Comments on Goldsby on Alekhine, by James O'Fee

Yesterday Impala published a post from AJ Goldsby on Alexander Alekhine (1982-1946), World Chess Champion from 1927 until his death in 1946.

Alekhine's 'Five-Queens' game

AJ provided a link to an article by Dutchman Tim Krabbé, which appeared in Krabbé's famous book 'Chess Curiosities' (1985, but updated in 1998) - and see the Dutchman's 'Chess Curiosities' website. Krabbé mentions researches by the American chess historian, Dr. Buschke, published in Chess Life (USA) in the 1950s. Krabbé writes-

'(Alekhine) included it in his 1927 book, My Best Games of Chess 1908-1923. As game 26 there, we find Tarrasch-Alekhine, Petersburg 1914 which begins: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 When Tarrasch plays 5.exd5, Alekhine annotates: 'Interesting, too, is Chigorin's continuation: 5.e5 h6 6.exf6 hxg5 7.fxg7 Rg8 8.h4 gxh4 with the improvement 9.Qg4! instead of 9.Qh5. A game played by the author in Moscow, 1915, continued as follows...' He then reproduced the five queen game, illustrated with no less than three diagrams - as many as for Tarrasch-Alekhine itself, a game of forty-nine moves.'

I was lucky enough to acquire a second-hand copy, in descriptive notation, of Alekhine's classic book at the Hastings tournament in 1992. Alekhine doesn't actually claim that Alekhine was the White player who came up with the wonderful move 24. R-R6!!

Yet Buscke discovered that the game had already been published in 1925 by the French-born author Julius du Mont (1881-1956) as "Alekhine-N.N" [possibly in du Mont's The Elements of Chess(1925)]. In 1923 Alekhine had personally shown the game to du Mont. Du Mont went on to translate into English both Alekhine's collections of best games, 1908-1923 (published 1927-see above) and 1924-39 (published 1939). Alekhine hence had close personal relations with du Mont. And Alekhine had ample opportunity to correct du Mont's understandable mistake of 1925 in his own (Alekhine's) book of 1927, which was translated by du Mont.

Buschke discovered moreover that the game was a fake. It had never been played as it appeared in the 1927 games' collection. That was merely a possible side-variation of a game that that actually been played in wartime Russia with Alekhine as Black - Grigoriev-Alekhine, Moscow 1915. And this game had been published in a Russian-language chess magazine of the time.

Nor were chess games the only things that the fourth World Chess Champion faked. Alekhine liked to be called 'Dr. Alekhine'.

After Alekhine's death the same du Mont wrote a 'Memoir of Alekhine'. This was added to the 1947 edition of Alekhine's 1924-37 games collection. There du Mont claims that, after World War One, Alekhine "managed ..... to renew his legal studies and to become a Doctor-at- Law of the French Faculty". Du Mont seems to have been too credulous in regard to the World Champion's claims. Although Alekhine had studied law before the Great War, his addiction to chess prevented his receiving a degree of any sort. Neither Hooper & Whyld nor Wikipedia mention a doctorate.

The blurb on the 1924-37 collection quotes a review in 'The Observer' - "More than a chess champion, a fine mind, untouched by egotism.." It is curious that Alekhine so lacked self-confidence that he bent his own chess games to present himself in a more favourable light to the world; and even invented an imaginary academic qualification. Perhaps Alekhine was uncertain of his capabilities in everything other than chess. Chess Grandmasters are not necessarily grandmasterly at other tasks in life.

References

Alekhine's Best Games of Chess
a) 1908-1923, A Alekhine, Bell, 1927
b) 1924-37, A. Alekhine, Bell, first published 1939, reprinted with memoir 1947
c) 1938-45, C. H. O'D. Alexander, Bell, 1949

The Oxford Companion to Chess, David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld, Oxford University Press, 1984. Entry on Alekhine.
Wikipedia entry on Alexander Alekhine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Alekhine

Alekhine's Greatest Chess Games

AJ writes -

'Alekhine himself considered his two best games to be:

E. Bogolyubov - A. Alekhine; Hastings / 1922
R. Reti - A. Alekhine; Baden-Baden / 1925.

I once asked GM Raymond Keene, "What were Alekhine's five best chess games?"

Besides the two games - already mentioned above - the respected GM listed the following:

A. Alekhine - S. Reshevsky; Kemeri, 1937
(One of Alekhine's most brilliant games, the finish is extremely nice and picturesque. I have annotated most of this game, but I have not even begun the process of building the web page.)

M. Euwe - A. Alekhine; 16th World Champ. Match; (Game # 4) / 10,10, 1935.
(A great ... a nearly unbelievable tactical struggle. However, I found severe flaws in this game, unfortunately - I never finished my detailed analysis ... let alone got around to building a web page for this game.)

A. Alekhine - J.R. Capablanca; 13th World Championships (match) Buenos Aires, ARG; (Game # 32) / 22,11, 1927.
(GM R. Keene is not alone, I found several books that listed this as one of Alekhine's best games.) '

To play through all these games, see the links on AJ's webpage.

Curt von Bardeleben

AJ annotates a game played by the young Alekhine in 1908 against Curt (Kurt) von Bardeleben [von Bardeleben-Alekhine, 1908]. This German Master is best remembered today as the victim of a combination played by Wilhelm Steinitz, First World Chess Champion, at the great Hastings tournament in 1895. I have written here of von Bardeleben -

Steinitz was the first official World Champion, but by Hastings he had lost the crown and was in the twilight of his career. Yet here he played one of his spectacular games, against Kurt von Bardeleben (1861-1924) [Steinitz-von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895]. A German-language collection of games of the World Champions in my collection entitles the game 'Abendsonnenstrahlen' - 'Evening Rays of Sunshine'. The game concluded with an exceedingly brilliant and deep combination.

Many books play the combination out and remark that von Bardeleben resigned. 'Not so!', says my friend Hartmut Richter. He claims that the aristocratic German left the table, leaving his clock ticking, took his hat from the stand and went home.

Von Bardeleben was one of the great players of Berlin cafe society (see here) met by Edward Lasker. In Lasker's book, 'Chess Secrets' (London, 1952), Lasker relates how the loser of Steinitz's most famous game had a most extraordinary face bound to draw every eye to him whereever he went. The left half of his forehead bulged outward and upward as if the left frontal lobe of his brain had irresistibly expanded.

A van Dyke beard and a slightly ironic smile gave von Bardeleben a slightly Mephistophelian appearance. Yet this was entirely deceiving. He was well-bred and mannered to a fault. Coupled with a wit of literary flavour and wide knowledge of the humanities made the German Count a delightful conversationalist.

Here are further details taken from Lasker's book, 'Chess Secrets'-

'One master, on whose presence at the Cafe Bauer I could unfailingly count any evening, was Kurt von Bardeleben. He was an easy-going person, in his fifties. when he had any money at all, you could tell it by the bottle of Bordeaux on his table; he sipped one glass after another in the leisurely manner of a connaisseur.

'He always wore a black cut-away suit of dubious vintage. Apparently he could never spare enough money to buy a new suit, although I learned that at faily regular intervals he received comparatively large sums-from one to several thousand marks- through the simple expedient of marrying, and shortly after divorcing, some lady who craved the distinction of his noble name and was willing to pay for it. Unfortunately, when he received his reward, it was usually far exceeded by the amount of the debts he had accumulated since his last divorce. Evil tongues had it that the number of the ladies involved in these brief marital interludes had grown so alarmingly that they could easily have made up a Sultan's harem.'

Hooper and Whyld state that the German master 'suffered hardship in the difficult years in Germany the First World War and committed suicide.' - Wikipedia adds 'by jumping out of a window'.

Lasker recounts as well how a fifteen-year-old Russian schoolboy had appeared in Düsseldorf in 1908 and entered the 'Major' tourament (Hauptturnier). This was Alexander Alexandrovitsch Alekhine, who was practicing with the American Master, Frank Marshall. A member of the reception committee told Lasker that Alekhine seemed strong enough to give Marshall pawn and move, at least in fast games. 'The only trouble with the boy', the committee member went on, 'was that he could not conceal his plans very well. He had blond curls which he continually twisted between his fingers, and you could tell whether he intended attacking on the King's wing or the Queen's wing, because in the former case he would always twist the curls on the right side of his head, and in the latter on the left side.'

In 1914, at the great St Petersburg tournament, Czar Nicolas of Russia named both Marshall and Alekhine among the original five 'Grandmasters' of chess. The others were World Champion Emanuel Lasker, Capablanca and Tarrasch.

Chessgames.com confirms that the von Bardeleben-Alekhine game was indeed played in Düsseldorf in 1908. Alekhine defended against von Bardeleben's 1 e4 with the Hanham Variation of Philidor's Defence (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 Nd7). In 'Chess Secrets', Edward Lasker gives his Düsseldorf Hauptturnier game against Alekhine. Lasker was White and again Alekhine defended with the Hanham Variation of Philidor's Defence. Lasker comments -

'I am almost ashamed to publish the game here, but since it was the first International tournament for Alekhine as well as for myself, this game has a certain historic right to inclusion in this autobiographical chess primer.'

The first four games of Emanuel Lasker's match against Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch for the World Chess Championship were played in Düsseldorf at the same time and in the same hall as the Hauptturnier. Edward Lasker had earlier become friendly with his namesake and remote relative, World Champion Emanuel Lasker. So 'Lasker Minor' was flattered that 'Lasker Major' paid some attention to the former's games in the Hauptturnier.

References

Chess Secrets, Edward Lasker, Hollis and Carter, London, 1952. pp 20-21, pp 45-56
The Oxford Companion to Chess, David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld, Oxford University Press, 1984. Entry on Bardeleben, Curt von.
Wikipedia entry on Curt von Bardeleben http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_von_Bardeleben

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