Chess 16 Dec 1923, Sun The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) Newspapers.com
Russian Chess Wizard Comes Here Next Month
Alekhine Lacks Place in Which to Exhibit Skill
By J. K. Schmidt.
Alexander Alekhine the noted Russian chess master of the “new scholl” who is making his first American tour, will display his talents in Cleveland late in January—if he can find a club in the city that will make the necessary arrangements to enable him to meet the city's representative chess players in a simultaneous exhibition.
“Mr. Alekhine expects to be in Cleveland late next month as he will not leave here until Jan. 7,” writes Herman Helms, New York, editor of the American Chess Bulletin, who is acting as the Russian master's manager while he is in this country. “He is anxious for some organization to arrange an engagement for him and will appreciate what can be done for him.”
In his columns, Mr. Helms declares in an account of his first interview with the Russian that if Alekhine, who has challenged Jose R. Capablanca of Havana for a match for the world's chess title, cannot defeat the Cuban, “one is tempted to believe that no one else can.” He adds that the impression the Russian wizard makes is most favorable.
A six-footer, of military bearing, with light hair and clear blue, kindly eyes, which nevertheless reflect the powerful intellect that enabled him to play twenty-one blindfold games simultaneously in Montreal, Alekhine has a winning personality that will make for him hosts of friends where he goes, Mr.Helms continues.
His looks betray the unconquerable ambition of youth and for poise and self-possession he will not be at any disadvantage with Capablanca. The many who will meet him during his tour and will shake hands with him are hereby duly warned, for he has an iron grip that will make unprepared wince.
His straight figure and broad shoulders bespeak the athlete rather than the mental gymnast that he is, but one suspects with good reason that he is a combination of the two. It should be borne in mind that he has had no parlor existence, despite his chess playing proclivities. At Mannheim, in 1904, he was interned by the Germans, and in time made his escape. For two years, as captain of artillery in the Russian army, he saw real fighting, was wounded, laid up in hospitals and later served with the Red Cross at the front.
When the revolution broke out Alekhine left his home in Moscow and went to the south of Russia. Eventually he was imprisoned at Odessa and in peril of execution. The circumstances that he was a chess master and did not harbor counter-revolutionary ideas, he says, were largely instrumental in effecting his release. Under the old regime he was in the legal department of the Foreign Office at St. Petersburg. No ordinary man, therefore, is Alexander Alekhine,” concludes Mr. Helms.
One of His Latest Triumphs.
While in Montreal, which by the way, long has been one of the leading chess centers of North American, Alekhine had a hard-fought contest with Georges Marechal, one of that city's experts who was largely responsible for the Russian's coming to this continent.
The game between them was even until the French-Canadian made a blunder and was compelled to resign. Here is the score of that game:
Alexander Alekhine vs Georges Marechal
Simul, 37b (1923) (exhibition), National Athletics Association, Montreal CAN, Nov-22
Formation: Queen Pawn Game: London System (D02) 1-0
