Alexander Alekhine (1892 – 1946)
Russian-born naturalized French chess grandmaster (officially naturalized in 1927 only three days before the World Champion title), and the fourth World Chess Champion.
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Fortune favors the bold, especially when they are Alekhine.
With his death, we have lost a very great chess genius whose like we'll never see again.
Chess for me is not a game, but an art. Yes, and I take upon myself all those responsibilities which an art imposes on its adherents.
He lived in and for chess like no one before him, nor any since until Fischer.
In playing through an Alekhine game one suddenly meets a move which simply takes one's breath away.
Alekhine is a poet who creates a work of art out of something that would hardly inspire another man to send home a picture post card.
Chess first of all teaches you to be objective.
Capablanca was the greatest talent, but Alekhine was the greatest in his achievements.
It was impossible to win against Capablanca; against Alekhine it was impossible to play.
The fact that a player is very short of time is, to my mind, as little to be considered an excuse as, for instance, the statement of the law-breaker that he was drunk at the time he committed the crime.
To win against me, you must beat me three times: in the opening, the middlegame and the endgame.
Alekhine's attacks came suddenly, like destructive thunderstorms that erupted from a clear sky.
I'm very glad you asked me that, because, as it happens, there is a very simple answer. I think up my own moves, and I make my opponent think up his. (on being asked how it was that he picked better moves than his opponents)
I can comprehend Alekhine's combinations well enough; but where he gets his attacking chances from and how he infuses such life into the very opening - that is beyond me.
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