Alekhine is my favourite player. He had an amazing life and he played some wonderful games. I'm willing to forgive all of his many character defects, although when I discovered he had lied about the score in some games, substituting brilliant finishes found in postmortems for the long drawn out ending which actually happened, I did turn against him for a few years.
Alekhine managed to win the World Championship as an underdog, which is very unusual when you actually look back on World Championship matches, and from someone who is still considered the best player ever by some people.
This is what chess needs now, a colourful character who can play chess at the highest level. I was reading Susan Polgar's blog the other day and she was complaining about how some grandmaster hadn't shaved and another had turned up for a game with his shirt not tucked in. What does she know? In my opinion someone like Tony Miles is worth a dozen Kramniks or Anands, even if his chess isn't quite on parr with theirs.
Originally posted by chessisvanityid allow my opponent do drink but i wouldnt want someone blowing smoke in my face..
I agree with fat lady......Chess needs guys with character....even some guys who break the rules and are even controversial...
I think tournaments should be "open" ...meaning smoking and drinking allowed!!! now that would make things fun.
Originally posted by chessisvanityI completely agree. Look at snooker - when there was a good chance that Alex Higgins would punch the referee everyone would tune in to watch his matches. Dennis Taylor used to play with glasses on upside down just for a laugh. Even Big Bill Werbeniuk had a following just because he was fat and drank 2 gallons of beer every match.
I agree with fat lady......Chess needs guys with character....even some guys who break the rules and are even controversial...
I think tournaments should be "open" ...meaning smoking and drinking allowed!!! now that would make things fun.
Do you know what we need? More fat Grandmasters and Grandmasters with beards. Or even both. But not goatees, only boring people with no charisma sport goatees. And goats, of course.
Originally posted by Sam The ShamI know that article well (Hans Kmoch's "Grandmasters I have known" is probably my favourite piece of chess journalism) and I was surprised you thought that Bogoljubov came across badly. I've just re-read it again and I think he painted a picture of a man who was unsubtle but optimistic and likable, I always picture Bernard Manning in my mind when I play through a Bogoljubov game or read an anecdote about him.
http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kmoch01.pdf covers some of Bogoyubov's lesser known and more unpleasant attributes.