Alekhines best games

Wondering if anyone has read through this book. Favourite games? Or Favourite moves and what were the main takeaway points for you. Did you put in serious work or just a casual read through?

I didn't think quite as much of this one as a lot of people seem to. Some very nice--and imaginative--games; but Alekhine isn't an especially trustworthy commentator (although he certainly is a frequently pompous and overbearing one), and a lot of the opponents (I noticed) weren't real top-notch.

Many years ago the 1 library in the village near where I lived had 2 chess books, Point Count Chess and Alekhine's greatest games. What I recall from back then, when it was much too hard for me to understand, is that much of the analysis ended with an optimistic conclusion. Recently a GM said that Alekhine was the first person who really understood how to use a mobile center. I plan to go thru his games involving one and see what I can learn. I just ordered it and will start going thru it soon.

I've been reading it on and off for the past couple years and I've gone through the first 125 games carefully. His explanations are pretty full and they give a really good sense of how a strong player thinks. The fact that many of his opponents weren't top-notch means you often get to see a plan fully executed. It's especially good if you play the Queen's Gambit or Ruy Lopez, or if you're interested in chess history.

I didn't keep track from the beginning, but somewhere around game 61 I started noting down those I wanted to review again:

61. Alekhine-Rubinstein 1921
87. Alekhine-Vajda 1923
106. Reti-Alekhine 1925
108. Thomas-Alekhine 1925
109. Alekhine-Marshall 1925
110. Davidson-Alekhine 1926
111. Rubinstein-Alekhine 1926
117. Alekhine-Asztalos 1927
122. Capablanca-Alekhine 1927
124. Alekhine-Capablanca 1927

How to take advantage of your opponent's errors mistakes !! His games against Nimzovich (One where he sacrifices a pawn in the Ne2 Winawer French) & his combinations are magnificent' ... Of course he & Kasparov only became champions when they learned how to Draw many games against Capablanca & Karpov ... Took alot of "Iron Will" to be able to play endgames well

I owned that book for several years. I generally play 1. d4 and end up in a lot of Queen's Gambit declineds. Alekhine's games show how to play this vs the typical lines you see at the amateur level. In fact much moreso than the games of modern masters, as those games tend to be more sophisticated, with modern, often deeply-analyzed lines of things like the Catalan, semi-slav and exchange variation. But masters in AA's time -- even top masters like Rubinstein, Capa, Euwe, were much more often playing the basic, original lines from which all the sophisticated modern stuff eventually sprouted. Amateurs that I play tend to play the older, fundamental lines with much greater frequency than the modern stuff. And it ends up that much of AA's ideas and analyses still come in handy for me over the board today. I suspect the same is true of some of his white 1. e4 lines versus the Ruy Lopez and French ( sadly, the use of the Sicilian was still in its infancy during his prime years....I would love to see him playing some of the modern lines for both sides ! I think he'd have had Kasparov-like dominance in those lines.).

But aside from learning about handling openings, the whole book is rich with ideas, as well as being written in a very user-friendly and compelling style. As far as complete games, I'm not sure players below even the high master level can learn much from his style. As almost no one has the talents to carry it off the way he did (**). Thus for most players, he is more of an entertainer than a teacher.

Favorite games? I can recall 4 or 5 that I first learned of from the book. I'll pull up the opponents/dates/event, and give them to you in a later post

(**) --- > As Fischer put it :

Alekhine has never been a hero of mine, and I've never cared for his style of play. There's nothing light or breezy about it; it worked for him, but it could scarcely work for anyone else. He played gigantic conceptions, full of outrageous and unprecedented ideas. ... [H]e had great imagination; he could see more deeply into a situation than any other player in chess history.....It was in the most complicated positions that Alekhine found his grandest concepts.

Last nite I listened to a GM going thru Reti-Alekhine. One comment was that if this game were played today, Alekhine would be accused of cheating with a supercomputer. I think it was Euwe who said that he was the absolute best at playing with an advantage and turning an advantage into a win.

Interesting points all round. Im pumped to read through this book!!

@swimmerBill
Was it just a YT video about the game you were watching?

@LloydThompson said in #6:
> I owned that book for several years. I generally play 1. d4 and end up in a lot of Queen's Gambit declineds. Alekhine's games show how to play this vs the typical lines you see at the amateur level. In fact much moreso than the games of modern masters, as those games tend to be more sophisticated, with modern, often deeply-analyzed lines of things like the Catalan, semi-slav and exchange variation.

I noticed a lot of 1.d4 games in the list given at the back of the book which is always a bummer for me because im a 1.e4 player and the extent of my 1.d4 knowledge is the colle system lol.
But it was Alekhines attacking reputation which drew me to the book so im sure ill pick up a few new ideas.

@userfriendly2 said in #8:
> Interesting points all round. Im pumped to read through this book!!
>
> @swimmerBill
> Was it just a YT video about the game you were watching?

No, our club has the good fortune to have GM Shabalov giving lectures using games to illustrate the topic of the week.