Originally posted by Dies IraeA throw away comment for what was a complicated situation. Alekhine was not a rich man, but his wife (third wife?) just before the war owned a castle of some sort in France. This made it difficult for Alekhine and his wife to flee France without the risk of losing this completely.
He was also a nazi lmao.
Once Germany had invaded France the Alekhines were essential prisoners of the Nazi regime and, like many others, did what they had to to survive.
Other chess players were not so lucky. Salo Landau, Alekhine's second in 1935 match against Euwe, died in a concentration camp. The Czech player Treybal was also murdered by the Nazis.
Originally posted by Fat LadyThe whole country "did what they had to do" doesn't mean they were not Nazis
A throw away comment for what was a complicated situation. Alekhine was not a rich man, but his wife (third wife?) just before the war owned a castle of some sort in France. This made it difficult for Alekhine and his wife to flee France without the risk of losing this completely.
Once Germany had invaded France the Alekhines were essential prisoners of ...[text shortened]... st Euwe, died in a concentration camp. The Czech player Treybal was also murdered by the Nazis.
I believe that Alekhine was a Nazi and that Fischer would put in an application if they were still hiring. Doesn't change the fact that they are great chess players.
It may color who my favorites are if we are talking about the whole person.
I'd agree with everyone who has voted for Tal, simply because he made chess beautiful and inspiring instead of merely clinical, but as a second I'd have to say Botvinnik: stylistically they were completely different, but Botvinnik showed just how effective the English opening can be over many years...Tal is more inspiring, but you can't really analyze or bottle what he had, he was more of a phenomenon than a talented player of chess.
"A popularly held theory about Paul Morphy is that if he returned to the chess world today and played our best contemporary players, he would come out the loser. Nothing is further from the truth. In a set match, Morphy would beat anybody alive today.” - Bobby Fischer
"Perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived, he would beat anybody today in a set-match. He had complete sight of the board and seldom blundered even though he moved quite rapidly. I've played over hundreds of his games and am continually surprised and entertained by his ingenuity"
"Paul Morphy was a great chessplayer, a genius... Morphy, I think everyone agrees, was probably the greatest genius of them all..."
And i'm positive Fischer's analysis is more accurate than our own 🙂
Originally posted by briancronconsidering that Fischer never joined the American Nazi Party...
The whole country "did what they had to do" doesn't mean they were not Nazis
I believe that Alekhine was a Nazi and that Fischer would put in an application if they were still hiring. Doesn't change the fact that they are great chess players.
It may color who my favorites are if we are talking about the whole person.
and to be fair to Alekhine, in the WWII era, any German in Germany who wasn't part of the Nazi Party was considered strange and suspicious (heck Oskar Schindler was a Nazi and the Pope himself was in the Nazi Youth, or something like that)
btw, I suppose Fischer's my favorite.
I probably respect Capablanca the most, but I think Lasker is my favorite. As a human being, I love his philosophy.
"The acquisition of harmonious education is comparable to the production and the elevation of an organism harmoniously built. The one is fed by blood, the other one by the spirit; but Life, equally mysterious, creative, powerful, flows through either."
Great stuff.