Alexander Alekhine
(born October 31, 1892,
Moscow
, Russian Empire?died March 24, 1946,
Estoril
, Portugal) was a world champion
chess
player from 1927 to 1935 and from 1937 until his death, noted for using a great variety of attacks.
(Read Garry Kasparov’s Britannica essay on chess & Deep Blue.)
Britannica Quiz
Check and Checkmate Quiz
Alekhine was a
precocious
chess player, becoming a master at age 16 and a grandmaster at age 22. He was playing in a tournament in
Mannheim
, Germany, when
World War I
broke out; after being released from internment, he served in the
Red Cross
division of the Russian army.
After the
Russian Revolution of 1917
, Alekhine became a naturalized French citizen and studied
law
at the
University of Paris
. In 1927, after a contest lasting nearly three months, he won the world chess championship from
Jose Raul Capablanca
of
Cuba
. Eight years later he lost the title to
Max Euwe
of the Netherlands, but he regained it from Euwe in 1937. Alekhine broke the world blindfold chess record in 1924, 1925, and 1933. He also wrote extensively on the game of chess. He is best known for his game collections
My Best Games of Chess 1908?1923
(1927) and
My Best Games of Chess 1924?1937
(1939), which are regarded as classics.