“‘Imagine,’ he said,
‘that Stalin, with the complicity of the Portuguese police [PIDE], gave the
order not only to kill him, but also to bring his body back to bring his body
back to his native soil. Although the man was considered a traitor, his genius belonged
to Great Mother Russia. Imagine that Alekhine’s embalmed body is to this day
displayed in a showcase in some secret room in the Kremlin. Imagine that, as
the conclusion for your novel.’”
In “Theory of Shadows” by Paolo Maurensig
Chess is a troublesome game. I gave it up after
many years playing at expert level. At club level the element of sheer chance
involved means that most players would have more fun and probably considerably
more success playing Ludo. This does not stop egocentric oddballs from
exhibiting a most unbecoming arrogance whenever the dice happen to fall in
their favour. This is likely to be true at Grandmaster level equally and
explains much about their strange behaviours. Alekhine hated losing and would
have fits of carpet-biting rage whenever he did. Weird lot of them chess
players! There is of course no chance at any level of chess except for the draw
in some tournaments. If two novices play, the chances of one making some silly
blunder before the other does are I suppose what we expect; but for anyone to
win at any level, someone has to make some kind of mistake, after all. But
chess certainly is the domain of the oddball. The nervous competitive tension
of the game combined with time pressure and the rhythmic pulsing, clicking, or
flashing of the clock will bring out the strangest unconscious behaviours in
people as well as exacerbating whatever tics, compulsions, rages, and other
psychological afflictions they may already be suffering from. Tal's genius
still takes my breath away. If only there could have been a match between Tal
and Kasparov: Saladin versus Richard the lionheart: the finely-sharpened blade
verses the broad sword :)
Alexander Alekhin was quite normal by any
standard. He was born into aristocratic privilege, drank like a fish, and
willingly collaborated in Nazi-sponsored tournaments during the war - as well
as publishing a number of nakedly anti-semitic articles. We need more chess
players like him. Er, maybe not. The late Harry Golombek knew Alekhin well, and
said he was perfectly normal, which he probably was. He is on record as making
anti-Jewish comments before WW2. But these were typical of someone from his
class and background, and are probably only skin deep. Once you are a French
citizen in the hands of the Nazis, things can get precarious. So I suppose you
allow your name to be put to any journalistic article placed in front of you.
Other players took part in German chess tournaments during the war, including
Keres, and Bogoljubow - I think the latter had been a German citizen for years
anyway. The only eccentricity I found in Alekhin is the pronunciation of his
name. He insisted it was pronounced Alyekhin. The only Russian I have heard
pronounce it this way is Anatoly Karpov. Every other Russian I have met pronounces
it Alyokhin. (One of the hooligans from Pu$$y Riot was named Alyokhina.)
Alekhin was a wonderful player with a very
complete style.
NB: “Xeque-Mate no Estoril” (Checkmate at
Estoril) by Dagoberto L. Mark was the first book I read regarding Alekhine’s
death (unfortunately there’s only a Portuguese version).
