Theodor Gerbets. Alekhin himself said: "The printed one shocked and offended me both because of the content and because of the complete impossibility of cleaning it from this dirt." And after Germany and America broke off relations, Alekhine’s wife, Jewish Jewish, was under the watchful eye of the Nazis. In order to save her from repression, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich was forced to take part in competitions held by the Nazi Chess Union. Efim Bogolyubov, Paul Keres and other leading grandmasters found themselves in a similar situation, whom the Germans also attracted to participate in competitions, speculating on their position and even threatening them. Alekhin was not going to make any concessions to the German participants - in all tournaments from 1941 to 1943, he won single-handedly or shared first place. The results of his simul sessions were also amazing, for example, in one of them, against German officers, he won 75 games from 75. Alekhin's victories did not please the Nazis and caused a lot of gossip: “What is the result? We are fighting with the Russians at the front, and here one of them beats all of ours! Yes, even in this kind of mental competition! ".

At 1943, a fifty-year-old Russian chess player fell ill with scarlet fever. He managed to survive, but the champion’s already poor health was completely undermined. Portuguese chess player Francisco Lupi wrote: “How Alekhin has changed! Instead of a proud and proud man, I saw a ghost whose voice sounded nervous and my hands were looking for your hands during a conversation. ” It became harder for the champion to play. Fortunately, the occupiers also paid much less attention to chess - they were already not in the mood for that.

In November, Alexander Alexandrovich 1945 received an invitation from the British Chess Federation to participate in tournaments organized in Hastings and London. Alekhin perked up, began to prepare for the competition, and then a new blow fell on him. The organizers canceled the invitation due to the fact that a number of participants threatened to boycott the competition if Alekhine, whom they accused of collaborating with the Nazis, spoke at it. Of all the fellow chess players in defense of Alexander Alexandrovich, only Savely Tartakower openly stood up - by the way, a Jew and a fighter of the Resistance. Later, it became clear that the real reason for what is happening is that some FIDE leaders in this way planned to deprive Alekhine of the world champion title.
After the war, Alexander lived in Portugal, in the city of Estoril. His wife was in France, and only Lupi brightened up the loneliness of a chess player - Alexander Alexandrovich's only friend in the last years of his life. In 1946, negotiations began on the organization of the match between Alekhine and Botvinnik. By mid-March, the decision was finally made, and in the morning of 24, the champion’s numbers were found dead in the room at the Park Hotel, where he lived. Alekhine was sitting in a chair, and in front of him lay a chessboard. He was originally buried in Estoril, but at 1956 the USSR government expressed a desire to transfer the ashes of the champion to the Novodevichy cemetery. But then Grace Viskhar intervened, demanding that her husband’s remains be buried at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris, where the great chess player now rests.


The tombstone on the grave of Alekhine at the Paris cemetery of Montparnasse by his friend, the chess player Abram Barats (1956)


Alekhine, the fourth chess king, is the first Russian grandmaster to win the title and the only undefeated world champion. In his entire life, he played in eighty-seven major tournaments, winning sixty-two. The percentage of games won by him is 58 - according to this indicator, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich bypasses all other world champions. The name Alekhin, despite his emigration, was very honored in the USSR. After the death of a chess player, tournaments in his name were held in the country, books and films were published about him and his work. And the Alekhinian ideas, parties and approach to the game had and have a huge impact on the formation of new generations of Russian chess players.

According to the materials of the book A.A. Kotov, “The Chess Legacy of Alekhin” and the weekly edition “Our History. 100 Great Names »
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  1. +6
    6 March 2015 08: 56
    Alekhine's style of play seems incomprehensible. He brought back its beauty to chess, after the dismal domination of the school of "positional play". He played outside of stereotypes and standards, leaving only what was really viable and necessary from the norms generally recognized at that time. Alekhine's defense, where one knight gallops several moves in violation of all the classical rules of opening development, including against Alekhine's most beloved “sacrifice for the tempo”, is fantastic. Alekhine proved the uniqueness and beauty of chess. It is a pity that nowadays the computer almost killed chess.
  2. +2
    6 March 2015 10: 19
    Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhin - the pride of Russia!
  3. AAV
    +2
    6 March 2015 13: 09
    The site www.ChessPro.ru has an interesting series of articles about Alekhine. Here is a link to the start of the loop.
    http://chesspro.ru/_events/2007/voronkov_alekhine_1.html
  4. +1
    6 March 2015 19: 12
    Such people are the pride of Russia.
  5. +1
    7 March 2015 22: 38
    It is unfortunate that the world did not see the match Alekhine - Botvinnik. Kasparov was closest in style to him ... but this kinderwound ran into politics and, most importantly, from the characteristic illusory side ... he stopped counting options at all, trying to live on intuition ...

"Right Sector" (banned in Russia), "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) (banned in Russia), ISIS (banned in Russia), "Jabhat Fatah al-Sham" formerly "Jabhat al-Nusra" (banned in Russia) , Taliban (banned in Russia), Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia), Anti-Corruption Foundation (banned in Russia), Navalny Headquarters (banned in Russia), Facebook (banned in Russia), Instagram (banned in Russia), Meta (banned in Russia), Misanthropic Division (banned in Russia), Azov (banned in Russia), Muslim Brotherhood (banned in Russia), Aum Shinrikyo (banned in Russia), AUE (banned in Russia), UNA-UNSO (banned in Russia), Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (banned in Russia), Legion “Freedom of Russia” (armed formation, recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation and banned)

“Non-profit organizations, unregistered public associations or individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent,” as well as media outlets performing the functions of a foreign agent: “Medusa”; "Voice of America"; "Realities"; "Present time"; "Radio Freedom"; Ponomarev; Savitskaya; Markelov; Kamalyagin; Apakhonchich; Makarevich; Dud; Gordon; Zhdanov; Medvedev; Fedorov; "Owl"; "Alliance of Doctors"; "RKK" "Levada Center"; "Memorial"; "Voice"; "Person and law"; "Rain"; "Mediazone"; "Deutsche Welle"; QMS "Caucasian Knot"; "Insider"; "New Newspaper"