MARK RUBERY CHESS

Alekhine, near the end of his life, lonely and sick, but still world champion, told a friend of the amazing happenings at the great St Petersburg tournament of 1914. One night during the tournament there was a knock on Alekhine’s hotel room door. A ragged old Russian peasant demands entrance, saying he has found a secret of great importance. Impatiently Alekhine lets him enter. ‘I have found a way for White to win in twelve moves from the starting position’, claims the old man. Alekhine starts to throw him out, but the peasant is insistent. To end matters Alekhine sets up the board. Twelve moves later, the future world champion, white-faced turns his king over. ‘Do that again’ he says. The old man does with the same result. Aghast, Alekhine hustles the old man along the corridor, to the room of his great colleague Capablanca. The same sequence of events happens. Capablanca thinks first that it is a bad joke: he ends up being beaten again and again in twelve moves no matter what defence he tries. As Alekhine concluded his sensational account, the friend leans forward eagerly and asks the question you are now asking yourself: ‘Then what did you do?’ Alekhine’s devastating reply: ‘Why, we killed him of course.’

Both of these great players decided it was in the best interest of the game never to reveal what they were shown that evening. In 1927 they contested a bitterly fought match for the World Title, yet neither player took the opportunity to divulge to the world their ‘terrible’ secret. However, down the years a few lapses were bound to occur…

Alekhine,A - Euwe,M [C33] The Hague, 1921

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Bb4 4.f4 exf4 5.e5 Qe7 6.Qe2 Ng8 7.Nd5 Qh4+ 8.Kd1 Ba5 9.Nf3 Qh5 10.Nf6+ gxf6 11.exf6+ Kd8 12.Re1 1–0

Capablanca,J - Colle,E [E22] Budapest Budapest, 1929

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qb3 Bxc3+ 5.Qxc3 Ne4 6.Qc2 d5 7.Nf3 0–0 8.e3 Nc6 9.Be2 Re8 10.0–0 e5 11.cxd5 1–0

Alekhine,A - Vasic [C15] Banja Luka, 1931

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Bd3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 h6 6.Ba3 Nd7 7.Qe2 dxe4 8.Bxe4 Ngf6 9.Bd3 b6 SEE DIAGRAM 10.Qxe6+! fxe6 11.Bg6# 1–0

From the starting position, there are eight different ways to Mate in two moves and 355 different ways to Mate in three moves…