Alekhine the Schoolboy

[Wayne Komer]

In New in Chess, 2012 No.8 there is a memoir by Alekhine’s classmate, Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov. The six-page article is introduced by Genna Sosonko.

Alekhine in 1904 was 12-years old, already playing correspondence chess for at least two years.

“Completely immersed in his chess work, even in Divinity or French lessons, when all the students except for those who sat like a screen in the front row were indulging in some pleasant activity such as playing draughts, dominoes or even cards, or reading about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or just dozing peacefully, Alekhine alone could not be distracted from his chess labours.

He was so removed from his surroundings that he wasn’t always fully aware of where he was or what the lesson was about. Occasionally he would suddenly jump up from his game. The class went quiet and waited tensely to see what would happen next. Standing up for a moment with a confused look on this face and twirling his reddish forelock, Alekhine would let out a happy ‘Aha!’, quickly grab a pen and write down the move he had thought of.”

His education continued, going from the Polivanov Gymnasium in Moscow to the Institute of Law in St. Petersburg in 1911 and that is where the memoir ends.

A very interesting read. I could not pronounce the name Alekhine properly when I was a teen and was happy to find that one of his professors, Father Rozanov, called him ‘Olyokhin’, with the stress on the ‘yo’, to which the future world champion replied “My surname, father, is Alekhine, not Olyokhin.”

If the young reader is now not sure how to pronounce the name either – then I am 100% with him!

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

In his ChessLecture on Alexander Alekhine last week, Bryan Smith talked a little bit about the pronunciation of Alekhine’s name. The “correct” Russian pronunciation is <ahl-YO-kheen>. The Russian “kh” sounds like the Scottish “ch” in “Loch,” except that here it’s so soft that it’s just a slightly vocalized “h.” In some other Russian words you can go for the full throat-clearing “kkkkkhhh” sound, but not here.

The most common English pronunciation, on the other hand, is <AL-ek-ine> or <AL-ek-hine>. I hate this pronunciation, because it’s wrong on four counts–the accent is in the wrong place, the “e” is wrong, the “kh” has been separated into two sounds, and the last syllable rhymes with “fine,” which is wrong. A much better version, which I approve of, is Smith’s way, <ahl-YE-khin>. This only gets one thing wrong, and he says there is evidence that Alekhine himself pronounced it this way, after many years spent in France.

Dana Mackenzie at
http://www.danamackenzie.com/blog/?p=60

See also
http://danamackenzie.com/chess-artic...tory-collider/

[Ken Kurkowski]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

I've always been puzzled why English renders the Russian letter that sounds like 'o' as 'e' - e.g. 'Gorbachev', though it's pronounced (I believe) 'Gorbachov'). German on the other hand uses a phonetic rendering, 'Gorbatschow', which makes more sense. I believe they also write 'Aljehin', which is phonetically true (in German) to the pronunciation recommended in the previous posts.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

Then you have Vladimir "Putin" (in English), which is pronounced differently than the way it's written in French: "Poutine" (like the cheese, gravy, and fries combo). I believe that the correct Russian pronunciation would be closer to the French one.

And "Kortschnoj" and its various permutations.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

'Gorbachev'

It is Горбачёв, though it is quite common not to use those two dots, especially in old-type printing.

Long time ago the Russian teacher transcribed my name with Э

[Aris Marghetis]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

So, could someone write Alekhine totally phonetically here? I currently massacre how to pronounce it, but some of the preceding posts seem contradictory. Thanks in advance.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

In New in Chess, 2012 No.8 there is a memoir by Alekhine’s classmate, Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov. The six-page article is introduced by Genna Sosonko.
...
“My surname, father, is Alekhine, not Olyokhin.”

2007 Voronkov wrote series about Alekhine (in Russian). He mentioned the letter by Korsakov published in ~1966-67, and probably written in 1960.

imho, the English translation should use "e" at the end OlyokhinE too.

The first known signed "Alekhine" surname is this:




The end letter "ь" is similar to an English silent "e" is some words, and it gives softness to a consonant.

For unkown reasons to me, that "ь" was dropped later in the Russian variation (Алехинь > Алехин), though the English still keeps it Alekhine :)


In my language (Lithuanian) older chess books used "Aliochinas" (a wrong practice :D

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

Thank you for the Russian reference. I used Google Translate and read the whole article in English.
While the correct pronunciation of “Alekhine” still eludes me, seeing photographs of the Alekhine family and his fellow students at Law School really gave me a feeling for his early life that I did not have before.

[Dan Scoones]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

The end letter "ь" is similar to an English silent "e" is some words, and it gives softness to a consonant.

For unkown reasons to me, that "ь" was dropped later in the Russian variation (Алехинь > Алехин), though the English still keeps it Alekhine :)

Surely that's a hard sign [ъ] and not a soft sign [ь] at the end of Alekhine's name.

The final hard sign was standard in pre-Revolutionary Russian orthography. For instance, in chess literature of that era one often sees "Чигоринъ" in place of the later "Чигорин."

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

So, could someone write Alekhine totally phonetically here? I currently massacre how to pronounce it, but some of the preceding posts seem contradictory. Thanks in advance.

Even better: someone who knows how to say the name could record it and post the recording and a link to it here...

like some online dictionaries :)

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

There is a site out there somewhere with a voice giving the correct pronunciation of "Euwe".

[Peter McKillop]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

Even better: someone who knows how to say the name could record it and post the recording and a link to it here...

like some online dictionaries :)

That 'someone' could be Alekhine himself. Several years ago, an audio clip of an ancient BBC interview with Alekhine made the rounds. I'll bet that an enterprising chess sleuth could find that clip in the Chess Cafe archives. If memory serves, I think Dr. A. pronounced his name al-YEH-kin. I also recall reading somewhere that the strictly correct pronunciation was al-YOH-kin but that this pronunciation had class connotations that A. disliked.

[Erik Malmsten]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

That 'someone' could be Alekhine himself. Several years ago, an audio clip of an ancient BBC interview with Alekhine made the rounds. I'll bet that an enterprising chess sleuth could find that clip in the Chess Cafe archives. If memory serves, I think Dr. A. pronounced his name al-YEH-kin. I also recall reading somewhere that the strictly correct pronunciation was al-YOH-kin but that this pronunciation had class connotations that A. disliked.

Dr. A didn't pronounce his name in the video, but said Euwe.

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles203.pdf

[Dan Scoones]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

Try saying [Al-yekh-yeen] reasonably quickly, with the stress on the second syllable.

Alekhine's family lost its land holdings after the revolution. To set himself apart from the proletariat, Alekhine adopted - and insisted upon - an alternate pronunciation of his surname.

[Aris Marghetis]

Re: Alekhine the Schoolboy

Try saying [Al-yekh-yeen] reasonably quickly, with the stress on the second syllable.

Thanks Dan !!