How a Russian chess player first became world champion: the story of Alekhine’s victory over Capablanca – why did he lose his teeth?
The match for the title of world chess champion between the crown holder of the Cuban Jose Raul Capablanca and the Russian maestro Alexander Alekhine, which took place in the fall of 1927 in Buenos Aires, turned out to be dramatic. In the battle of two outstanding chess players, there was everything: a huge prize fund, respect that grew into issuance, and even torn teeth!
And the result is the first-ever victory of a Russian chess player, who by that time, however, had long since left his homeland and lived in France.
London rules
After winning the match with Emanuel Lasker in 1921, the magnificent Cuban Jose Raul Capablanca became the third world champion. The champion who was called the real chess machine, the champion of all time. And almost immediately he received a call from the Russian master Alexander Alekhin, who by that time was just starting out loud to the top.
Of course, the challenge was not accepted. The world champion could not answer him for himself. And the next year in London, Capablanca forced all the applicants who dreamed of a match with him, to sign the “London Rules”, written by him.
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The main point of these rules is the provision of a prize fund by the applicant in the amount of 10 thousand rubles. plus reimbursement to the champion of all living and travel expenses. Of the prize fund, 20 percent was immediately transferred to the champion, and the rest was divided at the rate of 60 to 40 percent in favor of the winner.
This document was signed by Alexander Alekhin, Geza Marotsi, Akiba Rubinstein, Efim Bogolyubov, Richard Reti, Milan Vidmar and Savely Tartakover – practically all the strongest chess players of that time, with the exception of Lasker. Vidmar only recalled: “When I realized that I had signed that document, I didn’t think about anything bad, that I had signed the verdict on my dream of becoming a world champion – such a sum is impossible to collect”.
Alekhine’s challenge
This clause of the “London Rules” was a stumbling block for absolutely everyone. Capablanca was challenged not only by Alekhine, but also by the outstanding Polish chess player Rubinstein. The Cuban champion even gave the Pole time to look for a prize fund, but Akiba could not find sponsors. But Alekhine did not stop. Not in his chess development, nor in his irrepressible desire to play a championship match. In December 1923, he wrote a second challenge letter to Capablanca, urging the champion to agree to a duel.
In 1924, only Alekhine was working on finding a prize fund. He played tournaments and show games, gave blindfold sessions and consultations. But he could not earn an additional amount. The Argentine government helped, impressed by the phenomenal play of the Russian matist at the tournament in Baden-Baden in 1925: Alekhine simply wiped out all his rivals.
“In August 1926 I went to Buenos Aires. I accepted this invitation all the more willingly because I took part in organizing the match with Capablanca … world championship match. Negotiations were going well, and I was soon informed that the financial base required by the London Conditions was well secured. Then I sent my challenge to Capablanca, ”Alekhine wrote.
The third challenge to the champion was sent on September 2, 1926, and on September 15, supported by financial guarantees from the Argentine side. Capablanca did not immediately, but let the match play in Buenos Aires.
Photo: Press Agency / Getty Images
Additional condition
But the Cuban still found an option in which the match with Alekhine could be disrupted. Capablanca demanded that the challenger must participate in the tournament in New York, where he had to take a place not lower than the second, confirming the claim to the championship.
Alekhine received a telegram about this in Amsterdam, where he played 10 games in a training match with Max Euwe. For the first time a Russian chess player has a game in a hard format: 2.5 hours for 40 moves.
“In December 1926, I entered a match with Euwe in Amsterdam. This meeting was a foregone conclusion a year before. It was only about 10 training games. During the competition, I received a telegram fundamentally questioning my match with Capablanca, since the New York committee decided that the first candidate for the world championship should be the one who will take at least second place in the upcoming tournament in New York. To settle this issue, I had to interrupt the match with Euwe and go to Paris, ”the applicant noted.
He won the match with Euwe Alekhine with great difficulty, having suffered two defeats, won three victories and drew five times. He noted that due to the unusual time control in three practically won games, he scored only one point, and emphasized that Euwe was in perfect control.
And in March 1927, Alekhine, at the cost of considerable effort, took second place in New York, losing 2.5 points to Capablanca. But he solved the main problem, ahead of Rubinstein. Naturally, six months before the championship match, few people believed in Alekhine, especially since he did not win a single game against the Cuban, losing in seven.
“Is this a chess machine?”
But that very tournament changed a lot in Alekhine’s mind. Although the changes started earlier.
“I don’t play chess, I fight in chess. Therefore, I willingly combine tactical with strategic, scientific, combinational with positions, and I strive to meet the requirements of each given position, “- after the tournament in Carlsbad in 1923.
“I made one comforting and unexpected discovery. In our first game, Capablanca, although he outplayed me in the opening, achieved a won position in the middlegame and retained the lion’s share of the advantage in the rook endgame, in the end he still missed the victory and had to be content with a draw. This is suggestive, because Capablanca really wanted to win, trying to catch up with Lasker … I am convinced that if I were Capablanca, I would certainly bring the matter to victory. In a word, I noticed a small weakness in my opponent: an increase in uncertainty with stubborn resistance! I had already discovered earlier that he could not get rid of even with the full exertion of his forces. This was an extremely important discovery for the future! “- after the tournament in New York in 1927.
“On board the Massilia bound for Buenos Aires, I analyzed Capablanca’s game at the March tournament in New York. Only then did it become quite clear to me how exaggerated were the hymns of praise that greeted Capablanca’s quality achievements in the New York tournament. And this is a chess machine? “Champion of All Time”? As absurd as these statements are in relation to the player, in the overwhelming majority of cases of whom there are indirect errors, then, in any case, two or three inaccuracies that make it doubtful the possibility of winning. I must emphasize that this criticism is about the semi-mythical “superplayer” Capablanca. But if we separate creativity from legend, then he is a first-class master, whose strength lies in intuition, and not in precise thinking ”- before the championship match in 1927.
Six weeks before the Battle of Buenos Aires, Alekhine unexpectedly accepted an invitation to play in a tournament in Kecskemet. It seemed that he was thereby signing his own verdict, wasting energy on an unnecessary competition. But Alekhine needs this tournament to assess the strength and the titanic work that he carried out to the battle with Capablanca. The Russian chess player won the tournament, winning 12 games with four draws.
“I willingly accepted the invitation to the Kecskemet tournament, although there were only six weeks left before my departure for Buenos Aires. And I soon became convinced that I was playing with the same clarity and ease as it was in Baden-Baden, ”Alekhine approved.
Karate versus classic wrestling
The Russian chess player was tuned into the hardest battle, and the champion went to the capital of Argentina for an easy victory. “You don’t need to bet one hundred to one, but you can bet five to one,” he told his fans before the start of the match.
But the match began with a sensation. The challenger knocked out the champion beautifully in the first game, which almost everyone considered an accident. Moreover, already in the third installment, the Cuban leveled the score, and after the seventh went ahead.
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The newspapers then wrote that something strange was happening to the Russian chess player. He came to the fourth game pale and haggard, and after the game he was almost carried out of the building of the Argentine Chess Club in his hands. As it turned out, Alekhine had an inflammation of the periosteum. Before the fifth installment, he took a hospital break to see the dentist. The doctor said that it is necessary to either treat or remove the diseased teeth. Alekhine chose the second option and lost six teeth.
“For every tooth I pulled out, I pulled out from Capablanca after victory,” he later joked. By the way, the famous Ukrainian grandmaster Vasily Ivanchuk sent to “What? Where? When? “Question about the teeth:” What did Alekhine sacrifice to snatch victory from Capablanca? ” The connoisseurs did not answer. Capablanca could not find anything to answer. Alekhine just broke it. Physically and morally.
The 13th world champion Garry Kasparov, analyzing this match, made an interesting comparison: “Capablanca was a champion in classical wrestling, and Alekhine used sambo or karate techniques in this match.”
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The Russian chess player took the lead 3: 2, exhausted his opponent with a series of draws, and after winning in the 21st opportunity he came as close as possible to the championship title. Capablanca found the strength to win another game, but Alekhine won two victories and took the crown from his demoralized opponent.
“Please accept my congratulations”
On November 29, 1927, without proceeding to the second replay of the 34th recognized game, Capablanca sent a letter with defeat:
“Doctor Alekhine! I hand over the batch. So, you are the world champion. Please accept my congratulations and best wishes for this success. Also congratulate Mrs. Alekhina on my behalf. Yours sincerely, JR Capablanca.
The Cuban also did not appear at the banquet, where Alekhine was declared the new world champion. The opponents started the match as friends, and ended as the worst enemies. Three games from the beginning of the match, they together analyzed what happened at the chess table, and then discord began between them.
Already in the course of the match, the still reigning world champion began to express thoughts about a rematch, and after his defeat he called on Alekhine to give him a chance. The first Russian world champion agreed, but on the same conditions on which he himself fought for the crown. And Capablanca insisted on reducing the number of games to 20. In the end, when the rivals seemed to have finally agreed, the Cuban was our sponsor for the prize fund, Alekhine agreed to a match with the Russian chess player Efim Bogolyubov, who had lived in Germany since 1921.
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Unfortunately, the Alekhine – Capablanca rematch never took place. And this battle would surely be no less dramatic than in Buenos Aires in 1927.
“Alekhine’s win against Capablanca stands out in the history of chess. The Cuban grandmaster is, I think, generally the most ingenious player in the history of chess. He rarely lost, and Alekhine won six games against him. This seems to me to be the most outstanding achievement in the history of chess, ”said Vladimir Kramnik, the last Russian world champion at the moment, about his great predecessor.