Alexander Who?
Submitted by
on Thu, 06/12/2008 at 6:40pm.
Yesterday, when one of my opponents replied to 1.e4 with ...Nf6 I said , "Alexander Alekhine would have approved of that move." And he said, “Who's that?” Goodness me! Don't they teach 'em anything at school these days?
I was going to write a piece about Alekhine for the sake of any other newbies who may be unfamiliar with his exploits but Bill Wall has beaten me to it, albeit from an unusual point of view. Click on this link to read it.
So rather than write another piece about one of the greatest chess geniuses of all time I'll content myself with showing a game and a position.
In 1937 he played Sammy Reshevsky when both were at the height of their powers. Reshevsky cheekily played Alekhine's Defence.
The following position is attributed to Alekhine and it was said to have occurred in a game against an amateur. That may be true, or it may simply have been a study. In either case it's interesting.
Faced with the threat of Qh8# Alekhine's opponent resigned. Alekhine offered to reverse the board and continue. His opponent agreed and the game continued, 1 ...Rh4, 2. Nxh4 Qc3. Once again faced with the threat of mate on the move the opponent resigned. Once again Alekhine offered to reverse the board. The game concluded 3.Qh8+ Kxh8, 4. Ng6+ Kg8, 5. Rh8#.
Chess Corner also have an interesting biolgraphical piece about Alekhine. CLICK HERE.