CHESS
Storm and stress
Raymond Keene
one of the most important books of the year, a desideratum for anyone in- terested in chess, is Alekhine's Greatest Games (Batsford, £14.95). A massive tome of more. than 650 pages, this contains 220 games annotated by Alekhine himself, with another 42 analysed by C.H.O'D. Alexander, my distinguished predecessor as chess columnist for The Spectator. The trilogy which makes up this composite volume has long been unavailable, but now the opportunity exists to compare the three phases of Alekhine's career (1908-1923, 1924-1937 and 1938-1946) under one roof. Prefacing the brilliant games is a foreword by Kasparov, in which he pays tribute to the stormy nature of Alekhine's genius.
It has commonly been said that Alekhine's play showed a marked falling- off from 1938-46. He has also suffered opprobrium for the notorious articles he wrote in the Pariser Zeitung during the war, in which he impugned the creativity of Jewish Grandmasters, such as Lasker and Nimzowitsch. Perhaps, as a result, confu- sion has arisen amongst his critics, between Alekhine the man and Alekhine the chess- player. Detractors have denigrated his play in these later years, their negative view coloured by his authorship of such hopelessly misguided propaganda. When he wrote these articles, Alekhine, an opportunist in life as in chess, was probably anxious to ingratiate himself with the Germans, the only organisers of chess tournaments in Western Europe at the time. Doubtless he believed that the Nazis were too stupid to realise he was writing rubbish. Equally, he must have thought, the chess world would ignore them, since the articles were so evidently nonsense, devoid of any kind of understanding of chess. If so, he had grievously miscalcu- lated.
Even in Du Mont's otherwise excellent memoir in this book we read, of this part of Alekhine's career, that it was 'a tragedy, as was his life during that period. He still won tournaments in Germany and occupied territory during the war and after that in Spain and Portugal, but the opposition was comparatively weak on the whole and made no call on his combative instinct.' This thinking — and it is widespread — is of the cast that dismisses Schopenhauer's philosophy because he was rude to his landlady. It has also led to an unjust underestimation of the masterpieces to be found in Alekhine's concluding years. Re- examining the games here, I have come to the conclusion that they are actually richer and deeper than many of his earlier pro- ductions. It is further clear to me that there was no falling-off in his strength at all, not, that is, until mid-1945, when the ravages of alcoholic abuse finally undermined Alekhine's system.
From 1939 until 1945 Alekhine remained as strong and active as ever. Though chess tournaments and travel for Masters were severely restricted, he did his utmost to prove he was the best, in spite of the fact that he could not, at this time, possibly hope to face his potentially most formid- able rival, the Soviet Grandmaster Botvin- nik. The sole focus of comparison during the war between Alekhine and Botvinnik was the Estonian Grandmaster Paul Keres, victor of the super-tournament, AVRO 1938. Keres, surprisingly, seemed able to participate with equal ease in both Soviet and German events. If one compares Alekhine's record against him with Botvin- nik's during the war, Alekhine established a much clearer ascendancy in their person- al games. At Prague 1943 Alekhine won
with the amazing score of 17 points out of 19 to Keres's second place on 141/2. This was an Alekhine triumph which ranks amongst his most glorious achievements. If Alekhine had been challenged by Botvin- nik for the world title at any point up to 1945 I am sure it would have been an even and fascinating contest. Beyond that point Alekhine had more or less collapsed. The challenge from Botvinnik in 1946 for a world championship, to be held in Eng- land, by the way, came as Alekhine was about to breath his last, a destitute drunk stranded in Lisbon. England had to wait a further 40 years before Kasparov and Karpov finally brought a title match here.
To conclude, two samples of Alekhine's play from the war years, so that the reader may form an independent opinion:
Alekhine-Junge: Prague, 1942; Catalan Open- ing.
1 d4 c15 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 g3 dxc4 5 Qa4+ Nbd7 6 Bg2 a6 7 Qxc4 b5 8 Qc6 Rb8 9 0-0 Bbl 10 Qc2 c5 11 a4 Bxf3 12 Bxf3 cxd4 13 axb5 axb5 14 Rdl Qb6 15 Nd2 e5 16 Nb3 Nc5 17 NxcS BxcS Alekhine's next move is one of the most beautiful and forceful I have ever seen, brilliant- ly sacrificing the exchange to pin down the black king in the centre. 18 Ra6!! Qsa.6 19 QxcS Qe6 20 Bc6+ Nd7 21 Bxd7+ Kxd7 22 Qa7+ Kc6 23 Bd2 RhcS 24 e4 Qb3 Now there is no escape from White's net. 25 Ral b4 26 Ra6+ Kb5 27 Ra5+ Kc6 28 Qc5+ Kd7 29 Ra7+ Black resigns. Junge was a most gifted young German, sadly killed in the closing days of the war.
Alekhine-Keres: Munich, 1942; Queen's Indian Defence.
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 b6 3 d4 Bb7 4 g3 e6 5 Bg2 Be7 6 0-0 0.0 7 b3 d5 8 Ne5 c6 9 Bb2 Nbd7 10 Nd2 Rc8 11 Re! c5 12 e3 Rc7 13 Qe2 Qa8 14 cxd5 Nxd5 15 e4 Nf6 Alekhine now makes forceful use of the unprotected state of Black's rook on c7. 16 b4 Rfc8 17 dxc5 bxc5 18 b5 a6 19 a4 axb5 20 axb5 Qa2 An error, overlooking White's next, which threatens Ral trapping Black's queen. 21 Nec4 Qa8 22 Bxf6 gxf6 However Keres plays, he must lose the exchange. Alekhine finishes him off briskly. 23 b6 Rc6 24 e5 Rxb6 25 Nxb6 Nxb6 26 Bxb7 Qxb7 27 exf6 Bxf6 28 Ne4 Bel 29 Qg4+ Kh8 30 Qf4 Bf8 31 NxcS Qc7 32 Nxe6 Qxf4 33 Nxf4 Black resigns.
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