Efim Bogoljubov vs. Alexander Alekhine

This chess game is one of the most renowned games of the Russian chess player Alexander Alekhine. The game, which was played against Efim Bogoljubov at the 1922 Hastings chess congress, resulted in a win by Alekhine after Bogoljubov's resignation after move 53. Personally, he is one of my favorite chess players, and I really enjoy his playing style.

Alekhine was one of the greatest attacking players and could apparently produce combinations at will. What set him apart from most other attacking players was his ability to see the potential for an attack and prepare for it in positions where others saw nothing. Rudolf Spielmann, a master tactician who produced many brilliancies, said, "I can see the combinations as well as Alekhine, but I cannot get to the same positions." Dr. Max Euwe said, "Alekhine is a poet who creates a work of art out of something that would hardly inspire another man to send home a picture post-card." An explanation offered by Réti was, "he beats his opponents by analysing simple and apparently harmless sequences of moves in order to see whether at some time or another at the end of it an original possibility, and therefore one difficult to see, might be hidden." John Nunn commented that "Alekhine had a special ability to provoke complications without taking excessive risks", and Edward Winter called him "the supreme genius of the complicated position." Some of Alekhine's combinations are so complex that even modern champions and contenders disagree in their analyses of them.

Nevertheless, Garry Kasparov said that Alekhine's attacking play was based on solid positional foundations, and Harry Golombek went further, saying that "Alekhine was the most versatile of all chess geniuses, being equally at home in every style of play and in all phases of the game." Reuben Fine, a serious contender for the world championship in the late 1930s, wrote in the 1950s that Alekhine's collection of best games was one of the three most beautiful that he knew, and Golombek was equally impressed.

Alekhine's games have a higher percentage of wins than those of any other World Champion, and his drawn games are on average among the longest of all champions'. His desire to win extended beyond formal chess competition. When Fine beat him in some casual games in 1933, Alekhine demanded a match for a small stake. And in table tennis, which Alekhine played enthusiastically but badly, he would often crush the ball when he lost.

Bobby Fischer, in a 1964 article, ranked Alekhine as one of the ten greatest players in history. Fischer, who was famous for the clarity of his play, wrote of Alekhine:

Alekhine has never been a hero of mine, and I've never cared for his style of play. There's nothing light or breezy about it; it worked for him, but it could scarcely work for anyone else. He played gigantic conceptions, full of outrageous and unprecedented ideas. ... [H]e had great imagination; he could see more deeply into a situation than any other player in chess history. ... It was in the most complicated positions that Alekhine found his grandest concepts.

Alekhine's style had a profound influence on Kasparov, who said: "Alexander Alekhine is the first luminary among the others who are still having the greatest influence on me. I like his universality, his approach to the game, his chess ideas. I am sure that the future belongs to Alekhine chess." In 2012, Levon Aronian said that he considers Alekhine the greatest chess player of all time.

The last six paragraphs were from an article I wrote in November of last year.

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[Event "Hastings"]
[Site "Hastings ENG"]
[Date "1922.09.21"]
[EventDate "1922.09.10"]
[Round "10"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Efim Bogoljubov"]
[Black "Alexander Alekhine"]
[ECO "A90"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "106"]

1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. g3 e6 4. Bg2 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Bxd2+ 6. Nxd2
Nc6 7. Ngf3 O-O 8. O-O d6 9. Qb3 Kh8 10. Qc3 e5 11. e3 a5
12. b3 Qe8 13. a3 Qh5 14. h4 Ng4 15. Ng5 Bd7 16. f3 Nf6 17. f4
e4 18. Rfd1 h6 19. Nh3 d5 20. Nf1 Ne7 21. a4 Nc6 22. Rd2 Nb4
23. Bh1 Qe8 24. Rg2 dxc4 25. bxc4 Bxa4 26. Nf2 Bd7 27. Nd2 b5
28. Nd1 Nd3 29. Rxa5 b4 30. Rxa8 bxc3 31. Rxe8 c2 32. Rxf8+
Kh7 33. Nf2 c1=Q+ 34. Nf1 Ne1 35. Rh2 Qxc4 36. Rb8 Bb5
37. Rxb5 Qxb5 38. g4 Nf3+ 39. Bxf3 exf3 40. gxf5 Qe2 41. d5
Kg8 42. h5 Kh7 43. e4 Nxe4 44. Nxe4 Qxe4 45. d6 cxd6 46. f6
gxf6 47. Rd2 Qe2 48. Rxe2 fxe2 49. Kf2 exf1=Q+ 50. Kxf1 Kg7
51. Ke2 Kf7 52. Ke3 Ke6 53. Ke4 d5+ 0-1

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You can check my other articles about Alexander Alekhine at:

     - https://www.chess.com/blog/ThummimS/the-playing-strength-and-style-of-alexander-alekhine (The Playing Strength and Style of Alexander Alekhine)

     - https://www.chess.com/blog/ThummimS/the-1927-world-chess-championship [The 1927 World Chess Championship (Capablanca vs. Alekhine)]