Alexander Alekhine

Alexander Alekhine was born in Moscow in 1892 and learned chess within his family, with his mother and older siblings introducing him to the game. He played correspondence chess as a child and won the All-Russian Amateur Tournament in 1909. His third place at St Petersburg in 1914, behind Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca, established him among the leading international masters. He was playing in Mannheim when the First World War began and was interned in Germany. He left Soviet Russia in 1921 and eventually settled in France, which he represented in international competition.

Alekhine annotated the games of the New York 1924 tournament, where he finished third, and won Baden-Baden in 1925. He defeated Capablanca in Buenos Aires in 1927 to become the fourth world champion. He retained the championship against Efim Bogoljubov in both 1929 and 1934. His tournament victories during this period included San Remo in 1930 and Bled in 1931. Max Euwe took the title from him in 1935, but Alekhine won their return match in 1937. He played first board for France at five Olympiads.

Alekhine also gave blindfold exhibitions, including a twenty-six-board display in New York in 1924. His annotations and collections of his own games provided detailed explanations of combinations and strategic decisions. Alekhine’s Defence, beginning with Black’s knight attack on White’s central pawn, bears his name. Negotiations for another championship match were interrupted by the Second World War. He died in Estoril, Portugal, in 1946 while discussions about a match with Mikhail Botvinnik were under way. He remains the only world champion to have died while holding the title.