Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine. Born October 19 (31), 1892 in Moscow - died March 24, 1946 in Estoril (Portugal). A brilliant chess player, fourth world chess champion. Doctor of Law.

Alexander Alekhine was born on October 31, 1892 in Moscow. By origin - a nobleman. His father is Alexander Ivanovich Alekhine (1856-1917), his mother is Anisya Ivanovna (nee Prokhorova) (1861-1915), who came from the family of textile manufacturer Prokhorov, owner of the Trekhgornaya Manufactory. Ancestors on both parental lines in the fourth - third generation are peasants of the Stary Oskol district of the Kursk province. The family owned an estate near Kastornoye, in Zemlyansky district of Voronezh province. In 1904, Alekhine Sr. became the leader of the nobility of the Zemlyansky district, then the Voronezh province, and subsequently a deputy of the Fourth State Duma.

Alexander learned to play chess at the age of 7 - his mother showed him the moves of the pieces. I became seriously interested in chess at the age of 12. He began playing in tournaments by correspondence, together with his older brother Alexei (1888-1939). He won his first tournament victory in 1905 - in a gambit correspondence tournament organized by the Chess Review magazine. In 1908 he became the champion of Moscow, in the same year he made his debut on the international stage: the tournament of the German Chess Union (Dusseldorf), shared 4th-5th place.

In 1909, at the All-Russian Amateur Tournament, he received the title of “Maestro”.

In 1910, Alekhine successfully performed at a very representative tournament in Hamburg, ahead of several grandmasters, although he was not among the winners; in 1911, he shared 8-11 places in Carlsbad (26 players participated), winning against Vidmar, one of the strongest in this tournament .

1913 - takes first place at a fairly representative tournament in Scheveningen (11.5 out of 13 points), ahead of D. Yanovsky, one of the contenders for the world championship.

In 1914, Alekhine graduated from the School of Law, received the rank of titular councilor and was appointed to the Ministry of Justice. In the same year, at the international tournament in St. Petersburg, he took third place after world champion Lasker and Capablanca. As P. Romanovsky recalled, it was in 1914 that Alekhine told him that he was beginning to prepare for the world championship match with Capablanca. To the surprised remark that Lasker was the world champion, Alekhine confidently replied that Capablanca would soon replace Lasker. It should be noted that Alekhine is credited with another similar prediction that came true - the prediction of Botvinnik’s leadership, made by him in the late 1930s.

In the summer of 1914, Alekhine took part in a tournament in Mannheim. Confidently in first place, he would most likely have become the winner, but on August 1 the war began. The tournament was interrupted; Alekhine, who was awarded first place as the undisputed leader of the tournament, was interned in Germany along with other participants.

He spent some time in the Ludwigshafen prison - he was imprisoned there because of a photograph where he was taken in the uniform of a student of the School of Law, which was mistaken for the uniform of a Russian army officer.

On August 5, 1915, at the Moscow chess club, he gave a session of simultaneous play on four boards, (+2=2), and soon won a consultation game with black against V. Rozanov and N. Tselikov. On October 2, he held a session in the Moscow circle (+23-5=4), and on October 24 - in Serpukhov, again in favor of captured Russian chess players (+16=2). In the club tournament of the Moscow Chess Club in October-December, he confidently took 1st place (+10=1). He received a special prize for his game against N. Zubarev.

In April 1916, Alekhine went on tour to Odessa. On April 13, he gave a session (+17-1=2), the proceeds from which went to benefit those in captivity. On April 15, I gave a blind session on eight boards. The session lasted until 4:30 am on April 16, the result was +7-1. On April 19, he won a game against V. Vladimirov and N. Laurent, on April 21 - he held a joint session with P. Liszt (+11-1=3). On April 25, he beat B. Verlinsky, giving him a pawn and a move. From Odessa Alekhine went to Kyiv. There he started with a session on 20 boards (+17-3). On May 2, 6 and 8 I played games with the Kyiv maestro Evenson, lost the first of them and won the second and third. On May 4, I gave a blind session on 8 boards, winning all the games; on May 10, I held another session on 20 boards.

Along with his chess activities, Alekhine completed his legal education. In 1916, he volunteered to go to the front, despite the fact that for health reasons (due to heart disease) he was not subject to conscription. He was the commander of the Red Cross detachment. Received the Order of St. Stanislaus and two medals. Was shell-shocked twice. After the second concussion, he ended up in the hospital, where he played blind with the local chess players who visited him, in particular, he gave a blind session on five boards. Upon completion of treatment he returned to Moscow.

On September 13, 1916, in Moscow, Alekhine gave a session on 37 boards (+28-3=6). Here, on October 4 in Odessa, I conducted a blind session on 9 boards, the proceeds of which went to the Odessa-Serbia relief fund. All games were won, the session took less than 4 hours. On his next visit to Odessa, Alekhine played a series of easy games with B. Verlinsky. On November 25 and December 2, 1916 in Moscow he played with A. Rabinovich. On December 4, in Petrograd I won blindly against A. Velikhov. In February 1917, in Moscow, he played two consultation games simultaneously against two pairs of strong amateurs, drawing one of them and winning the second. On February 8, I played another game with A. Rabinovich. On February 23, 1917, a revolution began in Petrograd, and Alekhine’s chess activity was interrupted for three years.

In 1919-1920, Alekhine studied film courses for some time, worked as an investigator at the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department, then as a translator in the apparatus of the Comintern (he brilliantly spoke several European languages). During these years, he met the Swiss journalist Anna-Lise Rügg (Rüegg), who represented the Swiss Social Democratic Party in the Comintern, and married her.

In 1921, Alekhine and his wife legally left Soviet Russia in order to collect prize money for the world championship match by participating in tournaments. One of the reasons for leaving was that Alekhine’s wife was a foreigner. Formally, leaving Russia was not considered emigration. Until 1924, Soviet publications published articles by Alekhine; in Soviet Russia he was perceived precisely as “a Russian chess player temporarily living abroad.” Alekhine’s wife gave birth to a son, Alexander (he was alive in 2002, lived in Basel, and in 1992 came to Russia for the opening of a tournament in honor of the centenary of his father’s birth).

In Europe, Alekhine immediately began to actively and quite successfully compete in tournaments. At the London tournament in 1922, he took second place, which he was not satisfied with - Capablanca, who had already become the world champion by that time, won by a margin of one and a half points. There, Alekhine was forced, in order to have hope of a match for the chess crown, to sign the “London Protocol,” which, in particular, required the applicant to provide a prize fund of $10,000 and additionally allocate money to cover organizational expenses. Alekhine did not have that kind of money, nor did other contenders for the title of champion.

In 1923 he shared 1-3 places at the tournament in Marienbad, in 1924 he took 3rd place at the tournament in New York, losing to Lasker and Capablanca. Alekhine himself did not consider these years successful - he was worried that he could not surpass Capablanca in the tournament. There were also personal problems - the wife, passionate about social activities, did not pay any attention to the family, the couple lived separately, the son Alexander, who was born by that time, was given to the care of friends.

In 1927, Alekhine participated in the six international tournament, where he took 2nd place after Capablanca, then won the international tournament in Kecskemet, approaching the match for the world championship at the peak of his athletic form. The upcoming match aroused great interest. Newspapers vied with each other to guess how the challenger intended to defeat the “thinking machine,” the “chess machine in the form of a man,” as Capablanca was presented. The majority was inclined to favor Capablanca, even many of Alekhine's fans. Thus, Shpilman, who sincerely supported the challenger, nevertheless believed that Alekhine would not be able to win a single game.

Alekhine himself did not count on luck at all. Over the past few years, he carefully studied all of Capablanca's games, looking for inaccuracies in them and planning the future match. The results of the analysis (described later by Alekhine in one of his books) turned out to be quite interesting: Alekhine found that Capablanca was not at all flawless. He is indeed very accurate, but still makes mistakes. Alekhine concludes: it is useless to try to beat Capablanca using opening innovations; in such situations the champion, as a rule, plays flawlessly. However, in the middle of the game, Capablanca may be let down by his legendary intuition - the speed of grasping a position paradoxically leads to the fact that the champion considers the best moves to be those that he immediately noticed, and can look at a non-obvious continuation if it was not discovered intuitively. According to Alekhine, Capablanca makes the greatest number of mistakes in the endgame.

The match with H.R. Capablanca took place, as planned, in 1927 in Buenos Aires. Alekhine won 6 games, lost 3, drew 25, becoming the fourth world champion. The match showed the exceptional composure of the Russian chess player, who had never won against the brilliant Cuban before Buenos Aires (and lost to him three times). Soon after the start of the match, Alekhine began to experience inflammation of the periosteum - in order not to take a time out (and the match was played without a limit on the number of games - up to six wins), Alekhine demanded that the doctor remove several of his teeth at once. The pain subsided - and Alekhine continued to win. In the 34th round, with the score 5:3, the game was postponed in a position where Alekhine had a two-pawn advantage. Capablanca did not show up for the final game, instead sending a letter in which he announced his surrender and congratulated Alekhine on his victory.

Alekhine's victory was received with enthusiasm. After the announcement of Capablanca's surrender of the last batch, Alekhine was carried in his arms through the streets of Buenos Aires. Congratulatory telegrams arrived from all over the world (including the USSR) to Buenos Aires. In Barcelona, ​​the first European city where people arrived from South America the new champion and his wife were given an enthusiastic meeting.

The triumphant victory over Capablanca not only brought Alekhine the title of world champion, but also indirectly led to a scandalous break in his relations with Russia. It is not known whether Alekhine ever intended to return to his homeland, but, in any case, until 1927 he did not deny this possibility. When Alekhine won the match, reports began to appear in Soviet newspapers that the new champion was about to return to Russia. However, the opposite happened.

After Alekhine returned from Buenos Aires to Paris, a banquet was held at the Russian House in honor of his victory. In a speech at this banquet, Alekhine said that he was glad to dispel the myth of Capablanca's invincibility. But the next day, some emigrant newspapers published articles where the following was added to Alekhine’s speech: “... let the phantasmagoria reigning in our homeland also dispel.” It is not known exactly whether Alekhine actually said these words. Before that, he had never allowed himself any public statements directed against Soviet Union, Soviet power, communists, although among emigrants Western Europe negative statements about the USSR were more than common. It is possible that the publication of anti-Soviet statements on behalf of Alekhine was a provocation aimed precisely at the champion’s break with Russia. Of course, Alekhine could have publicly renounced the words attributed to him, but he did not.

After several months, an article by N.V. Krylenko appeared in the magazine “Chess in the USSR”, which said: “After Alekhine’s speech at the Russian Club, everything is over with citizen Alekhine - he is our enemy, and only as an enemy can we now interpret." Some time later, a statement by Alekhine’s brother, Alexei, was published: “I condemn any anti-Soviet speech, no matter who it comes from, be it, as in this case, my brother or anyone else. Alexey Alekhine." Alekhine's remaining ties with his homeland were severed. He never returned to Russia.

In 1929, a world championship match took place with Bogolyubov (Germany). Alekhine won 11 games, lost 5, and drew 9, thus retaining the championship title.

The year 1930 brought the highest tournament success in Alekhine’s entire career (taking into account the super-strength of participants) - at a tournament in San Remo (Italy), where such stars as Nimzowitsch, Bogolyubov, Rubinstein, Vidmar, Marotsi took part - Alekhine took first place. He never lost, won thirteen out of fifteen games and “allowed” his opponents to make only two draws. The second prize-winner, A. Nimzowitsch, was 4 points behind the winner. Not even Capablanca won such a prestigious tournament with such a margin.

In 1931, Alekhine brilliantly won the big tournament in Bled with a gap of 5 points over his nearest opponent (first place - Alekhine - 20 points out of 26, second - Bogolyubov - 15 points). According to chess statisticians, at that moment Alekhine's Elo rating reached the highest value in his entire career - about 2784. This is only one point less than Robert Fischer's in 1972.

1932 - Alekhine wins major international tournaments in London and Bern, as well as two weaker tournaments - in Pasadena and Mexico. In these tournaments, he scored 38.5 points out of 46 (84% of points). That same year in Chicago, he gave another remarkable session of simultaneous blindfold play - this time on 32 boards, setting another record in this unique form of chess.

In 1933, Alekhine once again broke the record for blindfold play (set by Reti - 29 boards), giving a session on 32 boards in Chicago. The session lasted 12 hours and ended with a score of +19-4=9 in Alekhine's favor.

1934 - World Championship match with old friend and rival Efim Bogolyubov (15.5: 10.5 in favor of Alekhine). A month later, Alekhine joined the fight in a representative international tournament in Zurich (with the participation of E. Lasker, Euwe, Flor, Bogolyubov, Bernstein, Nimzowitsch, Stahlberg, etc.). and again - a brilliant result - clear first place (13 out of 15), a point ahead of Euwe and Flora.

In 1940, Alekhine and his wife first lived in Portugal, but after the attack fascist Germany In France, he volunteered to join the French army, where he served as a translator, with the rank of lieutenant. After the occupation of France, Alekhine went to Portugal for some time. Negotiations about the match with Capablanca continued. Both opponents really wanted to play this match; ambitions were set aside, financial terms were accepted rather modestly, an agreement was soon concluded; but Capablanca failed to get money for the match, and the Cuban government refused to help him. As a result, the match never took place in 1941, and Capablanca died in 1942.

In January 1943, Alekhine fell ill with scarlet fever. As is usually the case, childhood illness was difficult in adulthood. The doctors managed to save Alekhine’s life, but his health was undermined.

To obtain an exit visa from France, Alekhine, at the request of the occupation authorities, wrote a series of articles on the history of chess in Pariser Zeitung. The articles were significantly edited by the newspaper's chess editor, the Austrian master and anti-Semite T. Herbetz, acquiring a clearly racist overtones. One of them was published under the title "Jewish and Aryan Chess" and was an interpretation of the history of chess from the point of view of racial theory. As a result, a number of anti-Semitic statements were attributed to Alekhine, the author of which he (at least according to his later statements) was not.

In October 1943, Alekhine went to a tournament in Spain and never returned to the lands occupied by the Nazis. In Spain, Alekhine lived in poverty - the sluggish military chess life could not provide enough funds. He took part in several tournaments, with rather modest results, and won a small match against the Spanish champion Rey Ardida with a score of +1=3. He gave private lessons to the promising 13-year-old Arturito Pomaru (later a grandmaster, multiple champion of Spain), the materials of which he compiled into the later published chess textbook “Testament!” He published another collection, which included games played during the Second World War (117 in total, 30 of them were played by Alekhine himself).

After the war, negotiations were resumed about a world championship match between Alekhine and Botvinnik, who, with a series of successful performances, showed the validity of his claims to the chess throne. Alekhine begins intensive preparation for the competition.

On March 23, 1946, FIDE officially confirmed the agreement on the Alekhine-Botvinnik match. But on March 25, 1946, news agencies disseminated information about Alekhine’s death. He was found dead in his hotel room, sitting in a chair near a table with chess set in its starting position. Different publications give different official causes of death. Some indicate asphyxia - suffocation that occurs as a result of falling into Airways a piece of meat, in others - cardiac paralysis, in others it is said that the cause of death was not established at all. There are several conspiracy theories about Alekhine’s death, according to which he was killed (poisoned).

Alekhine was originally buried in Estoril. In 1956, the question of reburial was raised. The USSR expressed a desire to transfer Alekhine’s remains to the USSR, burying them in Moscow and erecting a monument. Official permission was received from the Portuguese authorities, but literally at the last moment, at the request of Alekhine’s wife, the ashes were brought to Paris. The reburial took place on March 23, 1956. Alekhine’s grave is located in Paris, at the Montparnasse cemetery. On the tombstone there is an inscription: “To the chess genius of Russia and France” (at team competitions, Alekhine defended the honor of the French team).

Alekhine died an undefeated champion - after his death, FIDE organized a match-tournament of the strongest chess players in the world in 1948, in which the Soviet grandmaster Mikhail Botvinnik emerged victorious.

Alexander Alekhine is an outstanding chess player with a bright but tragic fate. It was this man who was the first to win the RSFSR championship and became the fourth world champion. His life was not easy: he went through the war, received several wounds, was unjustly imprisoned, miraculously escaped execution, lived in several countries and played chess like no one else had played.

Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine had a doctorate in law, was known as a master of attack in chess combinations, had his own playing style and was a truly brilliant chess player, leaving this world undefeated. But first things first.

Childhood and youth of Alexander Alekhine

The future outstanding chess player was born on October 31, 1892 in Moscow. His parents, Alexander Ivanovich Alekhine and Anisya Ivanovna (nee Prokhorova), belonged to a noble family: his father was a collegiate assessor, and his mother was the daughter of a textile worker. The family lived well and had an estate in the Voronezh province.

Little Sasha learned to play chess at the age of seven, and his mother was his teacher, and at first Alexander did not show serious interest in this game, regarding chess as fun. But three years later, one event occurred that marked the beginning of his great future.

Alekhine's real interest in chess came at the age of ten, after Harry Pillsbury came to Moscow for tournaments, who amazed the boy with his play and inspired him to take up chess seriously. Sasha began playing enthusiastically with his older brother, and three years later, at the age of 13, he won a competition in the Chess Review magazine. Further more. Three more years later, at the age of 16 (1908), Alekhine became the champion of Moscow, and a year later, at the age of 17 (1909), he won first place and the title of maestro at the All-Russian tournament, this was his first serious success.

Achievements of a chess player in his youth

Victory after victory, prize after prize - and real passion awakens in Alekhine, his goal is to take the chess crown. First, in 1912, he became first at the championship among the Nordic countries, a year later he won the tournament in Scheveningen. And in 1914, at the All-Russian Masters Tournament, Alekhine shared victory with Aron Nimzowitsch, which allowed him to qualify for the international tournament of champions. There the chess player loses victory to the German Emanuel Lasker and the Cuban Jose Raul Capablanca, but this only provokes Alekhine to prepare even more seriously for the match for the chess crown.

While participating in a tournament in the German city of Mannheim, in the midst of the competition, Germany declares war on Russia, this happened on August 1. The organizers interrupt the tournament, and since Alekhine was in the lead, he is awarded first place.

Being on enemy territory, Alexander and several other chess players end up in prison, where they continue to play “blindly”. A month and a half later, Alekhine was declared unfit for service and on September 14 he was deported to his homeland. At that time, Alexander was 22 years old.

First World War and repression

Alexander's road to his homeland was not easy. He had to return first through France, then through England and Sweden. As a result, he arrived home only at the end of October. But on October 20, he took part in a simultaneous game in Stockholm, and gave all the money he earned to Russian chess players in German captivity. At the same time, he is deprived of all his property, and Alekhine moves to Ukraine. But in Odessa he is accused of espionage and given a terrible sentence - execution. Fortunately, this does not happen, and Alexander returns to his homeland, where he continues his diligent chess training.

Two years later, in 1916, when he turned 24, Alexander volunteered for the front - despite the fact that he had serious heart problems. During the war, he received several wounds and two shell shocks, after which he had to return home.

For saving the wounded (Alekhine led the Red Cross detachment) and heroism, he was awarded two St. George medals and the Order of St. Stanislaus.

In 1919, Alexander became an employee of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department, and a year later - a translator for the Comintern. He manages to successfully combine work with his hobby, becoming a chess champion in Russia.

The further path of the great chess player

In 1920, Alexander Alekhine won the All-Russian Olympiad, after which he plunged headlong into his chess career. He begins an active life, he achieves high results at tournaments in The Hague, Budapest, London and other cities, winning victory after victory.

Alekhine also organizes many championship matches, paying organizational expenses and awarding prize funds. In order to raise the necessary amounts, he arranges “blind” matches in New York and Paris, organizes chess battles and plays in simultaneous games.

The turning point in Alekhine's career was the tournaments with Jose Raul Capablanca, who invariably defeated his opponents. Alexander carefully studied his games, and as a result he managed to win several times, thanks to which he became the fourth world champion.

Later, in 1935, Alekhine fought the Dutchman Max Euwe, and lost by only one point. But two years later, in 1935, Alexander took a rematch (the first in the history of chess), winning an unconditional victory. And this case is still the only case, when a chess player wins as a result of a rematch.

Personal life

The brilliant chess player was never deprived of female attention. His first wife was Alexandra Bataeva, an employee of a Soviet organization, but this union did not last long. The marriage produced a daughter, in whom her father was subsequently not interested.

Soon Alekhine married a second time - to the Swiss journalist Anna-Lise Rügg, and although their union was also short-lived, he helped Alexander emigrate to Europe and hold a number of important tournaments for him, as well as defend his doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne. This marriage produced a son, who was named Alexander in honor of his father and grandfather.

Later, the chess maestro married for the third time; his wife was the widow of the general, Nadezhda Vasilyeva. This marriage turned out to be stronger than the previous ones and lasted ten years.

For the fourth (and last) time, Alexandra married a woman 16 years older than him, the widow of a tea planter. Thanks to her rich inheritance, Alekhine's financial situation improved significantly.

It is worth noting that all four wives of the chess player were older than him. He always carefully kept their photographs and photographs of his children, before whom he felt guilty that he could not devote enough time to them, being distracted by chess.

The last years of the chess player's life

The news of World War II found Alexander Alekhine in Argentina at the next Chess Olympiad. The chess player decided to return to Europe, and upon learning about the occupation of France, he volunteered for the French army as a translator.

In 1943, the chess player was struck down by scarlet fever, which he suffered very badly. Soon he moved to Spain, where he remained, living quite modestly, sometimes taking part in second-rate tournaments. He has to earn a living by giving private lessons. And soon the famous grandmaster is no longer invited to competitions.

In 1945, Alexander is accused of anti-Semitic statements, and he is left completely alone. He would play his last match in February 1946 against Portuguese champion Francisco Lupi, achieving his last victory.

At the end of March, Alekhine was supposed to play with Mikhail Botvinnik, but on the eve of the meeting, the great chess player passed away. He died in a hotel room in Portugal, and the cause of his death is still unclear. Doctors call asphyxia, angina pectoris, and even murder. Alexander Alekhine was buried in the Portuguese city of Estoril, but in 1956 his ashes were reburied in Paris.

Chess achievements

Throughout his career, the brilliant chess player took part in 87 tournaments, of which he won 62, as well as in 23 matches, of which he emerged victorious in 17, and there were draws in four more.

Alexander Alekhine went down in history as a chess player who used deep theoretical positions in the game; many combinations were named after him, including the famous Alekhine Defense.

He is the author of more than 20 books, most of which are collections of chess games with detailed analysis of moves and commentary on them. Alexander Alekhine left this world an undefeated king who was never dethroned.

Alexander Alekhine is the only undefeated.

Popularization of this ancient game was the main goal of the chess player, which is why he traveled to many countries and participated in world tournaments.

In life, Alekhine was an absent-minded person, not at all adapted to everyday life.

The great chess player loved cats, which he even took to tournaments. His favorite was the Siamese cat Chess (the nickname in English translates as “chess”).

Of all the cities on the planet that Alekhine visited, he loved Ryazan most of all.

His grandson, Victor Alekhine, is a master of voice acting; his voice is familiar to many. He voices audio books, films and cartoons, and works on the Humor FM radio.

On the tombstone of a chess player in Paris there is an inscription: “Chess genius.”

Chess Player Quotes

“How much disappointment an opponent brings to a true artist in chess, who strives not only for victory, but, above all, for the creation of a work of lasting value.”

“I willingly combine the tactical with the strategic, the fantastic with the scientific, the combinational with the positional, and I strive to satisfy the requirements of each given position.”

“The fact that the player was under time pressure is, in my opinion, as inexcusable as, for example, the criminal’s statement that he was drunk at the time of the crime.”

“The value of a combination increases significantly due to the fact that it is the logical conclusion of the previous positional play.”

“With a period of political oppression, some seek oblivion from everyday tyranny and violence in chess, while others draw strength from it for a new struggle and strengthen their will.”

Video about the life of a great grandmaster

Alexander Alekhine is a great Russian chess player, the only world champion who died undefeated. At different times he was called a child prodigy and an alcoholic, a fascist and a genius.

Hereditary chess player

Geniuses usually show their talent in very early childhood; Alekhine was no exception in this sense. The family environment also contributed greatly to the rapid development of the chess prodigy. His older brother Alexey was involved in chess, who later also became a famous chess player (of course, not at all on the same scale as his brother) and the publisher of the Chess Bulletin magazine.
But the first person to sit down with Alexander at the chessboard was not his brother, but his mother - she began teaching him when Sasha was 7 years old. At 10, Alexander was already playing in tournaments by correspondence, and by correspondence he also won his first tournament victory. And at 16, he won an amateur tournament in a Moscow chess club, took first place in an all-Russian tournament, received the title of maestro and made his debut on the international stage.

Enemy of the Soviets

Alekhine left Soviet Russia back in 1921, but his final break with his homeland took shape 6 years later, after the historic match with Capablanca and winning the world champion title. At a banquet held in his honor at a Parisian club, Alekhine allegedly allowed himself a number of sarcastic remarks about the Bolshevik government. Whether the words were spoken or not, whether it was a provocation, nothing could be changed - the next day, several emigrant newspapers published articles that quoted Alekhine and his wishes: “... so that the myth of the invincibility of the Bolsheviks would be dispelled, just as the myth of the Bolsheviks was dispelled. Capablanca's invincibility. These publications marked the beginning of the chess player’s disgrace in his homeland - many famous compatriots spoke about the incident, and for the chess community in the USSR Alekhine became enemy number one. Even Alekhine’s brother published a statement (most likely he did this under pressure), in which he condemned his brother’s anti-Soviet statements and sentiments.

Drinker

Addiction to alcohol - not a rare companion of genius - did not bypass Alekhine either. In the thirties, after several years of uncompromising triumph, Alekhine’s career experienced a significant decline, which was largely facilitated by his addiction to alcoholic beverages. The result of the fall is the match for the world title lost to the Dutch grandmaster Max Euwe. Having lost his title, Alekhine pulls himself together, begins to take training much more seriously and important meetings, before the rematch, refuses to drink alcohol. He eventually regained the title of world champion, defeating Euwe in the final, but Alekhine was never able to overcome his passion. Towards the end of his life, the chess player was diagnosed with advanced cirrhosis of the liver.

Anti-Semite

Alekhine's biography contains many contradictory episodes, but it is very difficult to subject these dust-covered facts to history to any critical assessment. One of these dark spots in the biography of the chess genius was a series of anti-Semitic articles under the general title “Jewish and Aryan Chess”, written for one of the Parisian newspapers, as well as participation in tournaments held under the auspices of Nazi Germany. However, Alekhine himself vehemently and repeatedly denied his authorship of the articles, citing the editing done by a newspaper employee, an ardent anti-Semite Gerbetc. Speaking about participation in chess tournaments, it is still worth considering that at that time he was in the tenacious captivity of circumstances - in 1941, Alekhine found himself in the occupied territories and was forced to agree in order to save himself and his family from repression.

Needless to say, Alekhine’s reputation in chess circles suffered greatly - because of his collaboration with the Nazis, many chess players threatened to boycott tournaments in which Alekhine took part, and even insisted on depriving him of the championship title.

Mason

During his stay in Paris, Alekhine became close friends with another Soviet emigrant and chess player, Osip Bernstein. Bernstein and led him to join the local Masonic lodge “Asthenia”. Its members were mainly Russian emigrants, and for Alekhine, joining it was, in a sense, an attempt to break the shackles of the spiritual loneliness that bound him, an opportunity to get along with other cultured Russian people in order to muffle his longing for his homeland. In fact, Alekhine was never an active Freemason - while others were discussing sublime things and arguing about the fate of the world, he and Bernstein played chess more and more and at some point was expelled from the lodge.

Polygamist

Chess remained the most important and, by and large, only passion in Alekhine’s life - things didn’t work out very well with his family. Alekhine had as many as four wives, but he did not live with any of them for more than ten years (he divorced the first one in less than a year), and he saw his son from his second marriage extremely rarely, completely transferring the upbringing to his mother, and after her death - on her acquaintances.

Cat person

It is not surprising that Alekhine was a big cat lover. The only true companion on life path His favorite Siamese cat named Chess became his favorite. Their union was stronger and longer lasting than any of Alekhine’s love affairs - not a single woman lived with the chess player longer than his furry pet. Chess was a real talisman, partner and friend for Alekhine - he took the cat with him all over the world and regularly took him to matches. Alekhine was almost accused of witchcraft - before matches he let the cat sniff the board. The death of Chess was a real blow for Alekhine; he was depressed for a long time and even refused to participate in major chess tournaments.

He spoke several European languages, had a doctorate in law, participated in hostilities, was wounded, was in prison and miraculously escaped execution. He was married several times, each time to women much older than himself, and suffered defeats in his personal life one after another. He traveled all over the world without feeling at home anywhere. The meaning of his life was chess.

Alexander Alekhine went down in history not only as the fourth world chess champion, but also as the only world champion so far who retained this title until the end of his days.

He was born 120 years ago, on October 31, 1892, in Moscow, into a wealthy aristocratic family. Mother was the daughter of a Moscow manufacturer, owner of the Trekhgornaya manufactory. Father - leader of the nobility, member of the State Duma.

Alexander Alekhine cannot be called a “chess prodigy”: by his own admission, he began to seriously study chess only at the age of 12. But by studying theory and gradually gaining experience, by the age of 20 he became one of the strongest chess players in the world.

October 1917 deprived him of his nobility and fortune. And in 1919, in Odessa, where Alekhine came to participate in one of the chess tournaments, he was arrested by the Cheka and sentenced to death. Rumors appeared in the West that Alekhine had died. But he was released - someone put in a good word for the chess player.

After his release, Alekhine worked for some time in the Odessa provincial executive committee, but with the beginning of the offensive of Denikin’s troops he returned to Moscow.

In 1920, he won the All-Russian Olympics in Moscow, which is considered the country's first championship, and became the first champion of Soviet Russia. And the following year, having married the Swiss journalist Anna Rügg, Alekhine emigrated from the country.

In 1925, Alekhine received French citizenship by naturalization and defended his doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne on the topic “The Imprisonment System in China.” But his life's work remained chess. In 1927, the 35-year-old chess player, having defeated Capablanca, became the fourth world champion.

Of the 88 tournaments in which Alekhine performed, he was first in 62. He was a supporter of a vibrant attacking style of play, an artist who created complex and effective multi-move combinations. Many of the maestro's parts were awarded prizes for beauty. “For me, chess is not a game, but an art,” he said.

Some noted his forgetfulness and absent-mindedness in everyday trifles, which contrasted sharply with his phenomenal chess memory: he remembered all the games he played and even several years later could accurately repeat and parse them. According to Capablanca, "Alekhine had the most remarkable chess memory that ever existed."

Alekhine was a big cat lover. His Siamese cat named Chess (translated from English as “chess”) was constantly present at competitions as a mascot. It is known, for example, that during a match with the Dutchman Max Euwe, the cat sniffed the board before each game.

It was Euwe who temporarily took the chess crown from Alekhine in 1935. The Russian champion did not rate his opponent highly and paid for it. Although with difficulty, the young Dutchman achieved victory, becoming his fifth world champion. However, according to the terms of the agreement, Euwe had to confirm his title two years later during a rematch. At the designated time, Alekhine crushed Euwe to smithereens. Having regained the title of champion, he did not lose it to anyone else until his death.

In 1946, at the age of 53, Alekhine died suddenly. He was buried in Paris. The inscription on the monument is extremely simple: “Alexander Alekhine. Chess genius of Russia and France."

In 1970, when the participants in the “Match of the Century” (USSR versus the rest of the world) were asked to name the best chess player of all time, the majority named Alexander Alekhine.

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Every few years a new world chess champion appears. We have collected all the champions in one place and made a short description of each.

This article contains a complete list of all world chess champions to date. If the article is not relevant, it means that we have not yet had time to add new information. Please write in the comments. Here is a list for faster navigation:

Chess has been played for over 125 years. During this long time, the conditions of the game changed many times, and sometimes even the game. Therefore, it is quite natural that the criteria for becoming world chess champions also differed in different eras. For example, during Steinitz’s time, tournaments were held simultaneously in several cities. Or, for example, the strongest chess player might not agree to accept a challenge to a chess match from a potential new champion if, in his opinion, the opponent does not yet have enough skills to take over the title.

As for today, the conditions and criteria for including participants in the fight for the championship title have changed in many ways. Various qualifying tournaments are held in several stages, after which the two strongest players meet and compete with each other. Well, now let’s look at the list of world chess champions and short information about each of them about who went through what on the way to the championship.

1 world chess champion

The first chess champion - Wilhelm Steinitz. Place of birth: Prague, year: 1836. Steinitz won this title in 1886, after which he won the game against his main rival, I. Zukertort. Steinitz created a fundamentally new positional game of chess, and also made his own great contribution to the development of this area.

V. Steinitz began playing at the age of twelve, but the young man did not have the opportunity to show his talent. Wilhelm's first success in chess was a victory over his father's constant playing partner, a rabbi revered by many. The future champion began to study chess seriously only after reaching the age of 23 after graduating from the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna.

2 world chess champion

The second world chess champion was Emanuel Lasker. He was born in Poland in 1868 and won the title of champion in 1894. Lasker was the best player on the entire planet for 27 years. In addition, he is the author of numerous books on chess.

E. Lasker adopted his love for this amazing game from his older brother Berthold Lasker, starting to play at the age of 12. However, the future chess king began to play truly, professionally only during his first year of university. Most strengths The endgame and positional sense were considered a chess player's skill. During his career as a chess player, he repeatedly gave up the game for several years to study philosophy and mathematics.

He became the world champion based on the results of a match that took place over a long period (from mid-March to the end of May) in 1894 in Philadelphia, Montreal and New York, where, after playing 19 games, he defeated the first champion, Steinitz.

3 world chess champion

The third chess champion in the world became Jose Raul Capablanca, born in Cuba in 1888. He won his title by defeating Emanuel Lasker in a match held in 1921. He was often spoken of as an outstanding chess machine, since Capablanca was distinguished by his brilliant chess technique. The third champion learned to play at the age of four simply by watching his father play.

4 world chess champion

The fourth world chess champion was Alexander Alekhine, born in 1892. Alekhine learned the rules of the game and basic moves at the age of seven thanks to his mother and older brother. A. Alekhine was the greatest master of combination and considered chess an art. The chess player achieved his first successes during the St. Petersburg tournament in 1909, it was then, at the age of sixteen, that a high school student from Moscow won and was awarded the title of maestro.

A little later, the chess player begins to take part in professional tournaments at a higher level. Alekhine won the match for the world championship title against Capablanca in 1927 (Buenos Aires). After that, he defended his title two more times, holding it until his death.

5 world chess champion

The fifth world chess champion was Max Euwe, born in 1901 in Amsterdam. He learned the basics of the game at the age of 4, began performing in various amateur tournaments - at the age of twelve he became a member of the chess club in Amsterdam. He started playing professionally at the age of 18. Euwe won the championship match against Alekhine in 1935, but after two years he again lost the championship title to Alekhine.

6 world chess champion

The sixth champion was born in 1911. He first became acquainted with the game at the age of 12, after which he began studying from books. Numerous victories in tournaments and championships of the USSR put the young chess player among the best players in the country and soon showed that M. Botvinnik was ready to challenge the title of world champion.

The match tournament for the championship title took place in 1948 (The Hague-Moscow), and as a result, Botvinnik became the winner, ahead of the chess player who took second place by 3 points. During the tournament, he confidently beat all his opponents. For his achievements in the chess field, Botvinnik was awarded numerous orders.

7 world chess champion

The seventh champion was also a Soviet chess player. He learned the rules of the game from his father at the age of six. Smyslov met Botvinnik 3 times during the world championship matches. Smyslov received the title of the strongest chess player on the planet in 1957, but a year later he lost to Botvinnik in a rematch.

Smyslov was the winner of a large number of World Olympiads, European team championships, as well as one World Championship.

8 world chess champion

The eighth world chess champion was, who was born in 1936 in Riga. From early childhood, Tal showed genius in many ways - at the age of three he could read well, at 5 he could multiply three-digit numbers, had an amazing memory, and after finishing the first grade he went straight to the third. There were many such achievements in Tal's childhood.

Mikhail Tal learned to play chess at the age of 10, already at 16 he became the champion of Latvia, at the age of 21 - the champion of the USSR. Tal became the youngest world champion, winning the title in 1960 from Botvinnik. Distinctive features Tal's game was aggressive and constant willingness to take risks, which allowed him to achieve victory, despite the fact that soon, a year later, he lost again.

9 world chess champion

Tigran Petrosyan- ninth world chess champion. He was born in 1929 in Georgia. The boy learned to play at the age of 11, and at the age of 16 he became the Georgian chess champion. The chess player begins to play professionally after moving to Moscow.

Petrosyan won the victory over M. Botvinnik in 1963; he held his championship title for a period that lasted 6 years. For his achievements in chess, Petrosyan was awarded numerous medals and orders.

10th world chess champion

Boris Spassky- tenth world chess champion. Spassky learned the basics of the game at the age of 5. He first took part in the championship of the Soviet Union in 1955, during the same period he was awarded the title of grandmaster (at the age of 17). Thus, the chess player at that time became the youngest grandmaster in the entire chess history. Spassky won the competition for the championship of the planet over Petrosyan in 1969 and held the title of tenth champion for 3 years.

11th world chess champion

He was considered a child prodigy and genius and received the title of eleventh world chess champion. He learned to play at the age of six. By the age of twelve, Fischer becomes the American champion, and at the age of 15, an international grandmaster. No one before him had achieved such high results at such an early age. Fischer became world champion in 1972, after defeating B. Spassky.

12th world chess champion

Anatoly Karpov- Twelfth world chess champion. The chess player, born in 1951, learned to play when he was only 4 years old. He became a strong master at the age of 15, at the age of 18 the chess player became a champion in a youth tournament, and received the title of grandmaster at 19. Until Karpov became the world chess champion, he was the winner of many international competitions. He received the title of 12th world champion in 1975. significantly surpassed other famous chess players in history in the number of victories he won in numerous international tournaments, matches and competitions.

13th world chess champion

Famous chess player in the USSR and Russia Garry Kasparov is the thirteenth world chess champion. Place of birth: Baku, year: 1963. At the age of thirteen, he became the national champion in a youth tournament (in which 18-year-old chess players participated). At the age of 17, Kasparov received the title of grandmaster. The confrontation between the 12th and 13th champions, Karpov and Kasparov, was one of the most powerful in the entire chess history. In total, these two great chess players played as many as 5 matches for the world title. As a result, according to the results of the match, which lasted from September 1 to November 10, 1985, the chess player defeated Karpov with a score of 13:11, which brought him the title of the 13th world chess champion.

14th world chess champion

Vladimir Kramnik is the fourteenth world chess champion. He was born in 1975 in the city of Tuapse (Krasnodar Territory). In 1991, the chess player became the world champion in the youth tournament. At the end of the 90s, the 13th world champion Kasparov himself chose his opponent in the person of Kramnik, who at that time was second in the ratings. Their chess match took place in 2000, as a result of which Kramnik won and received the title of the 14th champion. After that, in 2004 and 2006, he defended his title twice, defeating Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov.

15th world chess champion

Viswanathan Anand- a native of India, in the period from 2007 to 2013 he was the world chess champion, becoming the fifteenth owner of this title. Anand's mother taught him to play chess at the age of six, and since then the boy has shown good results in this sport. Already at the age of fourteen, Anand received the title of international master, becoming the youngest holder of the latter in India.

Quickly moving up the ladder of chess achievements, in 2007 he won the title of world chess champion. The tournament took place in Mexico. In subsequent years (2008, 2010 and 2012), the chess player confirmed his title. At the moment, Anand is the only champion in three different styles of play: knockout system, round-robin tournament and head-to-head matches with competitors.

16th world chess champion

Magnus Carlsen- Norwegian, sixteenth (and currently last) world chess champion. He won the world title in 2013, fighting against the fifteenth world champion, Viswanathan Anand. The young champion began playing chess at the age of five with his father, and became seriously interested in the game at eight, starting to study specialized literature and practice the game for 2-3 hours a day.

Possessing extraordinary abilities, Magnus quickly developed professional skills. Experts predicted Magnus the champion title back in 2004. World-class grandmasters note that Magnus is not a unique strategist, but his ability to find solutions where others would agree to a draw, and to subtly sense the psychology of his opponent is amazing.

So far, he remains the first and only champion in three categories simultaneously: classical game, blitz and rapid.