January 06 1946
January 07 1946
January 09 1946
Irish Independent, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, Wednesday, January 09, 1946
The world chess champion, Dr. Alekhine, was defeated by the Portuguese champion, Francesco Lupi, at the Estoril tournament in Lisbon last night. Lupi is expected to leave shortly for London, where he will play in a big tournament.
January 21 1946
The Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, Monday, January 21, 1946
WORLD CHAMPION
The leading Russian player, Botvinnik, expected to visit Britain to play some of the clubs. Dr. Alekhine, a Russian by birth, but now a French player, is still world champion, but if the form of the USSR team against the United States is anything to go by, the next champions are likely to come from Russia. Sir George Thomas, for many years Britain's leading player, recently announced that he would play in no more championships, as at 64 he found championship chess too strenuous.
January 25 1946
Evening Express, Portland, Maine, Friday, January 25, 1946
Dr. Alexander Alekhine Russian played the longest chess match ever recorded — 74 consecutive nights — to defeat Jose Capablanca, Buenos Aires in 1927, world championship.
February 16 1946
Star Weekly, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, February 16, 1946
Chess Players by the Million! By Eric Downton, Moscow
The ancient game of chess is officially encouraged by leaders of the U.S.S.R. By history and tradition, the game is firmly rooted in Russian cultural life. Modern Russia has adopted the game as an important feature of its national aspirations.
I was walking down a dark side street here when I came across two boys of about 11 and 13 engaged in a bitter fist fight. With a Good Samaritan gesture, I tried to pull them apart, but I stopped dead when I heard their angry conversation: “And I tell you, Dinker had no need to move his Bishop!”
I had forgotten until then that it was the night of a radio chess match between the U.S. and Russia—the tournament ending in a victory for the Soviet champions—a fresh milestone on the thousand-year-old path of chess in Russia.
From medieval times, when the Russian church and state persecuted chess as a devilish game, to the days when three-quarters of a million people took part in a national trade union tournament, is a long time. But this is the span of development in the game of chess in Russia.
In Russia you are regarded as almost uncivilized if you cannot play chess. Ignorance of chess is as reprehensible as ignorance of the works of Tolstoi, Gorky or Mayakovsky—all of whom, incidentally, played chess—or as ignorance of revolutionary teachings.
In the Soviet Union a chess-board is a household article along with the 'samovar' (a Russian tea-urn), or 'valenki' (felt boots). The main organizing centres of the game are the trade union schools and the army and navy. Of course, this widespread interest in chess does not originate from these centres. They only play a powerful part in popularizing the game still more and providing instruction, equipment and other facilities.
They play chess in the Kremlin, in Kamchatka, in ancient Novgorod, and among the Nomads. Trade union clubs all have their chess circles. It is played during the dinner hour at factories and universities, in theatre lobbies during intermission, and even in the beauty parlors.
Stalin plays chess but the lead was probably given by Lenin. For the first public drawing of Lenin, made at the end of the last century, shows him bent over a chess-board. No single successful book about Lenin omits to mention his interest in chess and his unusual ability at the game.
Almost every day some kind of expedition sets out to explore Russia's unexploited spaces. Whether it is a sea or land exploration, whatever they forget to include in equipment, several chess-boards are always included—and remembered.
There is a story of two coal miners from the Don basin who were buried in a mine disaster. They were dug out after a strenuous 18-hour effort by a large rescue squad, having been found semi-conscious lying across a pocket chess outfit. Later, when revived, they aid they had started to play half an hour after the mine collapsed and could remember playing more than six games before the world blackened before their eyes!
Encouraged By Royalty
FROM the controversy concerning the origin of chess in Russia one fact emerges as a certainty: the game was introduced by the Tartars. Some variations of chess are recorded in Russian history as far back as the seventh and eighth centuries when Russia was simply an unnamed mass of land. With the intermarriage of Tartars and Russians chess spread far and wide. Russian chess, as in no other country, has retained the oriental terminology. Here they still say “Shakhmaty” for chess, “Slon” for Bishop, “Ferz” for Queen, “Matt” for checkmate.
From the middle of the 13th century to the middle of the 17th century, chess in Russia was forbidden by the church and state through pressure from the Greek Orthodox Byzantium Church, along with other “gambling.” The root of this severe measure is to be found in the national struggle of that time against everything Mongolian and alien, pertaining, in their idea, to heathen worship. With the triumph of Christianity, the defeat of the Tartars and the birth of the Russian state, chess, though officially still banned, was winning its way back into national life.
“Ivan the Terrible” was an ardent chess player. He was not liberal enough to lift the ban, but he allowed his “boyars” to play chess. One English chronicler claims that Ivan died with a chess table by the side of his bed.
Higher priests of the Russian Orthodox Church did not lag far behind their sovereign. The metropolitan of Kazan, once the capital of the Tartars, faced accusations that when visiting Moscow he neglected his sacred duties and “indulged day and night in music and chess, and ordered the bells of the church where he was staying to be pulled down so that their ringing would not disturb him during his games of chess.”
Peter the Great made chess obligatory at his notorious assemblies. At his traditional royal balls there were rooms especially set apart, not only for dances, cards and gargantuan drinks, but also for chess. Catherine the Great, too, was an ardent chess player and all her many lovers were forced to play if they wished to keep in her favor!
The English historian and traveler, William Cox, who visited Russia in 1772, wrote: “Chess has spread so widely during our stay in Russia that I never saw a social gathering where people were not indulging in this entertainment. Even walking down streets I saw merchants and families playing chess in the shop doors and in front of their homes; Russians are regarded as the most skilled in the world at chess.”
Chess even penetrated Russian folk-lore. There are many ancient songs where a swain and his lass play chess. In there songs, the girl invariably wins!
The advanced chess theory came to Russia early in the 19th century. Chess had by that time resolutely emerged from the court circles into the expanding strata of the Russian intelligentsia. This brought about some peculiar clashes among the nobles and the intellectuals in the chess field. Thus Georgian Prince Dadian-Mingrelski thought himself the greatest chess player in the country and published books supporting this claim. Nobody risked disputing this idea until Mikhail Chigorin stepped into the picture.
Chigorin had to pay for this by not being allowed by the Georgian prince to take part in the international tournament at Monte Carlo in 1903, where the proud prince was “honorary president” of the tournament.
Holds World Title
IN London Chigorin was regarded as the greatest player in history. He made his debut there in 1883. He scored fourth after Blackburn, and was ahead of the English Mackenzie and Mason. Chigorin returned to Russia a national hero. His reputation increased when he won a chess match by telegraph between London and St. Petersburg in a contest lasting from November, 1886, Christmas of the following year.
A few years later, Chigorin, with the help of some patrons, was able to go from St. Petersburg to Havana to compete for a world chess title. He never won it, although time and again he captured the highest honors in international meets, beating the greatest players: Lasker, Pillsbury, Blackburn, Steinitz and Tarrasz. Chigorin suffered two disastrous defeats in international tournaments held in Russia, and never recovered. One of his prominent chess contemporaries said, “He could only play well, but could never be chess-minded, and this weakness was his greatest weapon. This gave him self-confidence.” Yes, self-confidence brought him amazing victories, but chess had reached a scientific era—knowledge and theory were indispensable. Chigorin and other Russian players lacked both. But today the science of chess in the Soviet Union has grown to such dimensions that one Russian chess veteran, Nikolai Grekov, was recently given a scientific degree for his thesis, “Mikhail Chigorin and his chess theory.”
Alexander Alekhine, 53, a native of Moscow, holds the world title now. He began his career at Duesseldorf when he was 16. Believing chess in Russia was doomed to a slow death after the revolution, he left the country and landed among the white emigres. After Moscow became the Mecca of the chess world Alekhine on several occasions made tentative inquiries to find out whether he had any chance of returning home.
A similar fate befell another world-famous Russian player, Efim Bogoljubov. He married a rich heiress and settled in Germany. Twice he visited his homeland before the Nazis seized power, but afterwards entirely lost touch with Russia.
Just a quarter of a century ago Soviet chess began its victorious rise. This happened in a strange manner. Of all possible Soviet organizations which could be thought of as sponsoring the chess movement, the least probable “turned up trumps.” It was the military organization in charge of the universal pre-draft of military training where chess was included in the official program. Until then chess had remained chiefly within the limits of highbrows. Like all new movements in Soviet Russia, chess had to have its watchword, its battle-cry. Slogans were coined: “Chess is a mighty weapon of intellectual culture.”
The Russians followed the customary pattern of organizing things through congresses. The chess congress is not a chess tournament. On the agenda, and objects of lobbying at chess congresses, are organizational problems, ideological principles, theoretical doctrines, financial questions and ordinary private ambitions. At the earlier congresses the arguments would always revolve around whether chess should remain in the circle of the highbrows or whether the man in the street should be allowed to enter this realm. Champions of the first trend wanted to maintain the old chess clubs with high membership fees, a kind of entrance examination, and so on. Their case was hopeless. Lenin played chess. His closest colleagues played chess, and they wanted chess to become a game for all. Nothing could stop the tide. The state entrusted a sports committee to organize and patronize the chess movement.
An Expert at 14
The political aspect of this new movement was most rigid. The Soviet chess organization refused to accept the invitation of the International Chess association to join because, as one Soviet chess expert said, “The association though formally non-political, is actually hostile to the interests of the working class.” Similarly, the Soviet chess organization eventually broke its tie with the “Workers Chess International” on the grounds that “the reformists taking the lead were internationally undermining the true revolutionary and class unity of workers in the chess movement.” Finally the chess section established the “Red Sports International” and the Soviet chess movement recoiled within national boundaries, playing only sallies with some workers' chess clubs abroad.
Eventually, the Soviet chess leaders in 1925 held an international tournament in Moscow. The greatest bourgeois grandmasters were invited—Lasker, Capablanca, Marshall, Yates, Bogoljubov and others of similar calibre. Thus ended the isolation of Soviet chess or, to use political phraseology of the Russians, “Thus began the trend to enhance the interest for chess among the vast toiling masses.” A tournament organized by the government played an outstanding part in promoting the game in the U.S.S.R.
Few other events in Soviet home life during the past two decades have aroused such excitement as this tournament. It was held in the great hall of the Metropole hotel restaurant. The Soviet players scored low. The main drawback was lack of technique and inability to choose the most practical opening. But the Russians demonstrated their outstanding fighting spirit, which has since remained their chief feature when playing chess.
Among the onlookers was a 14-year-old Leningrad boy, Mikhail Botvinnik. Even at that tender age he qualified as a first category player. At 15 he won top place in a Leningrad tournament, and at 20, in 1931, became champion of the U.S.S.R. For the past 15 years he has firmly held this crown.
Botvinnik is a typical example of the development of the Russian theory of practice and perseverance. Ten years ago in Hastings, he showed a lack of the indispensable “sportive” training in prolonged chess struggles. But Botvinnik was not discouraged. He intensified his training and study.
The second Moscow international tournament, held 10 years after the first, with the world's leading players taking part, proved how Russians can make good their losses. Botvinnik shared the first and second places with Salo Flohr beating Emanuel Lasker and Capablanca. The title of “Grossmeister” was then conferred on him, and the people's commissar of heavy industry, Stalin's close friend, Sergo Ordzhonikidze, presented him with a car—a luxury difficult to obtain at that time.
When playing with Notti in Gham in 1936 against Alekhine, Capablanca, Reshevsky and other world champions, Botvinnik did not lose a single game. He topped the list with the famous Cuban and became the national hero. When he returned the government awarded him the order and badge of honor.
Only major official documents occupy as much space in the Soviet newspapers as reports of chess tournaments and matches. Headlines tell the story of everyday chess life in Russia; tournaments in the mountain auhls of Dagestan, in the kishlaks of Central Asia, in the Eskimo igloos of the northernmost extremities of the country.
Bold headlines may record chess tournaments among the delegates of the all-Union conference of Pig Breeders and Cow Milkers; a tournament among the 30 cities; women contending for the champion's title; or a brilliant victory over a U.S. team.
Now the war is over, as in pre-war days chess is coded in cables, letters, postcards—all adding to the burden of Soviet communications. In war, for security reasons, chess correspondence was suspended.
To all those who showed up at a tournament in tennis shoes and shorts or a pair of ratty jeans, Tashli Tailiev says “Eat your heart out.”
Mother is a Champ
FIFTEEN thousand collective farmers took part in one major rural chess tournament. The winner was an exotic personality—Tashli Tailiev, a Turkmenian. He was an absolutely untutored but prodigious player. Tashli displayed great genius in the middle of the game, but began with a very poor opening technique. When attempts were made to teach him the rudimentary theories of particular kinds of openings, unforeseen difficulties arose. Not only was he ignorant of chess symbols, but he was completely illiterate. He made a colorful figure at the tournament for he insisted on sitting in a chair with legs crossed in oriental fashion. He refused to wear shoes and not once did he take off his sheepskin cap.
Marshal Zhukov's chief of artillery, Lieut.-General Bogoljubov; Marshall Rokossovsky's chief of artillery, Lieut.-General Strendstrem; the late Berlin commandant, General Berzarin, and the Moscow military commandant, General Sinilov, are only a few of the generals who love chess, play themselves, and see to it that the army plays chess.
How is this tremendous development of chess explained officially and unofficially here? Whether you read Pravda or talk to the youngest chess fan, you will hear these solemn words: “We value chess because it is a game on the verge of science and art; because it contains the richest elements of artistic work. It develops methodical and logical minds and it affords vast scope for analytical abilities and for creative imagination. Yet before everything, chess is a fight. A tense fight, calling for great stamina and persistence, resolutions and an iron will.”
“Pravda” told its 5,000,000 readers: “Our great teachers, Karl Marx and Vladimir Illyich Lenin, played chess. This is an example for you.”
In all military hospitals chess is played either by the patients or by visiting masters of the game who demonstrate their skill and deliver reports and lectures with the aid of films and demonstration boards. In all units of the Red army, navy and air force chess is part of the official program of activities.
Seven hundred thousand men and women played in the Trade Union elimination chess contest in 1937. A similar but probably bigger event will take place shortly, I was told by a tireless chess veteran, Nikolai Zubarev, president of the chess section of the government's sport and physical culture committee, and heart and soul of his section.
The U.S.S.R.'s woman champion is Olga Rubtsovana, 35, mother of three children and an engineer-metallurgist. She started playing when she was 17 and lost the championship only once when Olga Semyonova was the winner, and has held it, with that one lapse, ever since. Rubtsovana's style is aggressive and marked with certain combinations of talent.
Semyonova, who at 30 holds a statistician's job in Leningrad, comes third best against Elizaveta Bykova. Bykova is on the staff of the Soviet newspaper Moscow Bolshevik, and is active not only at the chess-board but in the movement generally. She holds the positions of secretary of the chess and checkers sections of the National Physical Culture and Sports committee. She served as secretary of the U.S.S.R.-U.S. radio chess match. Recently she won for the third time running the Moscow women's championship.
On the second day of the U.S.S.R.-U.S. tournament, organizers, captains, seconds, referees, secretaries, cooks, and waiters, became, like the players, so absorbed in the game that they forgot all about the food! In the sealed room where 10 players sat closely huddled over their chess-boards throughout the evening and the small hours of the morning, nobody thought to order food anyway. They existed on slices of bread which an absent-minded Stalingrad player happened to bee carrying in his pocket. They squabbled in turns for the crusts while dealing chess blows to their opponents.
Botvinnik says he and his companions want a similar game with a British team. Russian players are itching to meet the British. With 700,000 tournaments already recorded, with chess played virtually day and night, among the high and lowly, from Minsk to Vladivostok, from Seyernay Semla to the borders of Afghanistan, Botvinnik severely criticized “insufficient sway of chess in this country!” He categorically demands that chess clubs, chess circles and chess societies and associations be established wherever they have not yet appeared. He demands an increase in the output of chess articles. He urges the mass production of chess sets from plastics. He tells trade union leaders that they are not doing everything possible to spread chess. Every man, woman and child in the Soviet Union must play chess! This is Botvinnik's life ambition. (Copyright, 1946, The Star Weekly)
Subtext: They regard you as uncivilized in Russia if you can't play chess—a game that occupies dinner hours, theatre intermissions and even beauty parlor time
The Toronto Star, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, February 16, 1946
The Association of American Chess Masters, headed by its president, Edward Lasker, is supporting a move to hold a world championship tournament in Los Angeles. The doubtful status of the present champion, Dr. Alekhine, is proving to be a stumbling block, however, inasmuch as the prospective participants are reluctant to compete against Dr. Alekhine until such time as he is cleared of suspicion as a Nazi collaborator.
February 28 1946
The Citizen, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, Thursday, February 28, 1946
World Chess Match For Britain
Lisbon, Thursday: The world Chess champion, Dr. Alekhine, to-day accepted a challenge to play the Soviet champion, M. Botvinnik, in England. The match was arranged by the British Chess Federation, whose President; Mr. Derbyshire, notified Dr. Alekhine that “Moscow is putting up the necessary money.” The date is not yet fixed. -A.P.
March 01 1946
The Hamilton Spectator, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Friday, March 01, 1946
England to Get Chess Tourney
London, March 1.—(Reuters)—The world chess championships will probably be decided in England this year.
Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian champion has asked the British Chess Federation to arrange a match for him with Dr. Alexander Alekhine, world title holder.
The challenge originally was issued and accepted in 1939, but the outbreak of war prevented the match.
Moscow Chess Club has undertaken to finance the match by putting up £2,500 ($11,125), two-thirds of which will go to the winner.
The championship has not been decided since 1937, when Dr. Alekhine beat Dr. Max Euwe, of Holland.
March 03 1946
The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, Sunday, March 03, 1946
Botvinnik Challenges Alekhine
On Thursday word came through International News Service that Dr. Alexander Alekhine, present chess champion, had accepted a challenge for a world championship match from Mikhail Botvinnik, the Soviet champion. No details were given as to time and venue. Chess followers will see in this challenge a distinct threat to the title, one which will require all the former skill of Alekhine to ward off.
March 04 1946
The Evening Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, Monday, March 04, 1946
A Challenge Offered
The prospect of an international match for the world's chess championship has taken on reality with the request made of the British Chess Federation by Mikhail Botvinnik, the Soviet Union's "“absolute champion,” as he is called, to arrange a match with Alexander Alekhine. The winner would receive a prize of more than $6,000 in addition to the title.
If such a match is played it will be the first in eight years, and it would pit one Russian master against another, for Alekhine, though long a citizen of France, is Russian born. Interestingly enough, he is the only Russian who has ever held the championship. It would also provide a supreme test for Botvinnik, who heads a group of Soviet Russian players of exceptional skill. None of them competed in the recent Hastings and London international tournaments—captured, respectively, by a Pole who, like Alekhine, makes, his home in France, and by an American. But last September this Russian team won a four set of games by radio with America's best players by a crushing score.
For that matter, Alekhine did not appear in the recent English tournaments either, and it has been a long time since his supremacy was challenged. He took the title from the late José Capablanca in 1927 and held it until 1935, when he was beaten by the Dutch master, Max Euwe. Two years later a thing unprecedented in the history of the chess championship happened—Alekhine regained the title in a return match with Euwe. He has not risked it since.
If Botvinnik should defeat Alekhine, he would be only the sixth man to hold the title in 78 years of recognized play. What his chances are it would be difficult to say. Alekhine is still a genius, no doubt. But Botvinnik must be amazingly good to hold the place he does in a nation of talented players. Besides, he is younger than his opponent. This last point is by no means irrelevant. In its higher reaches chess is a sport that demands stamina quite as much as experience.
Evening Telegraph, Derby, Derbyshire, England, Monday, March 04, 1946
Derby May Get World Chess Game
Efforts are to be made for one of the matches in the world chess championship to be played at Derby.
THIS news was given by Mr. W. Thatcher, chairman of Derbyshire Chess Association, to a “Telegraph” representative to-day following an announcement at the North Derbyshire v. South Derbyshire match at Matlock on Saturday, which marked the inauguration of the association.
Alderman J. N. Derbyshire, of Nottingham, chairman of the British Federation, announced at the match that he had arranged for the world's championship between Dr. Alekhine (France), the holder, and M. Botvinnik (Russia) to take place in Britain.
Daily Mirror, London, London, England, Monday, March 04, 1946
£2,500 Chess Match
The £2,500 chess challenge from M. Botvinnik, Russian champion, has been accepted by Alekhine, the world title holder.
March 08 1946
The Waco Times-Herald, Waco, Texas, Friday, March 08, 1946
OKEH ON CHAMPIONSHIP CHESS MATCH BY RED, ENGLISH STAR PENDING
LONDON, March 8—UP—The British chess federation announced today that it would decide on March 23 whether world Chess Champion Alexander Alekhine will be permitted to meet the Russian champion, Mikhail Botwinnik in England.
Botvinnick has challenged for the title and asked the federation sponsor the match. Alekhine, who is now in Spain, accepted. The chess federation may refuse because of Alekhine's alleged pro-axis sentiments during the war. Alekhine allegedly refused to testify in behalf of a Polish chess master who was executed by the nazis.
March 09 1946
March 16 1946
Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah, Saturday, March 16, 1946
U.S. Chess Players Will Face Hard Fight In Moscow, Says Champ
(Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion, has contracted to play a title match with the Russian master, Mikhail Botvinnik in London in the near future. He wrote the following story for International News Service as a preview of next summer's American-Russian chess tournament in Moscow.)
By Alexandre Alekhine
World Chess Champion
LISBON—(INS)—Unless United States players devote themselves entirely to playing and living chess, they will lose the impending Russo-American tournament in Moscow.
Lack of wholehearted concentration on the game was main reason the American team was defeated in its recent radio-operated match with the Soviet masters.
Those games were played at night, and the Americans appeared at the broadcasting studio tired from a day's work—from a day spent in ordinary living.
The Russians, on the other hand, lived in the studio during the sessions. They discussed various openings, opponents' style, and kept their minds free of everything but the intricacies of the eternal game.
That almost fanatical concentration on the sport is certain to be employed by Russia before the summer international tournament.
Learn From U. S.
Chess books and magazines imported from America will be poured over, new Russian books of analysis will be published, and before the American players arrive their techniques will be familiar throughout the USSR.
The Americans, if they follow past performances, will arrive in the strange atmosphere of Moscow completely unprepared for the brilliant style of play they will encounter.
Chess is Russia's national pastime. Its lore is known even to urchins on the streets. And that's why Moscow is now the first chess center of the world.
It is interesting for an old hand at the chessboard like myself to note that the end of World War II saw the victorious nations possessing the globe's ace chess players.
For after World War I it was the losing countries that produced champions. The double dose of defeat seems to have crushed the spirit it takes to play winning games.
Spain Has Genius
Good as the Russian players are today, there is one young genius now playing who stands every chance of some day winning the world's chess championship.
He is Spain's 14-year-old wonder, Arturo Pomar—familiarly known in chess circles as “The Little Great Pomar.”
Pomar's masterly playing at recent international matches in London and Hastings, England, caused a sensation.
Unfamiliarity with British surroundings kept Pomar from reaching the pinnacle. The same hazard must be met by the American team in Moscow.
Russians Very Good
The Russians are good, very good. And right now is the time for the U. S. players to go wholeheartedly after defeating them.
It will be too late to prepare while in Moscow.
Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Saturday, March 16, 1946
ADAMS: Dr. Alekhine To Defend Chess Crown
By CASWELL ADAMS
International News Service
NEW YORK, March 16. It was a cold night in November, 1932, and we were all up at a local armory. The occasion was a chess match, or chess matches, between Dr. Alexander Alekhine, world boss at this intricate pastime, and 200 experts, perched on the rims of boards.
Dr. Alekhine, by five in the morning, had beaten all except one of the 40 boards of four men posed against him. They were the West Point officers. The others were check-mated early.
But, the picture was of Alekhine, a serious White Russian, stalking with leather heels, around the gigantic circuit of the opponents. His left hand was held to his cheek as if in ponderous thought. His right was ready to move a piece at each board he came to. He never came to a stop.
Game of Intricate Moves
And you should have seen the befuddled look on the faces of the others when he would make a move that would stifle them.
Chess, up to that moment, had been a baffling thing to this observer. From that moment on, it was more baffling than ever. How on earth could a guy walk from table to table, disassociate his mind from the preceding table, four feet behind, and make the correct move?
Alekhine has been boss of the world's most complicated sport since 1927, when he pulverized the late Jose Capablanca in Buenos Aires in 34 games.
This summer he will, at last, put his title as world's master on the line against Mikhail Botvinnik, the Russian champ.
Botvinnik has been a master of ability for the last eight years and last September astounded the chess world by leading a Soviet team to radio victory over our best thinkers.
The boys who know their pawns and castles say that if there is anyone in the world who can topple Alekhine, Botvinnik's the Slav who can do it.
Underwritten By Moscow
The chess moguls of Moscow will underwrite the match and the masters will scowl at each other in London. That is international in itself. And the details will be worked out by the British Chess Federation, with the International Chess Federation, still in the state of postwar reorganization, cooperating.
There will be at least 30 games, and the first winner of six games, draws not counting, will be the boss of the world. And five hours will be the limit for a game. When Alekhine beat Capablanca, he did it 6-3, with 25 games drawn.
Queens pawn to king three!
March 17 1946
Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Sunday, March 17, 1946
Chess Relations—Unless United States players devote themselves entirely to playing and living chess, they will lose the impending Russo-American tournament in Moscow, Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion, said in Lisbon, Portugal. Lack of concentration on the game was the main reason for American defeat in the recent radio-operated match with the Soviet players, Alekhine said. A possible winner of the chess crown in the future, is the Spanish boy wonder, Arturo Pomar, 14, he added.
March 24 1946
Sunday News, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Sunday, March 24, 1946
INTERNATIONAL THINK FEST due in Moscow—the forthcoming contest between Russians and Americans, could use better American players, and so offers a challenge to Lancaster and other spots where enthusiasm for the game is strong, according to Alexandre Alekhine, world chess champ. The Russians are experts from cradle to grave, says Alekhine. The Red Rose Chess Club which has developed here over a period of years should find the challenge at least stimulating as fans of the world's most “international” game started back in the dimmer pages of history. Here are some local players trying their skill.
March 25 1946
Note: According to Chess Columnist Lawrence Day, Saturday, February 05, 2000, Toronto Star, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: “The Portuguese coroner who signed off on his (choked on-fishbone/heart-attack) death certificate later admitted that Alekhine was murdered.”
Yet not one of the alleged “sins” in Lawrence Day's overtly biased list, justifies murder.
Alexander Alekhine, March 25, 1946. Take note that Alekhine's right hand is not gripping a piece of meat. All fingers are loose and wide open… and who eats a beefsteak dinner while dressed in their heavy winter overcoat?
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, St. Louis, Missouri, Monday, March 25, 1946
Alexander Alekhine Chess Marvel Dies
Lisbon, Mar. 24 (AP). Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, 53, world chess champion, was found dead today in his hotel room at Estoril, near here. Physicians said his death was due to heart disease.
A native of Russia, Alekhine had participated in international chess matches since he was 16. Lately he bad been working on his book of memoirs and training with the Portuguese chess champion, Francisco Lupi, prior to meeting the Russian champion, Michael Botvinnik, in England.
He was born in Moscow, studied law at Petrograd, now Leningrad, and entered the Foreign Office of Czarist Russia in 1914. During World War I he served as a Red Cross worker at the front. After the war he emigrated to France.
Alekhine participated in about 30 international chess tournaments. He established world records for blindfold chess in New York in 1924, Paris in 1925 and Chicago in 1933.
He won his first world championship from Jose R. Capablanca of Cuba in 1927. He defended his title successfully in 1928 and 1934, lost it to-Dr. Max Euwe of Holland in 1935, but rewon it from him in 1937. In 1930 Alekhine established a world-record score in the San Remo tournament.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia, Monday, March 25, 1946
Dr. Alekhine, Chess Wizard, Dies in Spain
World Champion, 53, Was Born in Russia
LISBON, March 24,—(AP)—Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, 53, world chess champion, was found dead today hotel room at Estoril, near here. Physicians said his death was to angina pectoris.
A native of Russia, Alekhine had participated in international chess matches since he was 16. Lately he had been working on his book of memoirs and training with the Portuguese chess champion, Francisco Lupi, prior to meeting the Russian champion, Michael Botvinnik, in England.
He was born in Moscow, studied law at Petrograd (Leningrad) and entered the foreign office of Czarist Russia in 1914. During World War I he served as a Red Cross worker at the front. After the war he emigrated to France.
Alekhine participated in about 30 international chess tournaments. He established world records for blindfold chess in New York in 1924, Paris in 1925 and Chicago in 1933.
He won his first world championship from Jose R. Capablanca, of Cuba, in 1927. He defended his title successfully in 1928 and 1934, lost it to Dr. Max Euwe, of Holland, in 1935, but rewon it from him in 1937. In 1930 Alekhine established a world record score in the San Remo tournament.
Alekhine was able to continue his international tournaments, with some interruptions, during the war years.
He wrote many books on chess.
North Bay Nugget, North Bay, Ontario, Canada, Monday, March 25, 1946
NOTED CHESS CHAMP DIES NEAR LISBON
Lisbon, March 25—Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, 53, several times holder of the international chess title, died yesterday of angina pectoris in his hotel room at nearby Estoril.
Born in Moscow, Dr. Alekhine began competing in international chess matches when he was 16 and first won the world title in 1927.
Answering charges of anti-semitism and pro-Nazi sympathies, Dr. Alekhine said recently that articles under his signature appearing in wartime German newspapers were written under duress. He had remained in Vichy, France, until the liberation when he went to Lisbon.
An invitation was extended to him to play in the victory tournament at Hastings, England, last Christmas, but this was retracted after British and American protests. Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian champion, signed an agreement a few weeks ago to play a $10,000 match for the world's title with Alekhine in England.
Dr. Alekhine had lost the title to Dr. Max Euwe of the Netherlands in 1935 after winning it in 1927. He regained the title in 1937 and was the recognized holder when the Second Great War broke out.
Born in 1892 of wealthy parents, he attended military school and obtained a law degree at the imperial law school at St. Petersburg. He left Russia after the First Great War and became a French citizen.
Dr. Alekhine's chess career was marked by sharp rivalry with Jose Raoul Capablanca, the Cuban champion, from whom he won the championship in 1927.
The Daily Telegraph, London, Greater London, England, Monday, March 25, 1946
ALEKHINE DIES AT CHESS BOARD
LISBON, Sunday.
Dr. Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion, has died at Estoril, Portugal, aged 54. He was found crouched over a chess board. A doctor said he believed he had been dead since dawn yesterday.
It was later learned that he had committed suicide. It is believed that he lost a lot of money playing roulette in the Casino at Estoril.—Reuter and B.U.P. -P3.
The Daily Telegraph, London, Greater London, England, Monday, March 25, 1946
DR. ALEKHINE
Dr. Alexander Alekhine, the world chess champion, who died at Estoril, Portugal, yesterday, aged 54, was to have met the Soviet chess champion, M. Botvinnik, in a challenge for world title in London next February. The British Chess Federation had accepted the invitation of the Moscow Chess Club to be stake-holder and to organise the match.
Dr. Alekhine was the son of a wealthy Moscow family and was sentenced to death after the revolution, but was later pardoned and escaped to France. He became a naturalised Frenchman.
Described as one of the most brilliant players of all time, the master won the Russian amateur chess championship at the age of 16. He was world champion from 1927-35, and regained the title in 1937. He played many exhibition games, including matches against 300 opponents simultaneously in Paris in 1932. In 1933, at the Chicago World Fair, he played 32 simultaneous games blindfold. winning 19, drawing nine and losing four.
Daily Herald, London, London, England, Monday, March 25, 1946
Alekhine Dies At Chess
DR. ALEXANDER ALEKHINE, world chess champion, who once played 300 opponents simultaneously, was yesterday found dead, crouched over a chessboard in his hotel at Estoril, Portugal. He died of a heart disease. Alekhine, who was 54, was to have met the Soviet champion Botvinnick in a title match in London next year.
The world champion—a Russian by birth who became a naturalised Frenchmen—was accused of becoming pro-Nazi during the German occupation of Paris.
Articles denouncing the “Jewish Spirit in Chess,” appeared in the Nazi-controlled “Pariser Zeitung” under his name. He denied authorship.
A resolution passed at a meeting of chess players in London recently challenged him to return to France and justify himself.
The Daily Herald, Monongahela, Pennsylvania, Monday, March 25, 1946
Dr. Alekhine, World's Chess Champion, Dies
Lisbon, March 25—(UP)—Dr. Alexander Alekhine, 54, who became the world's champion chess player in 1927 by defeating the great Capablanca, died yesterday of a heart ailment.
(The London Daily Mirror said that Alekhine had been in training with Francisco Lupi, the Portuguese chess champion, in preparation for a world title match at London with Mikhail Botvinnik, the Russian challenger.)
Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat, Muskogee, Oklahoma, Monday, March 25, 1946
Alexander Alekhine, Champion of Chess World, Found Dead
LISBON, March 24—(UP)—Alexander Alekhine, 54, Russian-born world chess champion, was found dead today in a hotel room at Estoril seaside resort near here. He had been suffering from heart disease.
Alekhine, who was also famous as blindfold chess player, won the world championship in 1927 and held it until 1935. He won again in 1937 and had not since been defeated in international competition. He also held the blindfold title in 1924, 1925 and 1933.
According to the London Daily Mirror, Alekhine had been working on his memoirs and also had been in training with the Portuguese champion, Francisco Lupi, to meet the challenger for the world title, Botvinnik, in London.
Alekhine was the author books including “My Best Hundred Games,” “On the Way to the World Championship,” and “Deux Cents Parties d'Echecs.”
Liverpool Echo, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, Monday, March 25, 1946
Dr. Alekhine's Death
Lisbon, Monday.
Reports that Dr. Alekhine, world chess champion, committed suicide because of gambling debts, were stated, to-day to be incorrect.
The report said he had been playing at the Estoril Casino, which is well known to British cruising tourists.
Dr. Alekhine contributed more to the game of chess than any of the other world chess masters in the last 20 years. He had a brilliant imagination and scorned the conventions of the game.
Des Moines Tribune, Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, March 25, 1946
Chess King Dead, World Meet Set
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, March 25—(AP)—Dr. A. Rueb, president of the World Chess Organization, said Monday the successor to the late Dr. Alexander Alekhine as world champion would be determined in a forthcoming tournament to be held in the United States.
Alekhine, 53, was found dead in his Estoril, Portugal hotel room Sunday.
Dr. Max Euwe, Dutch schoolmaster who took the world title from Alekhine in 1935 and lost it to him again in 1937, said he thought Russia might claim the world crown for Mikhail Botvinnik, last player to challenge Alekhine. Dr. Euwe added that he favored an open tourney to determine the new champion.
The Gloucestershire Echo, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, Monday, March 25, 1946
Alekhine Played In Cheltenham
Dr. Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion, died yesterday of a heart attack at Estoril, Portugal, aged 54. He was found crouched over a chess board.
Doctor Alekhine came to Cheltenham in 1923.
He played eleven games with Cheltenham Chess Club simultaneously and blindfolded.
He won ten of the games, but the late Mr. H. A. Foxwell defeated him in the eleventh.
Irish Independent, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, Monday, March 25, 1946
Death Of World Chess Champion
“ONE of the most brilliant players of all time,” was the tribute paid by Mr. J. Dumont, Editor of the British Chess Magazine, to Dr. Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion who was found dead yesterday in a hotel at Estoril, Portugal.
Mr. Dumont added: “At a time when the game was threatened with stagnation Dr. Alekhine's genius showed new paths to follow, and the rejuvenation of chess since the twenties is undoubtedly due to him.”
Dr. Alekhine was to have played Mr. M. Botvinnik, champion of the U.S.S.R., in a match for the world title in Britain next year.
Dr. Alekhine was world chess champion from 1927 until 1935, when he was defeated by Dr. Max Euwe, of Holland. It is almost unknown for a chess champion, once defeated, to regain the title, but Dr. Alekhine went into strict training and defeated Dr. Euwe in 1937, and since held the title.
Born of a wealthy Moscow family, Dr. Alekhine won the Russian amateur championship at 16. After the revolution he was sentenced to death, but later pardoned. He escaped to France and became a naturalized Frenchman.
In February, 1932, in Paris, he played 300 opponents simultaneously, and the following year, at the Chicago World Fair, he played 32 simultaneous games blindfold, won 19 of them, drew nine, and only lost four.
Le Devoir, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Monday, March 25, 1946
Il succombe à une attaque cardiaque
A Lisbonne, le docteur A. Alekhine, 53 ans, champion du monde aux échecs, a été trouve mort dans sa chambre d'hotel à Estorill, pres d'ici, en fin de semaine. Les medecins ont déclaré que son décès avait été causé par une attaque d'angine. Depuis quelques mois, Alekhine pratiquait avec le champion due Portugal, Francisco Lupi, en vue du match qu'il devait disputer au champion de Russie, Michael Botvinnick, en Angleterre, sous peu.
He succumbs to a heart attack
In Lisbon, Dr. A. Alekhine, 53, world chess champion, was found dead in his hotel room in nearby Estoril at the weekend. Doctors declared his death the result of an attack of angina. For several months, Alekhine had been practicing with Portuguese champion Francisco Lupi, in preparation for his upcoming match against Russian champion Michael Botvinnick in England.
The Province, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Monday, March 25, 1946
CHESS CHAMPION DIES—Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, 53, (left), world chess champion, died today in his hotel room at nearby Estoril, of angina pectoris.
A native of Russia, Alekhine had participated in international chess matches since he was 16. After the First Great War he emigrated to France. Above he is seen playing in an English tournament. The clocks times the moves.
March 26 1946
Chess King Dies 26 Mar 1946, Tue The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington) Newspapers.com
CHESS KING DIES: Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, world chess champion, was found dead in his room at a Lisbon hotel on Sunday. Doctors who were called said he was the victim of heart trouble. (S-R AP).
The Advertiser, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, Tuesday, March 26, 1946
World Chess Champion Dies Crouched Over Board
A. A. P. and Our Special Representative
London, March 25.
Dr. Alexander Alekhine, chess champion of the world, died at Lisbon yesterday crouched over a chessboard. He was 54.
According to a report from Lisbon, Dr. Alekhine is believed to have committed suicide following heavy losses at roulette. Another report says that he died of heart failure.
He was due to visit London early next year to defend his title against the Russian champion Botvinnik.
To the average chess player the feats performed by Alekhine sound like witchcraft. In February, 1932, in Paris, he played 300 opponents simultaneously, rushing from board to board and playing at such speed that his moves averaged 100 ft a minute.
At the Chicago World Fair in July, 1933, he played 32 opponents simultaneously blindfold, won 19 of the games, drew nine and lost only four. He invented new methods of attack and defense and had an uncanny gift for forcing his opponent to play his own type of game.
Alekhine was a Russian, born in 1892 of a wealthy Moscow family. When only 16 he was first in the Russian amateur class championship. Destined for the army, he went to the Military School in St. Petersburg but still found time to play chess.
He was actually playing in a tournament in Mannheim in 1914 when the first World War began, and was interned by the Germans. He managed to escape and got back to Russia and fought in Galicia.
After the Bolshevist revolution Alekhine was arrested and sentenced to death. Trotsky came to play a farewell game of chess with him. The temptation to let him win must have been great, but Alekhine remained true to his skill and defeated Trotsky severely. Trotsky thereupon pardoned him. Alekhine escaped to France and became a naturalised Frenchman. He also took his degree as Doctor of Laws. But chess was his main interest and it brought him a good income.
In 1927 he won the world championship from Capablanca and held the title until 1935, when he was defeated by Dr. Max Euwe, of Holland. It is almost unknown for a chess champion once defeated to regain the title. But Alekhine went into strict training, gave up smoking (he had been a chain smoker), lived largely on the milk of a pedigreed cow, and defeated Dr. Euwe in 1937.
From this time his record was one of almost unvaried success. He toured England and Scotland in 1938, and, during one week, in five displays, he won 118 games, drew eight and only lost two. One of his best opponents on this tour was a 12-year-old girl of Twickenham who actually held the champion for four hours. Next year he went to South America and repeated his triumphs everywhere.
During the German occupation of Paris, Dr. Alekhine played 50 simultaneous games with the Germany army, of which he won 40, drew six and lost four.
Dr. Alekhine did not compete in the world tournament in London in January. He was alleged to have helped the German radio during the war. He was invited to compete and accepted, but the invitation was canceled because other players threatened to withdraw if he competed.
The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Tuesday, March 26, 1946
DEATH DURING GAME
Chess Master
LONDON, March 25 (A.A.P.).—Dr. Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine, several times world chess champion, died while crouched over a chessboard.
Alekhine was born in Moscow 54 years ago. He learned chess at an early age, and at 21, became world famous by winning third prize at the great masters' tournament in St. Petersburg in 1914. Only Lasker and Capablanca finished ahead of him.
The first world war broke out during a masters' tournament in Germany. The players were interned, but Alekhine, escaped and joined the Russian Army. After the revolution he went to France.
In 1927 a match against Capablanca was arranged, and when the hitherto invincible Cuban was defeated, 6 to 3, with 25 draws, Alekhine was acclaimed as one of the greatest players of all time.
In the following 10 years Alekhine reigned supreme, but his star did not shine so brightly during the final decade of his life.
The Morning News, Wilmington, Delaware, Tuesday, March 26, 1946
Dr. Alekhine
The death of Dr. Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion, brings to an end a glittering career in that restricted but nevertheless far-flung world where command of the movements of pawns and pieces on a checkered board can bring the practitioner international renown.
Dr. Alekhine was unquestionably one of the few great chess masters of our time. Some experts say he was the greatest of them all, basing their estimate on the many tournaments he won, on his victories over all rivals in world championship matches, and also on his contributions to the theory of the ancient game. And even those who would give first place to others are frank to admit that he had few superiors.
He was not always consistent. After he had won the world championship from Capablanca he lost it to Dr. Max Euwe of The Netherlands. In the return match, however, he recovered it in a series that clearly demonstrated his right to the title. Yet in 1938, in the AVRO tournament in Holland, he finished fourth.
His fame was dimmed when, during the war, two articles bearing his name were published in a German chess publication. Both contained attacks on Jewish chess masters and on the “Jewish influence” in chess. These articles were written in Paris during the German occupation and he has explained since that the Nazis twisted them to suit their purpose.
In any event, among the devotees of the game and among those who play it occasionally for recreation, his name stands on the highest level both as a match player and a student who contributed much to its fascinating strategy.
Liverpool Daily Post, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, Tuesday, March 26, 1946
Dynamo
ALEKHINE’S memorial service consisted in widespread tribute in chess circles yesterday to his dynamic influence on the game. To that influence the marked contemporary popularity of chess is largely due. He brought to it an essentially intuitive and improvisatory genius. He freed it from the prison of theory into which it had been shut by Capablanca and (except in those who like all their jokes to be old) dispelled the legend that chess is an arid intellectual exercise.
Hartford Courant, Hartford, Connecticut, Wednesday, March 27, 1946
ALEXANDER ALEKHINE
The recently announced death of Dr. Alexander Alekhine, who was world chess champion since 1927 save for a brief two year interlude, should bring to a close the controversy that has raged about his head during the war years. No one has ever questioned the brilliance of the Russian born Alekhine, long a citizen of France, in manipulating the chessmen on the checkered squares. Indeed, many consider him the greatest player of all time. But his connections with the Nazis in the years of occupation, and his anti-Semitic writings, whether spontaneous or forced upon him, have cast a shadow over the name that once shone with luster.
American chess players, particularly the body of eager aspirants for a chance at the championship, have been increasingly vocal in recent years in expressing disapproval of Alekhine as a Nazi sympathizer. They have even urged that his title be declared void on the ground of his alleged pro-Nazi leanings. They forced his withdrawal from the two international tournaments held since the war by refusing to participate if he were invited. The actual extent of his association with the Nazis may not be known for years, if ever, but his death should end this dinghy chapter in the history of the age-old game and return it to its properly non-ideological status.
Just before his death, Alekhine had been challenged to a world title match by Mikhail Botvinnik, the Russian champion, presumably the strongest player living today. In lieu of this, the probabilities now are that a tournament will be held to determine his successor, with a dozen leading international masters participating. Such a method of succession to the title would constitute the only way to give representation to the several players of possible world championship caliber. All that remains is to select the masters deserving of such an opportunity, and to arrange the necessary financial backing—two tasks of no little difficulty.
Alexander Alekhine's place in the history of the world's oldest game is secure. An untiring innovator, a remarkable blindfold player, an unparalleled analyst and annotator, and the world's greatest contributor to chess theory, he fully deserved the title he held for so many years. Now he has rejoined Steinitz, Lasker, and Capablanca, his predecessors as world champions, and made way for a successor worthy of the same eminence.
March 27 1946
Irish Independent, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, Wednesday, March 27, 1946
THE death this week, at the early age of fifty-three, of Dr. Alexander Alekhine removes from the scene this generation's greatest genius of chess. Alekhine is, in fact, the only world champion to die still holding the title.
He was, need it be stressed, a Russian, the son of a Moscow patrician. He started playing chess as a boy, won his first prize in St. Petersburg at the age of sixteen, and traveled all the world to play in contests and give demonstrations.
Escape From Escape
HIS life traces a singular patters of physical escapes. During a tournament in Germany in the summer of 1914 the Great War broke out. Alekhine escaped a year later from the Baden Internment Camp to Russia; served on the Galician front, where he was severely wounded.
When the Red Revolution broke out he was arrested, and condemned to death because of his family's standing; escaped to Paris, where he settled down and became a naturalized Frenchman in 1921, graduating in his spare time as Doctor of Law at the Sorbonne.
From France he had to escape after the liberation. Having played in Germany during the World War, he was charged with collaboration, and thus he died in his second exile from exile, at lovely Estoril in neutral Portugal.
Record Champion
ALEKHINE won the world championship some twenty years ago from Cuban Capablanca; lost it eight years later to a Dutch teacher of mathematics, Dr. Euwe, but regained the title again within two years.
The Windsor Star, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Wednesday, March 27, 1946
DR. ALEXANDER ALEKHINE, world chess champion, who was found dead in a Portuguese hotel this week, was once imprisoned and condemned to death by the Bolsheviks but was freed on the intercession of a friend. In 1941 two articles bearing his name as the author were printed in German chess magazines. Both contained attacks on Jewish chess masters and the alleged “Jewish influence” in chess, couched in language typical of Nazi anti-Jewish outbursts. He was denounced throughout the chess world but, when he was later able to explain free of Nazi control, he declared the Germans had twisted his writings and inserted the dirty cracks. Dr. Alekhine, who had met and defeated such celebrities as Emanuel Lasker, Capablanca, Bogoljubov and Dr. Max Euwe, set a world blindfolded record of 24 games in 1924 and boosted it to 32 games at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933.
March 28 1946
Liverpool Daily Post, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, Thursday, March 28, 1946
Alekhine Choked To Death
Lisbon, Wednesday.—Dr. Alexander Alekhine, Russian-born world chess champion, who died on Saturday, choked to death with a piece of meat lodged in his throat, it was found at the autopsy to-day. He was dining alone in his hotel bedroom at Estoril.
Dr. Alekhine had been suffering from gastritis, but his heart, although unhealthy, did not cause his death, as was originally supposed.—Reuter.
The Citizen, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, Thursday, March 28, 1946
The “Fallen King”
Lisbon, Thursday: The Portuguese Chess Federation will organize a collection among chess players throughout the world to build a memorial over Dr. Alekhine's tomb in the form of a black chess board with a black king lying across it.
The memorial will bear the legend, “The Fallen King.”
The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia, Thursday, March 28, 1946
World Chess Champion Dies by Choking
Lisbon, Thursday.
An autopsy revealed that the world chess champion, Alekhine was choked to death.
Intimate friends stated that Alekhine preferred to dine alone. He never used a knife and fork. He died in his hotel bedroom with three inches of beefsteak lodged in his throat and clutching the remainder of the steak in his right hand.
The Star-Ledger, Newark, New Jersey, Thursday, March 28, 1946
Chess Star's Death Due to Choking
Lisbon (U.P.)—A bit of meat, lodged in his throat, caused the death of Alexander Alekhine, international chess champion it was officially announced yesterday.
Alekhine, who was found dead in his hotel room at a seaside resort near here Saturday, was first reported to have died of heart disease.
Chronicle, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, Thursday, March 28, 1946
World's Chess Champion
Mysterious Death Over Chessboard
London.—Dr. Alexander Alekhine, chess champion of the world, died at Lisbon on Sunday crouched over a chessboard. He was 54.
According to a report from Lisbon, Dr. Alekhine is believed to have committed suicide following heavy losses at roulette. Another report says that he died of heart failure.
He was due to visit London early next year to defend his title against the Russian champion Botvinnik.
Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Thursday, March 28, 1946
Dr. Alekhine's Passing Leaves Throne Vacant
By Hermann Helms
With the passing of Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, Franco-Russian master, at Estoril near Lisbon on Sunday, the position of chess champion of the world has suddenly become vacant. Only a short while before, negotiations had been begun for a title match between the champion and Mikhail Botvinnik the ace player of the Soviet. Moscow had offered to contribute $10,000 to the fund and the British Chess Federation had taken under advisement the question of sponsoring the contest. Had these plans been carried out, two natives of Russia would have competed for the title before the end of the year.
A report, emanating from Amsterdam, contained the proposition that Dr. Max Euwe of that city, who held the title for two years, 1935 to 1937, favored a tournament for the title among the ten most likely candidates, preferably to be held in America. Great Britain, however, is still to be heard from in this connection. Elbert A. Wagner Jr., of Chicago, president of the United States Chess Federation, expects that the International Chess Federation, now in process of reorganization, will place the matter on the agenda for its meeting to be held in Switzerland during the Summer. In case this is not done, then the U.S.C.F. officials will go into action.
The Advertiser, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, Thursday, March 28, 1946
Chess Champion's Death
Reports that Dr. Alekhine, the world's chess champion, committed suicide over gambling debts are incorrect, according to Lisbon sources. Dr. Alekhine, who collapsed while playing chess in Lisbon suffered from a weak heart, and doctors expected his death.
The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington, Thursday, March 28, 1946
Chess Champ Choked.
Lisbon, Portugal, March 27. (Reuters.)—Dr. Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion, who died on Saturday, choked to death when a piece of meat lodged in his throat, an autopsy disclosed today. The meat was three inches long and unchewed. He had been dining alone.
Daily Mirror, London, London, England, Thursday, March 28, 1946
Ate With Hands—Choked
Alekhine, world chess champion, was killed by his habit of eating with his hands instead of using knife and fork according to a post mortem in Lisbon where he died.
He preferred to eat alone said close friends and when found dead he was still gripping a lump of beefsteak in his right hand.
Cause of his death is officially recorded as “Asphyxiation due to obstruction of the breathing channels by a piece of meat.”
March 29 1946
Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Friday, March 29, 1946
STEELE: Alekhine's Death Leaves Void In Chess World
By WILLIAM STEELE
International News Service
NEW YORK. March 29.—Alexander Alekhine's death in Lisbon last weekend left the world chess throne untenanted. And no one knows today how or by whom it will be filled.
American and Russian players of the venerable game are already advocating that the long-used “match” system of selecting a new champion be abandoned in favor of tournament play embracing leading players from all over the globe.
They argue that under the old rules the champ could pick his own opponent for a title match, name his own time for play, and in general operate in a manner not conducive to chess interest.
United States players, and very probably USSR contenders, hope that a field of top-notch crown-seekers will be chosen by the International Chess Foundation when it meets in Zurich.
They hope also that the ICF will set a schedule of regularly-spaced tournaments that would keep the title fluid, boost interest in the game and give numerous contenders a crack at the No. 1 chess spot.
Kenneth Harness, managing editor of the magazine “Chess Review” and author of the book, “Invitation to System,” warns, however, that the Russian master, Mikhail Botvinnik, may claim the title by virtue of having contracted to play Alekhine shortly before he died.
U S. to Dispute Title Claim
Harkness does not feel that any such move would be considered seriously by the majority of ranking enthusiasts. He said U. S. masters of the chessboard would term “threadbare” any title claim made by the Russian without first meeting wide competition. Neither Harkness, nor any member of the important Marshall Chess Club in New York, would predict today who might win a tournament set by the ICF.
But it was generally agreed that Reuben Fine of Los Angeles and Samuel Reshevsky of Boston undoubtedly would be selected to represent America.
Harkness said that if the international body calls for more than two men from a single country, the U. S. probably would name the required number of top players from the American championships scheduled this fall.
Botvinnik, he said, would certainly represent Russia, “although the Soviets have at least 100 players in the ‘master’ category.”
Other bright spots on the chess championship horizon include Dr. Max Euwe of Holland, Miguel Najdorf of Argentina, and the Argentine champion, Hermann Pilnik.
Harkness, who managed the Russo-American radio-controlled matches last summer, said he hoped to see interest in championship play exceed that shown then. He argued:
“International chess tournament competition will do more for global goodwill than any amount of diplomacy.
“The struggle to fill Alekhine's high place will serve to bind, rather than strain, international trust and communication.”
The Jewish Press, Omaha, Nebraska, Friday, March 29, 1946
The Game of Chess
There is no question but that the game of chess loses one of its masters in the death of Dr. Alexander Alekhine. During the war Alekhine was charged with having gone over to the Nazis. His name was signed as author to articles in a German language paper, containing attacks on Jewish chess masters and the alleged &lquo;Jewish influence” couched in typical Nazi language. Alekhine later contended that the Germans had twisted his writings and added the offensive remarks.
Whether or not Alekhine was a Nazi, the very fact that the Germans felt called up to publish an article attacking the Jews in chess, shows clearly that Jews had attained a very prominent part in that game. Sometimes, chess has been called “Jewish baseball.” In the recent Russian-American tournament, most of the American players were Jewish.
Le Devoir, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Friday, March 29, 1946
A L'ETRANGER
Lisbonne, Portugal, 24 mars (A.P.)—A Lisbonne, a 53 ans, est decede le Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, champion mondial aux échecs. Depuis quelque temps, il travaillait a ka redaction de ses memories et s'entrainait avec le champion aux echecs portugais, Francisco Lupi, avant de rencontrer en Angleterre le champion russe, Michael Botvinnik. Un auteur Americanet en meme temps une autorite pour ce aui concerne le jeu d'echechs, Fred Reinfeld dit, il y a quleques annees: “Alexander Alekhine est indubitablement le plus grand maitres aux echecs de tout temps. Il a gagne plus de tournois de premiere class qu'aucun autre joueur; il fit plus qu'aucun autre homme pour enrichir la theorie du jue d'echecs; et il compte parmi la poignee des annotateurs hors-pair”. Il recut les elements du jeu d'echecs de sa mere et des son jeune age se montra tres competent. Apres une premiere victoire au tournoi amateur russe en 1909, il fut classe comme un maitre et il fut admis au rang de grand maitre en la matiere, lorsqu'il finit troisieme a Emanuel Lasker et fut conquerant de Capablanca au grand tournoi St. Petersburg. Il etait champion mondial du jeu d'echecs.
ABROAD
Lisbon, Portugal, March 24 (A.P.)—Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, world chess champion, has died in Lisbon at the age of 53. For some time, he had been working on writing his memoirs and training with the Portuguese chess champion, Francisco Lupi, before meeting the Russian champion, Michael Botvinnik, in England. An American author and authority on the game of chess, Fred Reinfeld, said a few years ago: “Alexander Alekhine is undoubtedly the greatest chess master of all time. He won more first-class tournaments than any other player; he did more than any other man to enrich the theory of chess; and he is numbered among the handful of outstanding annotators.” He received the elements of chess from his mother and from a young age showed himself to be very proficient. After a first victory in the Russian amateur tournament in 1909, he was ranked as a master and was admitted to the rank of grandmaster in the subject, when he finished third to Emanuel Lasker and conquered Capablanca in the great St. Petersburg tournament. He was world chess champion.
March 30 1946
Hartford Courant, Hartford, Connecticut, Saturday, March 30, 1946
Funeral For Dr. Alekhine.
Lisbon, March 29.—(AP.)—The Portuguese Chess Federation said today it would conduct a funeral for Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, who died March 24, to prevent burial of the world chess champion in a pauper's grave. Alekhine was a French citizen but the French consulate said it had no instructions or funds for his burial.
The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Saturday, March 30, 1946
Death of World's Chess Champion
By G. Koshnitsky
The death of Dr. Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine, chess champion of the world, will come as a great shock to the millions of his admirers spread over the civilized world.
Chess is the most international of games, and its devotees come from all classes of society. Chess players from Germany and Russia, Argentina and Iceland, Great Britain and New Zealand, those to whom chess is an overbearing passion and those who play the game for relaxation will all mourn this genius of the chequered board, the hero of innumerable battles.
Alekhine was born in Moscow on November 1, 1892. He was taught the game by his mother, and while at school became a keen correspondence player. As the boys were not permitted to bring chess sets to school, they played the game by visualizing the board and passing notes, with moves, to each other.
This ability to play without the sight of the board later helped Alekhine to capture the world's blindfold record of 32 simultaneous games.
At the age of 16 Alekhine won an important amateur tournament at St. Petersburg and became recognized as a master. His first international success came three years later when he won the first prize at Stockholm international tournament.
Alekhine attained world recognition by finishing third in the great St. Petersburg international tournament, in which every player was a famous master. Only Lasker and Capablanca were ahead of him.
Alekhine fought in the first world war with the Russian army after escaping from internment in Germany. He was seriously wounded.
In 1920 he won the first all-Russian tournament in Moscow, and the same year left Russia, never to return. He settled in France, became a French citizen, and took the law degree at the University of Paris.
During the six years following his departure from Russia, Alekhine took part in 20 international tournaments, of which he won 12 and was second in five.
In 1927 he defeated Capablanca for the world's title in the historic 34-game match at Buenos Aires. The match was closely followed in the Press of the world, causing tremendous public interest. The score was six to three, with 25 draws.
Alekhine's successes during the next seven years were phenomenal. The great tournaments at San Remo in 1930 and Bled in 1931 were his absolute triumphs. He disposed of the opposition, the cream of Europe's chess, with ease unknown in the annals of the game. He stood alone, and was hailed as the greatest player of all time.
Not content with his record as a player, Alekhine made a great name as a chess writer. His two volumes of his best games and several tournament books are renowned for lucidity of style and analyses. As a theoretician Alekhine has no equal, and his contributions to the lore of chess would have been sufficient to make him famous even if he were not a player.
Alekhine successfully defended his title against Bogoljubov in two matches—in 1920, 11 to 5 with 9 draws, and in 1934, 8 to 3 with 15 draws. His return match against Capablanca, although much discussed, never took place.
He was challenged by the Dutch champion, Dr. Max Euwe, and in 1935 the match, which caused a world sensation, took place. Alekhine was defeated eight to nine with 13 draws. The pundits were bewildered. The rank and file of chess players could hardly believe the news. Was Alekhine finished?
Two years later Alekhine supplied the answer. By playing some of the finest chess of his career he overwhelmed Euwe in the return match 10 games to four, with 11 draws.
But this was Alekhine's supreme effort, in the great tournaments of the pre-war years he was no longer outstanding.
At Nottingham, 1936, he finished sixth, behind Capablanca, Botvinnik, Reshevsky, Fine and Euwe. A year later at A.V.R.O. he was fourth behind Keres, Fine and Botvinnik.
During the war Alekhine was in occupied Europe and his chess activities during that period have been the subject of a heated controversy right up to the time of his death. Alekhine's answer to the charges of pro-Nazi sympathies is featured in the current issues of the world's chess Press.
He claimed that he was forced to play in tournaments to avoid starvation. To the most serious accusations—the authorship of a series of articles in which he propounded racial theories in relation to chess—his answer is that they were spurious and that his name was used without his knowledge or permission.
Alekhine was at first reported to have died while in the middle of a game of chess—a nobler and more befitting end than that (subsequently revealed by an official autopsy) of choking to death through an overdose of beefsteak.
The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Saturday, March 30, 1946
CHESS CHAMPION'S DEATH
Sir,—Portion, at least, of the cable from Lisbon about Dr. Alekhine's death published in the “Herald” of March 29 would appear to have been circulated by some of his many enemies.
The cable stated that Alekhine's “friends” said that he liked to have his meals alone, and that he never used a knife and fork.
This is flatly denied by Dr. Boris Eliacheff, Consul-General for France, who was Dr. Alekhine's host in America; also by Mr. Lajos Steiner, Australian chess champion, who stated that Alekhine's table manners were always perfect; and by Miss Dorothy Dibley, former woman chess champion of this State, who was at the same hotel as Alekhine for a fortnight, and dined at the next table.
Alekhine never dined alone, says Miss Dibley, and always used the customary utensils. Dr. Alekhine was the son of a Russian nobleman, a man of the highest culture, and a doctor of law. One awaits confirmation of the manner of his death, but his manners at table can be vouched for.
Sydney.
C. J. S. PURDY.
The Coromandel Times, Blackwood, South Australia, Australia, Saturday, March 30, 1946
Alekhine Dies World Champion
The death was reported from Lisbon last Sunday of Dr. A. Alekhine world chess champion at the age of 54. Late in 1939, Mr. G. S. A. Wheatcroft, a director of the British Chess Magazine wrote “Dr. Alekhine is one of the most magnetic and colorful personalities in the chess world; he lives for chess and is never too proud to play or talk about the game, however humble his opponent or audience.”
Twice world champion Alekhine incurred much disfavour by anti-Jewish articles published under his name in German occupied Europe, and his invitation to a Masters’ Tournament in London in January of this year caused so many threats to withdraw from the tournament that it was retracted.
Dr. Alekhine, a Russian by birth, has recently been living in Spain. His early death has resolved all arguments between his supporters and his ostracisers, and he has died an undefeated world champion.
Western Morning News, Plymouth, Devon, England, Saturday, March 30, 1946
STILL UNBURIED
Body Of Chess Champion Abandoned In Mortuary
The body of Dr. Alekhine is still unburied, having been abandoned in the Lisbon mortuary by French Consular officials. They claimed they had no funds and no instructions from Paris concerning the funeral of the world's chess champion, who was a naturalized French citizen.
To prevent burial in a pauper's grave the Portuguese Chess Federation has stepped in and will organize the funeral with the support of Lisbon Chess Clubs.—A.P.
March 31 1946
The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, Sunday, March 31, 1946
With the Chess and Checker Players
By David Robb
Dr. Alekhine Passes On
At the comparatively early age of 53 Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, world chess champion, died of heart trouble last Sunday in Estoril, near Lisbon, Portugal. Thus ended a brilliant chess career which was clouded throughout the war years by charges that he collaborated with the Nazis and that he had anti-Semitism leanings.
Dr. Alekhine became world champion at Buenos Aires in 1927 when he surprised the chess world by defeating the late Jose Capablanca, 5-3, with 25 draws. After sidestepping requests for a return match, Dr. Alekhine was challenged by Dr. Max Euwe of Holland in 1935 and lost the title to the Netherlands mathematician, nine games to eight. In a return match two years later Dr. Alekhine easily regained his title, winning, 11-6. He never risked his title again, although Capablanca consistently sought a rematch, and Salo Flohr of Prague was voted the official challenger by the chess masters. Before the Dr. Euwe match Bogoljobov challenged and was defeated.
During the war Alekhine lived in Vichy, France, and while there, in October, 1942, wrote in a Nazi-controlled newspaper that in the new era (when the Nazis hoped to be the No. 1 power in Europe) “the United States would have nothing to say in the world of chess.” Again, at an international tournament in Munich during the war, he stated such tourneys “stresses the leading role played by new Europe and marks the end of the, to say the least, inopportune interference of America in European chess questions.” Later, after the war, he asserted such statements were made under duress.
Dr. Alekhine was invited to participate in the last Hastings Christmas tournament, the one in which Denker and Steiner took part. However, the invitation was recalled after protests by American and British players, who refused to play if he were included.
Notwithstanding all this, one must admit Dr. Alekhine's chess greatness. His middle game was wellnigh perfect, and his end game was inferior to none. Reuben Fine, in his latest book, “Chess Marches On,” states it is likely Alekhine was not as good as he was five years ago. However, Fine also states that “it must never be forgotten that he was one of the greatest chess artists of all time.”
Dr. Alekhine visited this country in 1924 in the great New York tournament and finished third behind Dr. Lasker and Capablanca. Three years later he returned to New York and finished second in a tourney to Capablanca. Out of this came the challenge for a world championship match.
As a blindfold simultaneous player he was considered unsurpassed. In 1925 he played 12 experts at 28 boards, winning 22 games, losing three and drawing three. At the last World Fair in Chicago he gave a similar demonstration of his skill in this phase of the game. Alekhine was truly one of the chess greats.
Just a month ago he was challenge to a match by Botvinnik, the Russian master. The match was to take place in England and the stake was $10,000.
Typical Alekhine Finish
This game was played by Dr. Alekhine in a simultaneous exhibition in New York in 1924. The finish is beautiful. A double threat is alarming enough, but here we have three distinct threats of mate, a magnificent achievement. His opponent was Kussman.
Alexander Alekhine vs Leon Kussman
Simul, 18b (1924) (exhibition), Newspaper Club, New York, NY USA, Jan-13
Queen's Gambit Declined: Semi-Tarrasch Defense (D40) 1-0
15. … P-N3(a)—This allows a splendid termination.
16. Q-N5ch (b)—The surprise move. Either QxQ or N-B3 allows N-B6, mate.
17. KR-K1(c)—Again if QxQ, N-B6 mate.
17. … B-N5(d)—There does not seem to be anything better.
20. Q-K5 Resigns(e)—Mate is threatened in three places. A short, beautiful game.
Sunday Mirror, London, London, England, Sunday, March 31, 1946
Sunday Pictorial: Chess Was His Game but—He Choked on the Last Move He Made
THIS exclusive “Sunday Pictorial” picture of Dr. Alexander Alekhine tells the story of how the world's greatest chess champion died at his chessboard.
Suicide was suspected, but at the inquest in Lisbon it was decided he had been choked—choked by a lump of steak he had stuffed down his throat with his hands. [(This statement is a confirmed lie spread by enemies of Alekhine, according to friends of Alekhine. See the Letter to Editor) by C. J. S. Purdy]. For that was Alekhine's custom—feeding with his fingers—and for that reason he usually fed alone.
April 01 1946
The Shreveport Journal, Shreveport, Louisiana, Monday, April 01, 1946
Dr. Alexander A Alekhine, the Russian chess champion, was found dead in his bed a few mornings since. He was only 53. No doubt the game proved too strenuous.
April 02 1946
Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, Tuesday, April 02, 1946
INTERNATIONAL GAME
There are lovers of chess, and experts in the game, in most of the countries of the world. It is a global game, they say, because two men may play it without knowing a word of each other's language. International contests by telegraph, cable and radio are carried on regularly with the only requirement—a common knowledge of the symbols. Chess is a silent, thoughtful, non-argumentative game with the loser blaming no one but himself.
This is by way of remarking that within the week there died a man who was unknown to the great majority of us, but was yet admired to the point of extravagance by certain groups in many lands. He was Dr. Alexander Alekhine, called by one American authority, “the greatest chess master of all time.” He knew something of the inexhaustible possibilities of chess and, in his field, was a fellow “sportsman” with the world.
April 03 1946
The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Wednesday, April 03, 1946
Middle-Game Study No. 80
Black, having the move in this position, is to play and win. This is a gem from one of Alekhine's games.
VALE, ALEKHINE!
Dr. Alexander Alexandrovitch Alekhine, chess champion of the world, whose death was announced in the news early this week, was born in Moscow, on Nov. 1, 1892. He came of a wealthy Russian family. At 18, he had become a chess-player of repute, and in 1914, tied for first place in the all-Russian championship. At the great International Tournament at St. Petersburg. Alekhine placed third, following the giants Lasker and Capablanca.
Czar Nicholas II personally awarded to the five top-ranking players in that tournament the title of “Grandmaster of Chess”, and Alekhine was the last survivor of these five original “Grandmasters”.
At a tournament in Mannheim, Germany, late in July, 1914, Alekhine was already sure of first place, when World War I broke out, and he was interned. The wealth of his family was subsequently swept away in the Russian Revolution, and Alekhine became a refugee. He made his way to Paris, where he re-established himself by his chess ability, and later, became a French citizen.
In 1927, he won the World's Championship from Capablanca in an epic struggle, by a score of 6 to 3, with 25 draws, and unheard of number of draws in a chess match, up to that time.
In 1935, he lost his championship to Dr. Euwe of Holland, but regained it again in a return match in 1937. Alekhine was noted in play for his attacking style; his ability to exploit the most trifling advantage; and his profound intuition into opening strategy, which often enabled him to “set problems” for his opponents quite early in his games.
With the occupation of France in 1940, the Nazis rounded him up and he was afterwards accused of lending himself to their theories and anti-Semitic propaganda, in certain articles which were published under his name.
Later, Alekhine defended himself, alleging that the articles were not really his, merely published under his name by the Nazis, without his consent.
He was at all events, one of the greatest masters of chess, and as such, will remain immortal in the literature and history of the game.
Calgary Herald, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Wednesday, April 03, 1946
Alekhine Regarded As Greatest Chess Master
(From The New York Times)
Lovers of chess and chess history like to call the roll of the famous names: Philidor, Morphy, Anderssen, Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca. The mere recital thrills with the excitement of their battles, the beauties of their contributions to chess literature. And on Sunday these six deities of their little world were joined in the chess Valhalla by Alexander Alekhine.
It was he who won the world's chess title from Capablanca at Buenos Aires in 1927, and retained it until his death, except for the interval 1935-37, when Euwe, the Hollander, was champion. In addition to his prowess over the board, Alekhine was the originator, in his book of the 1924 New York tournament, of the modern exhaustive annotation of published games, and he was one of the finest of blindfold performers, twice establishing world first of 26, then of 32 games simultaneously without records, seeing the board.
Emanuel Lasker said that Alekhine possessed the “largest repertoire” of any master. He had an astounding memory for past performances and facility in the use of every style of play…
A man of superior intellect, capable, as was Capablanca, of success in other fields, the world champion could draw upon & volcanic store of nervous energy as he toiled in the checkered labyrinth. A strongly marked personality, of magisterial bearing, proud and jealous of his title, he presented a formidable figure in the chess world. A pity that it was clouded at the close by charges of Axis collaboration based on a tangle of incidents yet to be explained. Leaving that aside, however, and looking only at Alekhine's career as a chess master, no other name, not in the whole 1,000 years, can be placed ahead of his. The question is, Can any be placed beside it?
Brisbane Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Wednesday, April 03, 1946
Memorial to Chess King
LONDON, March 31: Chess fans will do the impossible and make the king “fall” to raise a memorial to the late world champion, Alexander Alekhine, who died in a Lisbon hotel.
Chess players throughout the world will be asked to subscribe to a memorial to Alekhine which will take the form of a black king lying on a chess board, with the inscription, “The Fallen King.”
Alekhine was the first man who died as world champion.
April 05 1946
The News-Herald, Franklin, Pennsylvania, Friday, April 05, 1946
THE INTERNATIONAL GAME
A man has died whose name was unknown to the overwhelming majority of Americans.
Yet it is probable that the death of Dr. Alexander Alekhine was prominently mentioned in the newspapers of nearly every country in the world. He was a great chess player, called by an American authority “the greatest chess master of all time.”
The ancient game of chess, though well played by comparatively few persons, has lately enjoyed a notable revival in all parts of the world. The Russians may have had much to do with it, for the game is tremendously popular in the Soviet Union and is said to have been encouraged there as good training in the art of war.
But chess is all the world's game, in part because it can be played without conversation. Two men can play a game of chess without knowing a word of each other's language.
International contests are common; enthusiasts play chess by correspondence, which requires only a common knowledge of symbols. The game is almost inexhaustible in its possibilities; it can be enjoyed by the novice, yet demands the utmost abilities of the master. It has been said that “life's too short for chess,” but many men have spent a lifetime learning and playing it.
April 06 1946
Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, Saturday, April 06, 1946
Boycotted Champion Takes the Final Count
Death came to a world's champion just as he faced the possibility of holding the title for the rest of his natural life, simply because no rival would meet him. This was Alexander Alekhine, chess champion since 1937. An exiled Russian, living in France and lately in Spain, he wrote laudatory articles about the Nazis. Consequently the leading chessplayers of Europe would have nothing to do with him. When he was invited to a London tournament in January, so much objection was raised that the invitation was withdrawn.
Alekhine's explanation was that his pro-Nazi articles were written under coercion, which might well have been true. But the players of his caliber in other countries were not satisfied and had he not died suddenly, he might have remained to the end of his days a champion without challengers.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, Saturday, April 06, 1946
Alekhine's Body Raises Border Problem
LONDON, April 5, A.A.P.—The body of Dr. Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion, whose death in Lisbon was announced on March 27, lies in a plain, wood coffin while the French and Spanish Foreign Offices decide whether it is to be allowed to be taken across the frontier of France and Spain (closed some weeks ago) for burial in France, reports the Lisbon correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Company.
Dr. Alekhine, who was born in Russia, became a naturalised French subject in 1927.
Doctors who examined Alekhine's liver after a postmortem examination had been conducted found to their astonishment that it was in perfect condition. Their astonishment was due to the fact that Alekhine had consumed two pints and a half of cognac every day.
Dr. Alekhine was reported to have been found dead crouched over a chess board. Later it was stated that he had been choked by a piece of meat.
April 17 1946
The Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho, Wednesday, April 17, 1946
Dutch Chess Master Wants World Tourney
AMSTERDAM (UP) - The Dutch chess master, Dr. Max Euwe, announced Tuesday that he has resigned as a high school teacher to devote all his time to winning back the world chess championship held by the late Dr. Alexander Alekhine, who died recently in Lisbon.
Euwe said he favors staging an International chess tournament in Los Angeles in 1947 to determine Alekhine's successor.
The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington, Wednesday, April 17, 1946
Chess King Pauper.
Lisbon, Portugal, April 16. (Reuter's).—Dr. Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion, who choked to death three weeks ago on a piece of meat, was buried here today. Since he was without funds, the Portuguese chess federation paid the funeral expenses.
Western Daily Press, Bristol, Avon, England, Wednesday, April 17, 1946
Alekhine, former world chess champion, who was found dead over his chess board in a Lisbon hotel three weeks ago, was buried yesterday, the Portuguese Chess Federation paying the expenses.—Reuter.
April 20 1946
The World's News, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Saturday, April 20, 1946
The news of Dr. Alekhine's death will be received by the chess players of Australia with a feeling of personal loss. This in spite of the fact that Alekhine has never visited this country and that very few Australians have had the privilege of meeting him personally.
Alekhine's life—his successes, his very infrequent failures, his outspoken opinions and numerous incidents of his private life (not all true), all this has been very much the public property; he has been news for so long that in him the chess players of the world have lost an intimate friend.
April 28 1946
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sunday, April 28, 1946
Checkmated in Ostracism By Roger Baum
Caption: This is how Dr. Alexander Alekhine was found with an unfinished meal and chessboard before him.
WHEN dyed-in-the-wool devotees of chess speak of Dr. Alexander A. Alekhine, they refer to him as “the master.” For he was to chess what Babe Ruth was to baseball and Man O' War to horse racing. In the most exacting game of all he was a stellar figure. Some experts rated him the greatest chess player of modern times; others said he was the greatest of all time. All agreed that while there may have been performers his equal during the 1000-year history of the game, none was his superior.
Just the other day, in a lonely hotel room at Estorial, near Lisbon, Portugal, Dr. Alekhine died at the age of 53. When a bellboy found the body it was wrapped in a heavy overcoat, as if to ward off the chill of the poorly-heated room. A sparse meal remained uneaten on the table, and on another table was a chess board, its knights and bishops and rooks in battle array. “Angina pectoris.” was given as the official cause of death. Later, an autopsy report revealed that the chess champion of the world had choked to death on a piece of meat which had lodged in his throat.
NEWS of the champion's passing left most of the chess world unmoved [is that personal opinion, really so?] for Dr. Alekhine's status had been clouded since the beginning of the war by charges that he was a Nazi sympathizer. He virtually was an outcast from the game [yes, by a small handful of outspoken who arrogantly presume to speak for everyone. Not a peep about the King David Hotel, July 22, 1946] and socially ostracized at the time of his death. Only last Christmas he had been invited to take part in a victory tournament in England, but the invitation had to be rescinded when every English and American player competing in the tourney threatened to withdraw if Dr. Alekhine competed.
The controversy grew out of two articles which were published under his name in a Continental chess magazine printed in German in 1941. Both contained attacks on Jewish chess masters, couched in language typical of Nazi outbursts. The natural result was a denunciation of Dr. Alekhine throughout the chess world. Some chess enthusiasts urged that judgment on the articles be withheld until the champion had an opportunity to speak freely in his own behalf. [Well for goodness sake, why wait, if you can't take his word post-war, when he provided affirmation he was under coercion, then why wait. Just take the word of Nazis. Never mind that Alexander Alekhine had a lifetime record of NOT saying such things. People tend to believe what they want to believe, or what the daily news tells them to believe.] “The accuracy of the quotations cannot be taken for granted so long as the Nazis have control of publication on the Continent,” they said.
After the liberation of France, Dr. Alekhine insisted that he had written the articles under duress. The essays had been garbled, he maintained, and the statements which had caused the furor had been interpolated without his consent. But the champion's disavowals did little to salve the bitterness, for most of the doubters appeared still to be unimpressed.
NOR was his retirement to Portugal last year accepted at face value by his critics. A naturalized citizen of France, he had been allowed to remain in that country, apparently unfettered, throughout the German occupation. But when the Germans were driven out, Dr. Alekhine went to Portugal, ostensibly to write his memoirs. “If he had nothing to hide,” remarked his critics, “why did he leave France?” [Probably to avoid assassination by zealots but zealots travel, even into Portugal.] Dr. Alekhine gave no answer. Just before his death, he announced that he was preparing to meet Mikhail Botvinnik, champion of Soviet Russia, in a $10,000 world championship match in London.
He had ranked as master of the game over which he ruled from 1927—with a lapse between 1935 and 1937—until the time of his death.
BORN in Moscow in 1892, Alexander Alekhine won his first amateur chess tournament in that city in 1909, and was awarded the title of “master.” Five years later, he received his law degree and celebrated by attaining the rank of “grand master” at chess by finishing third to Emanuel Lasker, of Germany, then world champion, and Jose Raoul Capablanca, of Cuba, in the St. Petersburg championship tourney.
When World War I broke out, Dr. Alekhine was giving exhibitions in Germany, and consequently was interned; but he escaped to Switzerland and returned home to serve in a Russian Red Cross unit. Wounded in action in Galicia, he passed the time in a Tarnopol hospital by giving a series of blindfold chess exhibitions.
After the war, he was caught in the Russian Revolution, imprisoned and sentenced to death. He managed to escape, went to France in 1921, became a French citizen and obtained a doctor's degree in law from the University of Paris.
In 1922, he set out after Capablanca, who had wrested the championship away from Lasker in a match at Havana a year earlier. He finished second to the champion in London, then wound up in the wake of Capablanca and Lasker in a New York match in 1924.
BUT by 1927, Dr. Alekhine was ready to make his big bid. He never had won a single game from Capablanca, and when he posted $10,000 for a match with the champion in Buenos Aires, the chess world laughed. But the challenger triumphed in a struggle that ranks with the greatest in chess history. It lasted 35 games. Dr. Alekhine winning the title by 6 games to 3, with 25 games drawn.
For eight years after winning the championship, Dr. Alekhine compiled an amazing victory skein; he captured eight tournaments, including a string of 28 games without a loss. In 1928, and again in 1934, he defeated the Russian, E. D. Bogoljubov, in matches for the world title.
He lost the championship to Dr. Max Euwe, a mathematician from the Netherlands, in 1935, and many experts declared that the master was on the downgrade. Then he played some of the best chess of his career to regain the title from Dr. Euwe in 1937.
The champion never risked his title again, although Capablanca hounded him for a return match. The Cuban never considered Dr. Alekhine his master, and until his death in March, 1942, issued challenge after challenge.
During his career, Dr. Alekhine won more than 20 international tournaments. Extremely nervous, he chain-smoked cigarets during a match, but his moves always were classic.
The precision of his mental processes is indicated graphically by the fact that for years he held the record for playing and winning 32 games of blindfold chess simultaneously.
A prolific write, he turned out numerous books and magazine articles on chess. His principal works are the two volumes My Best Hundred Games and My Best Games of Chess.
May 04 1946
Smith's Weekly, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Saturday, May 04, 1946
Chess Tragedy
LAJOS STEINER, one of the world's best chess players, who has won every championship he has entered, settled in this country a couple of years before war started. He had chosen it as his future home after viewing the whole world on a chess exhibition tour. He had arranged for his brother, Andre, to find a place in NZ, but Andre's desire to marry a girl in Hungary caused him to delay, and he, with the rest of the family were caught by the Nazi flood. Steiner has now had news that Andre, in his own standard, as a chess player (their father, also, was a champion), has died; the father died some time ago. The news, came from a sister who has been released from an internment camp in Germany; their mother was rescued when she was very near death, by the Russians. Steiner, now a naturalised Australian citizen and married to an Australian woman, is thankful for being in a country where there is security. Incidentally, the Nazi flood scattered great chess champions widely. Tartakover is taking British nationality; Flohr fled to Russia; others got to USA. Alekhine, who stayed in France, is in the black books for what is regarded as collaboration with the Nazis, though the world's champion has excuses. His invitation to take part in the Hastings International Chess Congress was withdrawn because other great masters bluntly said that they would be absent if he was there.-“Stan.”
May 27 1946
The Montreal Star, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Monday, May 27, 1946
Chess Champion Buried
Lisbon, April 17—(Reuters)—Dr. Alexander Alekhine, former world chess champion, who was found dead over his chess board in a Lisbon hotel three weeks ago after he had choked while eating, was buried here yesterday. The funeral was delayed at the request of the French Consul who tried unsuccessfully to trace Dr. Alekhine's wife.
May 30 1946
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Thursday, May 30, 1946
On Broadway, by Dorothy Kilgallen
… According to the underground, the death of Dr. Alexander Alekhine, the world's champion chess player, in Lisbon, was murder at the hands of those who fought the Nazis.
June 12 1946
The Advocate, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Wednesday, June 12, 1946
Dr. Alexander Alekhine, the Russian chess champion, whose death was recently announced, was receiving instruction preparatory to becoming a Catholic when he died suddenly at Estoril, states the “Universe” Lisbon correspondent. Dr. Alekhine, born a Russian, was a naturalised Frenchman.
July 05 1946
Record-Journal, Meriden, Connecticut, Friday, July 05, 1946
Life Held Harder Game
“Chess is simple, it is life that is so complicated,” said Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion, a few days before his sudden death recently in Lisbon, Portugal. A friend had commented that the champion always managed to make chess seem simple. Alekhine, only 54, but prematurely aged by ill health, had been warned of the danger of a sudden heart attack. Then came news that Botvinnik, the Russian champion, had challenged for the world championship. This, to Alekhine, was a tonic. “Now I have something to live for,” he said, and got down to intensive study. But one morning he was found dead in his armchair, his chess books before him.
August 01 1946
Australian Jewish Forum, Crows Nest, New South Wales, Australia, Thursday, August 01, 1946
The Freedom of the Chessboard.
Jewish Achievement in the Royal Game
By MILTON FINKELSTEIN
In 1941 the “Deutsche Schachzeitung” the official German chess publication, printed a series of articles which dealt with what was described as the “Jewish idea of defence,” which had, it was claimed, vitiated the chess world for half a century. Jewish chess players, it said, were lacking in courage and devoid of creative ability. Chess, the "Schachzeitung" argued, contained two main streams of development- spiritual and the material, the aggressive and the defensive, the artistic and the grasping-the Aryan and the Jewish. World champion Alexander Alekhine, at the time an unwilling guest of the Germans, represented the former influence, while Dr. Emanuel Lasker, a former champion who died in 1940, epitomized by his style and actions the Jew.
The 1937 title match between Alekhine and Max Euwe, a Dutch schoolmaster and liberal, marked the final triumph of the Aryan principle. Proof of this lay in the fact that Alekhine's second had been the Austrian Aryan, Erich Eliskases, while Dr. Euwe had been assisted in his preparations and analysis by an American Jew, Reuben Fine. The "Schachzeitung" discovered an active conspiracy by the "Jewish World" to keep a friend and supporter in the game's top position. Yet Aryan supremacy had again been vindicated, albeit by the victory of a Russian-born Frenchman.
The "Deutsche Schachzeitung" articles have been ascribed to Dr. Alekhine himself. He claims: 1. He did not write them. 2. He wrote an entirely different article, which the Nazis rewrote and printed under his signature. He has been "forgiven" by the British Chess Federation, but has been blacklisted by the rest of the democratic world. He has been unable to obtain a visa to the United States, and the Russians have rechristened the system of opening play initiated and developed by him, and known as the "Alekhine Defense," the "Moscow Opening."
The content of these and similar defamatory articles are probably only interesting as curious reflections of Nazi thought processes. But one quickly notes in any survey of the chess field that Jews have been prominent in it for three-quarters of a century. International tournaments have been studded with the names and achievements of Jewish chessmasters. Wilhelm Steinitz and then Emanuel Lasker held the world title for 55 years; the roster of national champions has for decades been predominantly Jewish Fine and Denker in the United States, Koltanowski in Belgium, Botwinnik and Levenfish in Russia, Yanofsky in Canada, Koshnitzky in Australia, Steiner in
Hungary, Rubinstein and Najdorf in Poland, Speilman in Austria, etc., etc.
MILTON FINKELSTEIN has been playing, teaching, thinking and writing the game for the past ten years. He has already attained a reputation of stature in the strict hierarchy of chess circles, being regarded as one of America's younger masters. Formerly captain of the team of the august Marshall Chess Club, he has participated in the United States open championships and has directed tournaments all over the country. When he is not poring over a chessboard, Mr. Finkelstein is a student of American history. He has written for "The New Leader" and "Social Research," and at present is engaged in editing chess manuscripts and translating classical chess literature. He taught handicapped children in the New York City school system for some years. He is twenty-five years old.
For the statistically inclined, the lists of players at major tournaments give overwhelming proof of Jewish dominance. The four most important pre-war tournaments were the Nottingham (1936), Stockholm Team (1937), AVRO (1938) and the U.S. Championships. At Nottingham, five of the fifteen competitors were Jewish, and these finished first, third, fourth, seventh and eighth. The Stockholm event was won by the United States, whose five-man team included four Jews. A total of thirteen out of the twenty-five in the five top teams were Jewish (U.S., Hungary, Poland, Argentina, Czechoslovakia). In the AVRO tournament, comprising the then recognised eight greatest players in the world, four Jews participated, one of them, the American Reuben Fine, finishing in a tie for first place, and the other, Reshevsky, tying for third. In the 1938 United States championship tournament, fifteen out of seventeen players, including the winners of the first ten places, were Jewish.
More recent matches tell the same story. In a radio match held over the 1945 Labour Day week-end between teams representing Russia and the United States, nine of ten American players were Jewish, four of the ten Russians.
In the 1945 Pan-American tournament, held at Hollywood in August, seven of thirteen competitors were Jewish. The first place and the championship of the hemisphere was gained by Samuel Reshevsky, Polish-born American master.
Chess, as a former district attorney of New York once remarked, is "Jewish athletics." Why is it that Jews play chess as much and as well as they do?
Chess in the Middle Ages was a diversion of the nobility. Brought to popularity by the Moors, it caught all along the Mediterranean coast, moving northward with the passage of time and the growth of towns. It remained a "gentleman's pastime" until the middle of the
19th century, when the rise of professionalism in chess opened up a new and amazing popularity for it throughout Europe.
For with the appearance of the professional the game found itself in the hands of a group of persistent exponents men whose self interest demanded that they make their chosen field of endeavour profitable. In the year 1851 the first of a long series of international tournaments was held in London. Its success precipitated a tidal wave of activity. The professionals organised chess clubs, published or edited magazines devoted to the game, conducted tournaments, sought and found great and small patrons, and made Europe so chess-conscious that by 1900 there were few large towns in all Western Europe without chess clubs, and few that had not been at some time or other the seat of an important chess tournament.
Jews, like others, learned to play chess, and grew to enjoy it. And it was chiefly the Jews of Europe who became its chessmasters, for socially, economically and psychologically they stood to gain most in this field. As it happened, it was just those areas where Jews suffered that chess prospered most, and it was there that the greatest Jewish chessmasters arose. No chessmaster was subject to disabilities of residence or travel; hence escape on honourable terms from an oppressive environment was easy for them. The renown of chess players- -as well as of great rabbis was international, with recognition from Jew and non-Jew alike. The games of a chessmaster, once recorded and printed, are as lasting as the writings of a scholar, and equally subjects of study.
It is interesting to note that countries such as England and France, where Jews enjoyed earlier and fuller emancipation, have produced few chessmasters and no Jewish players of international stature.
European Jewry has always prized intellectual achievement above any other; the rabbi, the scholar, the teacher, these occupied the honorific positions in Jewish society. Chess was a common enough pastime among them, and regarded as a suitable activity for their students and disciples. The Talmud (Ketuboth 61 b) has reference to a game which Rashi's commentaries described as chess, and which it is permissible for a wife to indulge in. Akiba Rubinstein, the greatest chessmaster produced by Poland, was a yeshiva student before his chess talent became apparent. He left the yeshiva despite great social pressure, but was later acclaimed by all of Polish Jewry.
Sometimes chess could even benefit an entire community. The story is told of a small town in eastern Poland that was visited by a devout and wealthy butcher from Lodz who offered a gift of 500 rubles to the synagogue should any of its members defeat him at chess. The rabbi, the local innkeeper and a tailor were bested in their turn; then someone thought of a student who tutored the children of a nearby nobleman. Fetched in haste, he defeated the butcher and became a local hero.
Living in the eternal shadow of his disabilities, the Jew thus found in chess one of the few fields that provided equality of oppor-
tunity, equality of mobility, and in which ability alone could grant success. The coffee-houses and inns of Europe formed the perfect expression of this equality; the chess sets they provided their customers gave those who were otherwise "inferior" dull freedom of play. The better man won, and no special advantages were required to become the better man. How many Jews could hope to be invited to the homes of the local gentry, government officials and the representatives of the military? Chess players frequently were, to play and to teach. Welhelm Steinitz took his greatest delight in defeating such men as Johannes von Zukertort, a Junker-born English chessmaster. A feud is said to have developed between these two. Zukertort is said to have remarked that Steinitz was not a chess player, but a Jew. To which Steinitz replied that Zukertort was apparently neither. Zukertort never recognised Steinitz' possession of the world championship. A dinner attended by the two was made memorable by the spectacle of both rising to a toast to the greatest chess player in the world.
Proficiency in chess, because of the European system of grading players, was quickly rewarded by recognition. A novice was admitted to a "minor" tournament. Should he win this, he was permitted to play in "major" (or "premier") tournaments. Victory in these gave him the title of "Master," and admission to international play, with the chance to win the title of "Grandmaster." Recognition once achieved, the master travelled freely and was welcome wherever chess was played. Exhibition tours were common, and provided most matters with a steady source of income.
Chess players regard their game as an art which can reflect style, originality and depth of expression. The chess artist founds a school of play, becomes an authority on technical matters and a leader in the international chess community. Every closed circle makes its own heroes, important within its own confines even when unkown outside. Capablanca, who did not lose a single game in eight years of competition, became a legend. His eventual defeat by a German Jew, Richard Reti, made the latter a hero the world over, and especially in Jewish circles.
Wealthy Jewish families acted as patrons of the game and its Jewish masters. Steinitz was a welcome guest at many homes in London. The Rothschild family donated valuable prizes to a number of tournaments before the First World War. Germany, with its numerous resort towns, was the seat of many of the early tournaments, and later, German-Jewish chessmasters spread Yiddish and German phrases which have become part of the language of the game. Examples, in addition to the familiar "kibitzer," are Luft, Sitzfleish, Sitzkreig, Patzer. European chessmakers from different countries often had to resort to Yiddish in international tourneys as the best means of understanding one another. (The writer recently spent an afternoon in the company of a Belgian and a Hungarian, both chessmasters. English was tried, then French, and finally, for greatest clarity, Yid-
dish). This period- the late 19th and early 20th centuries--was indeed a golden age for the Jewish chessplayer.
The Nazis at various times announced the death of most of the Jewish chessmasters of occupied Europe. A number of these men, however, appear to have escaped, largely through the assistance of sympathetic non- Jewish chess players. Rubinstein, reported dead in 1939, was discovered in Belgium in 1944. Sapira, a Belgian, reappeared in Brussels after three years of incognito existence. Salo Flohr, champion of Czechoslovakia, escaped to Russia, as did the Hungarian Lilienthal (they both represented Russia in the Labour Day matches). Lajos Steiner, an announced target of the Nazis appears to have survived. The full story of the rescue of these and others is yet to be told, but the information available seems to indicate a breakdown of Nazi co-ordination where chessmasters were concerned. Rubinstein, for example, was confined in a sanitarium in Poland, was ordered killed by the German authorities, was actually reported, and when found, was discovered to have been shipped to Belgium and the safety of another sanitarium. He is again playing chess, partly with the financial support of American chess players.
Chess prospers most in urban areas, where large numbers of players have opportunity for frequent play; and urban centres are, of course, the usual centres of Jewish population. Here in the United States, New York is the leading chess centre, and Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles the "provincial" ones. The dominance of Jews in the chess circles of these cities- a development of the last thirty years- - seems likely to continue. We have outstanding masters here now. Their prowess will not decrease, and it is already the highest in the world. Thus, for their lifetime at least- -and they are all young men- Jewish players will continue to lead in American chess.
Indeed, the post-war period may see the transfer of international play to the New World, and the development of new centres of interest in chess and the emergence of many more American masters. Meanwhile, the game has received its greatest enrichment from those masters who were driven from Eastern Europe by poverty and oppression. Their contribution is summarised by the American master, A. E. Santasiere (a Catholic), who wrote in one of a series of essays on the game:
Steinitz, Reti, Speilman, Nimzowitz, to mention only a few--were all bold, passionate experimenters, ardent with an urge to beauty, disdaining personal material gain as the more important motivating force. Chess will always be indebted to their original and brilliant creations. This is not propaganda--it is truth, to be verified by evidence which is easily available.
-"Commentary".
Related Links
- Wikipedia, Alexander Alekhine
- Alekhine Biography
- Alexander Alekhine, Chessgames index
- Britannica, Alexander Alekhine
- World Chess Hall of Fame, Alexander Alekhine
- The Best Chess Games of Alexander Alekhine
- Chessbase, Alexander Alekhine
- Ten Things to Learn From Alexander Alekhine
- Agadmator on Alexander Alekhine
- Alexander Alekhine
- Alexander Alekhine
- NIC Podcast: Alexander Alekhine, the Paris Years
- Alexander Alekhine, Wikipedia
- Google Art and Culture: Alexander Alekhine
- Alexander Alekhine
- Chessbase Investigates Alekhine
- Alexander Alekhine, Master In Chess
- Spark Chess: Alexander Alekhine
- Alexander Alekhine, Chess Genius
- Alexander Alekhine Attacking Rules
- Triumph and Tragedy of Alexander Alekhine
- Talk with Alexander Alekhine (Gab AI)
- Open Chess: Alexander Alekhine
- RChess: Alexander Alekhine
- Britannica, Alekhine
- Alekhine Memorial
- Alexander Alekhine--Attacking Chess
- ChessMate: Alexander Alekhine
