The untold story that was Botvinnik - Alekhine
Introduction -
Alexander Alekhine was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion, a title he held for two reigns. By the age of 22, Alekhine was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played. In 1921, Alekhine left Soviet Russia and emigrated to France, which he represented after 1925. In 1927, he became the fourth World Chess Champion by defeating José Raúl Capablanca. In the early 1930s, Alekhine dominated tournament play and won two top-class tournaments by large margins. Alekhine offered Capablanca a rematch on the same demanding terms that Capablanca had set for him, and negotiations dragged on for years without making much progress. Meanwhile, Alekhine defended his title with ease against Efim Bogoljubov in 1929 and 1934. He was defeated by Max Euwe in 1935, but regained his crown in the 1937 rematch. Negotiations with Botvinnik for a world title match were proceeding in 1946 when Alekhine died in Portugal, in unclear circumstances. Alekhine is known for his fierce and imaginative attacking style, combined with great positional and endgame skill. He is highly regarded as a chess writer and theoretician, having produced innovations in a wide range of chess openings and having given his name to Alekhine's Defence and several other opening variations. He also composed some endgame studies.(1) The following three games were the only played between Alekhine and Botvinnik. As always, I hope you enjoy the following games as much as I have analysing them.
The First Game -
Standings of the Nottingham 1936 International Master -
The Nottingham 1936 chess tournament was a 15-player round robin tournament held August 10–28 at the University of Nottingham. It was one of the strongest of all time. It is one of the very few tournaments in chess history to include five past, present, or future world champions (Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe and Botvinnik). A number of other prominent players, such as Reuben Fine, Samuel Reshevsky and Salo Flohr, were in the tournament. The event is also notable for being Lasker's last major event, and for Botvinnik achieving the first Soviet success outside the Soviet Union. (2)
The Second and Thrid Games -
Standings of the Avro 1938 Chess tournament -
The AVRO tournament was a famous chess tournament held in the Netherlands in 1938, sponsored by the Dutch broadcasting company AVRO. The event was a double round-robin tournament between the eight strongest players in the world. Paul Keres and Reuben Fine tied for first place, with Keres winning on tiebreak by virtue of his 1½-½ score in their individual games (3).
Game 2 -
Bibliography -
All paragraphs and graphs on tournaments and players are copied from Wikapedia!!
(Intro, Bp1, Bp2)
(1) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottingham_1936_chess_tournament
(2) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVRO_1938_chess_tournament
(3) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Alekhine
