Game Seven: Capablanca-Alekhine, Buenos Aires 1927 "Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy."Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine's miserable life was best summed up by the eminent Austrian Chess analyst Franz Michael Kraelor: "Had Alekhine restricted his pervasive megalomania and vile hatred of humanity to the confines of the chess board, he would certainly be remembered as one of the greatest chess players of all times instead of perhaps the most despicable." Alekhine, who played or studied Chess "eight hours a day on principle," was almost the polar opposite of the Cuban José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera. Capablanca couldn't be bothered with studying; his brilliant play was almost intuitive. In the end, Alekhine's maniacal obsession triumphed over Capablanca's imperturbable demeanor; he won this intricate game when Capablanca resigned on the 33rd move. After winning the world championship +6=25 -3, though, Alekhine never honored promises for a return match against Capablanca. Alekhine was ultimately disgraced by his collaboration with the Nazis who published his shrill anti-Semitic articles, and his heavy drinking and smoking led to cirrhosis of the liver, duodenitis, and hardening of the arteries. Alekhine died friendless and penniless from a heart attack on 24 March 1946. |
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