Alekhine Memorial in Paris

[Wayne Komer]

The Alekhine Memorial Super-Tournament began on April 20 at The Louvre Museum in Paris. The participants: Anand, Kramnik, Aronian, Svidler, Gelfand, Vachier-Lagrave, Fressinet, Adams, Vitiugov and Ding Liren.

The first five rounds are in Paris and the second set of five begins on the 28th of April in St. Michael’s Castle of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, where the winner’s name will be later proclaimed.

The Alekhine Memorial at the Louvre is one of the events of Russian Week that started on the 18th of April. The famous French and Russian museums were not a random choice for this ambitious project. Alekhine lived in Paris when he was in the heyday of his glory and his career began in St. Petersburg in 1914.

In the first round today, Aronian lost to Ding Liren, Anand lost to Michael Adams and Kramnik reportedly beat Vitiugod in a brilliant game.
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Is it just my imagination or are there memorial tournaments all over the place this year? I think the Capablanca and Tal memorials are coming up shortly and there could be more:

Saturday, 20.04.2013

The press conference dedicated to the opening of the Alekhine Memorial was held in Paris. Ilya Levitov, the Chairman of the Management Board of the Russian Chess Federation, was among the speakers, "We have an idea of holding the tournaments in honor of the Soviet and Russian world champions within a year. We just need a stable funding," he said.

In regard to the Memorial Levitov said that the Russian Chess Federation is more playing a role of a "service company" than of the organizer, "This is an ideal situation for us when there are people who are ready to finance the things for which the Russian Chess Federation exists."

http://www.alekhine-memorial.com/

[Eric Hansen]

Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

Ding Liren is a nice guy. I hope he does well in his first elite event.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

Round Two

Monday, April 22, 2013

The commentators on the official site yesterday for Round One were Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam and Alexander Grischuk. Dirk Jan is the editor of New In Chess magazine.
The commentary can be selected in Russian, English or French. Today, the two analysts are Dirk Jan and Jan Timman.

The big discussion at first is the opening in Vachier-Lagrave vs Ding Liren. The feature is Aronian-Kramnik. The other matches are Vitiugov-Anand, Adams-Svidler and Fressinet-Gelfand.

Chessvibes says that there are about three hundred seats available, just like at the Candidates' Tournament. But here it comes: whereas there were about 100-150 spectators on average every day in London, the first round in Paris was visited by at least a thousand spectators. All day long people were queuing outside the pavillion, and only when others were leaving, new spectators were given access.

Timman thinks that Kramnik is the clear favorite to win the tournament. It is a short tournament and the losses by Aronian and Anand may be hard to recover from.

There are not the number of spectators as on Sunday – no queueing.

The tourney is taking place, not actually in the Louvre, but on the grounds of the palace – the Jardin des Tuileries, the park immediately next to it. A pavilion has been erected in the corner of the Gardens, near the Place de la Concorde. This corner is called Le Carré de Sanglier, which roughly translates as The Quarter of the Wild Boar. The kings of France would go here to hunt for wild boar. Some of the ferocity of those days still clings to the tourney site!

(Discussing the Lagrave-Liren Caro-Kann with 14… Bg8):

Dirk Jan wants to quote a Bronstein game from 1958 against an Italian master but neither he nor Timman can think of who it might be. The rest of us are puzzled as well.

After some time the elusive game is recalled to be Georgio Porreca vs David Bronstein, Belgrade 1954. As early as move 11, Bronstein put his bishop on g8, next to the other on f8.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1444635

Bronstein had many original ideas. Bronstein already had the idea of time increments (back in the 50s?), so the concept is Bronstein’s fault, not Bobby Fischer’s. Timman doesn’t like the idea of increments. He thinks that if someone can’t handle his time, then he should be punished for it.

That gives you some of the flavor of the second day.

Tomorrow the matchups are Ding Liren-Fressinet, Kramnik vs Vachier-Lagrave, Anand-Aronian, Svidler-Vitiugov and Gelfand-Adams.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

Round Three

Tuesday April 23, 2013

In the second round Aronian beat Kramnik, Vachier-Legrade beat Ding Liren and Adams won over Svidler. Fressinet-Gelfand and Vitiugov-Anand were draws.

“So the 2800s and the World Champion have already lost games, and Adams and the French players are on top, undefeated. A real crowd pleaser” said a comment on chessvibes.

In the same comment column, a guy with the handle ChessFan praised Mickey Adams. This caused another with the handle Chess Fan to ask him to please choose a different name than the name that he had used for a long time. Well, you know how these things go: there was an immediate response from ChestFan asking ChessFan and Chess Fan to choose different names. This prompted Cheese Fan to write, “Hold it. Who are you people?”
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The commentators are again Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam and Jan Timman.

They start by discussing the pronunciation of “Alekhine” and sort of decide on “Al-yeh-kin” for the English speaking audience, with the accent on the second syllable.

Aronian has been a difficult opponent for Anand under classical time controls. (Timman) Anand used to be a very quick player; he could make 40 moves in three-quarters of an hour and now Aronian has taken over that role. That is difficult psychologically for Anand - it reminds him of his youth, and that somehow is unpleasant. You see someone who has a good feeling for the game and he is playing fast like you did. You look into the mirror and see your younger self. It reminds me of a short story by Borges called The Otter. He meets his younger self in real life in Geneva. (Dirk Jan) The other image in literature is looking into a mirror and seeing their father but they are really seeing themselves. In themselves they are seeing their father.
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(Timman) The top chess players have lost too much ground in respect to the rules and regulations lately. The players should have a say. You need to have a bidding procedure for the World Championship Match and respect the wishes of the two players. When Karpov played Korchnoi in the Philippines – before they had a list of venues to choose from. FIDE is not a respectable organization in many respects – they have a zero tolerance rule, which is completely ridiculous – they impose all sorts of things on players without consulting them. The ACP (Association of Chess Professionals) has not tried to stop the tiebreak system used in London, they haven’t stopped the non-bidding procedure and the zero tolerance rule.
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(Dirk Jan) In the old tournaments there were brief agreed draws. How was that taken at the time? If we had that happen here, people would be furious (Timman) People were very angry. I made a draw against Sosonko in 15 moves at Tilburg in 1982 There was nothing we could do. People were angry.

(Dirk Jan) That is just one game. There were tournaments with lots of short draws, people couldn’t have been angry all the time, could they?

(Jan) It is a question of whom you invite to the tourney. There were notorious players in the 80s who made short draws. At some point there were only three players who were fighting – Karpov, Larsen and myself.

(Dirk Jan) Luis Rentero in Linares was always striving for fighting games and using unorthodox means for that. He said if you want to play short draws do them at home and with your own money. How did the organizers in the tournaments react then?

(Timman) You really needed players like myself, Karpov and Larsen. Rentero later imposed threats and put clauses in the contracts about draws and handed out envelopes with incentives. It was sometimes insulting the players. In 1993 I had to persuade Shirov not to withdraw from the tournament because he had made a short draw and felt insulted by a letter about it he received. It was not easy. Actually Shirov and Kramnik were good fighters and in the 90s this problem had gone away. In the late 70s and 80s Spassky, even Tal and Ulf Andersson were inclined to take easy draws.

(Dirk Jan) Spassky signed a contract with Rentero, pledging himself to play at least 40 moves in every game. Halfway through the tournament he really regretted that because it took so much energy out of him. At one point he went down on his knees in the bar in front of Rentero and said, ”What are you trying to do, kill me?” But Rentero stuck to the contract. (Timman) Spassky told me very often how much energy a chess game would take. The way he wanted to play chess, the perfect play he was aiming for, took a great deal of energy that’s why he preferred short draws. Kramnik takes a lot of energy because, like Spassky, he wants to play perfect chess.

In Montreal, in 1979, before the game, Spassky offered me a draw. He explained to me that he had to do that. He said that he had a terrible situation, he was not in good form. I told him that I was not in good form either. He explained that his situation was worse than mine. But, we had to play the game. It became a very good game and after a lot of complications was a draw.
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(Svidler at the press conference after his drawn game with Vitiugov) As a Russian child studying chess you are supposed to start with Alekhine at some point. One of my earliest chess memories is that of my mom who doesn’t play chess at all – we had a book of Alekhine’s favorite games, annotated by him and I had to guess what move he made in a certain position. We went through the entire book one summer this way, so I have an appreciation of his art.

In the Pantheon of chess, he was one of the trailblazers, one of the people who made chess what it is today. He is definitely in the top three of best players in any list you care to make.
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(Discussing the endgame in Kramnik-Lagrave)

(Timman) Akiba Rubenstein was a very good rook endgame player. There is a famous rook endgame against Cohn from St. Petersburg, 1909, which got down to pawns and he won. Rubenstein could be trusted in technical endings as could Capablanca. Alekhine was a bit casual in some endings. He missed a win in a pawn endgame against Euwe and was very angry with himself and probably demolished some furniture in his hotel room afterwards.

(Dirk Jan) What place does Alekhine have in your chess education? (Timman) I got the book of 200 games of Alekhine and he had the dynamic type of play that really impressed me. First, I learned from Botvinnik, Smyslov and Euwe and only later from Alekhine. He played sharp moves like b4 and g4, moves that came out of the blue. I got his ideas at least and used them in my games.
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Kramnik had to settle for a draw. Adams is playing for his life against Gelfand. Gelfand fiddles with a knight or bishop under the table as sort of a ritual when thinking. He has done this since he was a child. He also has his ritual drink by the side of the board.

Everyone is waiting for Adams to resign so they can go off and see Barcelona play football! And he does.


Note 1: I thought I heard correctly about the Jorge Luis Borges short story. I welcome any correction. I would like to read it. Perhaps Timman said “The Author” and I misheard. Who writes about otters anyway? WK

Note 2: Bayern Munich’s incredible season continued when they handed Barcelona one of their heaviest defeats for years, hammering the Catalans 4-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday.

[Jack Maguire]

Re : Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

[QUOTE=Wayne Komer;67389]Round Three

Tuesday April 23, 2013

Aronian has been a difficult opponent for Anand under classical time controls. (Timman) Anand used to be a very quick player; he could make 40 moves in three-quarters of an hour and now Aronian has taken over that role. That is difficult psychologically for Anand - it reminds him of his youth, and that somehow is unpleasant. You see someone who has a good feeling for the game and he is playing fast like you did. You look into the mirror and see your younger self. It reminds me of a short story by Borges called The Otter. He meets his younger self in real life in Geneva. (Dirk Jan) The other image in literature is looking into a mirror and seeing their father but they are really seeing themselves. In themselves they are seeing their father.
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Aronian certainly used his quick play to great advantage today against Svidler. Through 20 moves Aronian had 67 minutes left on his clock vs just 7 minutes for Svidler. Typical Aronian but at least a tad surprising given Svidler was playing his beloved Grunfeld. Svidler eventually blundered during his zeitnot and Aronian had no difficulty in bringing home the full point.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Re : Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

Round Four

Paris

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Commentators: Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Alexander Grischuk

A beautiful sunny day in Paris with people dining at the outdoor restaurants as Dirk Jan walked toward the tournament.

(Alexander) I’m interested in Boris Gelfand’s game with Vitiugov because he won yesterday but on the other hand, his beloved Barcelona lost in an incredible manner 0 – 4 to Bayern Munich. He has to be in a great mood and extremely angry at the same time.

It’s a Caro-Kann, so Boris is not aggressively seeking revenge for Barcelona’s loss. It’s a solid line for black and it is far from difficult for white to get a draw.

(Dirk Jan) Alexander, Nikita Vitiugov was the second of Peter Svidler in London, so he also prepared with him for Boris Gelfand. How do these things work? They looked at these things together. Are you allowed to use any of the preparation in your own games afterwards? (Alexander) It just depends on your agreement. I allow my second to play almost anything he wants. I will only ask for a couple of things I want to keep and that they not be played. But still, if it is a decisive game for my second, he can play anything he wants. I know some people prohibit their seconds to play a lot of things.
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(Discussing Lagrave-Anand) (Alexander) White’s position looks very promising. If white could always get such a position, the black players who play the Grunfeld would be cut by 75%. Still, it is one of the most popular openings after d4.
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(Dirk Jan) It is the first time that Liren is playing Kramnik. How do you remember this from your own career – meeting a really strong player? (Alexander) After meeting no really highly rated players I was invited to Linares (2001) and was still a weak player and played Kasparov and lost to him twice without much fight. It was the famous tournament when Kasparov scored +5. Five other players scored -1 and I even shared second place in that tournament, which was a bit funny. It depends at which point in your career your face those big guys. Even Magnus, in his first Wijk aan Zee (2007?), scored -5.

(After having a red light come on on their display of Liren-Kramnik)

(Alexander) As you know in Chessbase 12, when you turn the engine on and make a move there is either a green light or a red light. The green light is for a move that the computer approves and the red light is for when it thinks the move is very bad. So, I was once studying chess at home and my daughter asked what are you doing and what are those lights? I told her that green light meant good move and red light, bad move. She made some moves and after almost every move there was a red light on. She said, ”After every one of my moves, there is a red light!” Alexander said, “That’s because you make bad moves. But if you like, I will make ten good moves in a row and they will always have a green light.” But she said, “Daddy, that’s impossible, it is so difficult.” But we tried it and, of course, I could see the first line of the evaluation window and so easily made the test. She was completely impressed and said, “Now Daddy, I understand what you are doing in life. Before, I thought that playing chess was just cr*p and now I see you are a genius!” I think she was never as impressed with me in all her six years.
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(Dirk Jan) What are your impressions of the Grand Prix in Zug? (Alexander) Yesterday again, another fantastic game was played. Sergey Karjakin against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The rumour is that the analysis on Sergey’s part was for a ridiculous number of moves (sixteen) - to give up a piece for one pawn and then to attack slowly in a semi-open position! Such attacks generally don’t bring success. But an amazing concept and an amazing game.

There are immediately four games I would put in the first place for 2013 - Anand-Aronian, Karjakin-Mamedyarov, Kramnik-Vitiugov and Svidler-Grishuk, from London.

(Dirk Jan) People are talking about the piece sacrifice in your game with Svidler. How much inspiration was there? (Alexander) It was a known position. I put the sacrifice in the computer and there were two moves with positive evaluation for white. For one the evaluation was 000 which means black is fine and so I put the other one in and was sitting like this together with my second, looking like two complete ret*rds, staring at the screen and when it came up 000, we jumped up and high-fived. Very little to do with inspiration, you just put the move in the computer and wait. I cannot remember when I got such pleasure from my preparation. We found the sacrifice in London, the evening before the game. The problem was that I was so excited by this that I could not fall asleep for three hours after.
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(Alexander) In press conferences, Kramnik is always a pleasure to listen to. (Dirk Jan) He sheds so much light on what he is actually doing and gives so many details, it is always instructive. His analyses are incredibly good. Sometimes they fill five or six pages in the magazine. I was talking to a grandmaster, who said, “I don’t care, let them fill thirty pages, it’s OK!”
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(Dirk Jan) We asked a question during yesterday’s transmission for a prize. The question concerned the tournament in Mannheim in 1914 – the prize award and where Alexander Alekhine received his award. Well, the funny thing was that the prize was delivered directly to prison because the tournament was interrupted because of the outbreak of the First World War and all the Russian participants were arrested and put in prison as citizens of a hostile nation. In that prison, Alekhine received his award.
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Vitiugov-Gelfand was a draw as were Lagrave-Anand and Liren-Kramnik. Aronian beat Svidler.

Fressinet-Adams goes on – about five and a half hours now. To fill time, the commentators talk about the passing of laws for same-sex marriage in France the day before and also the NBA. Both players look quite tired, especially Adams after a long game yesterday.
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(Alexander) Fressinet looks very stressed. My advice to players who play for the first time in super-tournaments, don’t take it too seriously. Even if you win, it doesn’t guarantee you anything. You will have to show a lot of good results in other events as well. Even if you get disastrous results, it is still not the end of the world.

(Dirk Jan) Well, that is all very comforting. Fressinet used to be more playful and now he is more serious.

The last game of today ended in a draw. So, one decisive game, Aronian-Svidler and the rest were draws.

(Alexander) It looks like an exciting round tomorrow.
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The Fifth Round in Paris is tomorrow with Jan Timman being one of the commentators. Then the tourney moves to St. Petersburg, the players going by charter flight on Friday, with the Sixth Round on Sunday, April 28th and Judit Polgar helping out Dirk Jan.

Alexander Grischuk was a pleasant surprise today. He seemed very quiet during the Candidates but was very voluble this round, showing a good sense of humour.

[Laurentiu Grigorescu]

Re: Re : Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

Again, thanks for posting. Good information.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Re : Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

Round Five

Paris

Thursday, April 25, 2013

From: ChessVibes:

So far a lot of famous grandmasters have been visiting the Alekhine Tournament. During the first two rounds Anatoly Karpov was here, but he has left now. Other big names that can be spotted in the press room are Genna Sosonko, Vladimir Tukmakov and Anatoly Vaisser, but also Alexander Huzman comes by every now and then – he is and has been Boris Gelfand's second for many years.

Speaking of seconds: Vishy Anand brought Radek Wojtaszek with him and Laurent Fressinet is working with the Hungarian talent Richard Rapport. The two have been working together for a bit over a year.

And then there are the commentators of course: super grandmaster Alexander Grischuk has been entertaining the online audience a lot so far, in English (with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam as host) during the first round and in Russian (with Ilya Smirin) during rounds 2 and 3. Ten Geuzendam was joined by Jan Timman on Monday and Tuesday. There is also commentary in French, by Yannick Pelletier and Jean-Baptiste Mullon.

Commentators: Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam and Jan Timman:

Everybody wants to prove something before leaving Paris for Russia. A number of the favorites have white.

Ding Liren is playing a main line Caro-Kann against Anand. Right off the bat, there were twelve moves made. Against Lagrave in an earlier game, Ding Liren got into trouble with his two bishops buried at f8 and g8 and noticed how bad his position was too late. And the computer noticed it too late as well. Timman later checked with the computer. (Timman) Actually it thought for a long time that black stood slightly better when he was indeed lost. The computer still has the problem of identifying certain fortresses and doesn’t notice other long-term problems that can arise like the two bishops being buried. Ding Liren must be suffering as a young player with his work with the computer.
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Mickey Adams has been working hard with two very long games. The tourney starts with five games in a row, which is tough if you have long games – it is very energy draining.
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(Timman) The game against Fressinet has turned into a sort of improved Albin Counter Gambit. It is daring to sacrifice a pawn against Kramnik this early in the game. This is a sharp position. Kramnik was a brilliant attacking player in the 90s but here he may have to defend.
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(Timman) I started to play chess at eight years old and haven’t tired of it. I have been playing chess for 53 years. There were moments when I was less hungry (for the game) but the love of chess comes back. I am over 60 and feel sometimes you shouldn’t play so much but I am helped because I have no interesting invitations. When I played in Vegas (?), I was eager to prove something and worked hard. After the tournament I said, “Where can I play now?” and did other things. Nothing else to do about it.
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Kramnik and Anand are both facing young players who have thrown a pawn at them in the opening.

(Kramnik-Fressinet) (Dirk Jan) We are at move 9. Kramnik has thought a long time (45 minutes for 9 moves). How long can you spend on a critical move in a game? My favorite Spassky term is “crisis”. You get a situation with a difficult decision and that’s the crisis. (Timman) You can have a first crisis, then a second crisis and so on. If this crisis is at move 9, then you can expect a lot more crises coming up.
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(Timman) Svidler-Lagrave is a slugfest after two hours. Looks balanced now.

(Timman) Kramnik is known for his preparation and down to half an hour after 30 (?) moves. It is clear that a lot of these moves were not in his preparation.

(Gelfand-Aronian) (Timman) In this position, the knight and queen work together very well. It is a theory by the late Dutch grandmaster, Jan Hein Donner, who believed that queen and knight were superior to queen and bishop later on in the game. The theory was interesting, not always applicable though. Here is a case where it is true.

(Dirk Jan) Many of the players are in a wild mood today. Perhaps they walked through the park on the way here and saw all the young girls and women in Paris ready for summer and that raised their hormonal levels..
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Yesterday’s quiz was about the new title introduced by Czar Nicholas II, after the 1914 tournament; it was "grandmaster". Today’s question: Two dates in Alekhine’s life are related to an art which is not chess though: September 1919 and May 1929. What type of art is it and why are these dates special?

Note: I have no idea what the answer is here. Can any ChessTalk member help out? WK
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The feeling is that Kramnik is fighting for his life now. Will Laurent Fressinet manage to win this game?

Ding Liren is in a difficult position and facing the World Champion to boot. (Later) He has resigned and Vishy Anand wins his first game. Anand had superior opening play. Black saw he had a passive position without prospects and sacrificed a pawn. It looked like he might get some compensation but he didn’t. Don’t judge him on the basis of this one game. Ding Liren is a very interesting player and we will see more of him in the future. He will be a tremendous player.
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(Timman) Adams appears to be pressing Vitiugov. Mickey escaped a defeat yesterday and the goddess of chess, Caissa, must be smiling on him.

All four games being played now are very interesting.

The cameraman finds a nice girl in the audience and focuses on her. Just like in football. The camera finds a nice woman or someone asleep or just yawning for the viewers’ interest. No one was caught napping today.

Kramnik resigns. The game went wrong for him at moves 8, 9 and 10. Some comfort for Vladimir - his wife and daughter just walked in.
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Note: While I was checking some earlier dialogue, the ChessTV server seemed to go down and I got no further programming.

The further results though are: Adams-Vitiugov draw, Svidler-Lagrave, a win for Lagrave and Gelfand-Aronian draw. So Vachier-Lagrave leads the tournament with a 2895 performance with Fressinet, Gelfand, Adams and Aronian tied for 2-5 and then Anand, Liren, Kramnik and Vitiugov with Svidler sitting in the cellar.
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Comparing the television set up with the Candidates is relevant. In Paris, the producer has complete control over the camera and you must watch what he is transmitting. The commentators can overlay a board and show moves. There is no time elapsed on the screen, so you don’t know how close you are to a time scramble. The images are beautiful and clear.

I have been impressed with the suits the players are wearing – especially Fressinet’s with five buttons on the cuff! Professionals must be very well paid – they all look like they are wearing $1500 suits to me. But of course, everyone is dressed to the nines because they are playing in the Louvre.

The boards, elapsed times and moves made the London transmission superior for me. The Paris server trouble has to be fixed.
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There is no more chess until Sunday. The program starts at 10:00 GMT from St. Petersburg, which will be at the perfectly foul 6 a.m. in Toronto/Montreal, if I am not mistaken.

[Laurentiu Grigorescu]

Re: Re : Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

With respect to the quiz question, the art can be film, as in 1929 was the first Academy Award. Anything could have happened in September 1919. Of course, I can be wrong.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Re : Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

This really has me going. I thought Alekhine might have had his portrait painted or his head sculpted. He was tossed into jail in 1919 for spying so I have even considered “the art of spying”

In June 1919, Alekhine was briefly imprisoned in Odessa’s death cell by the Odessa Cheka, suspected of being a spy. He was charged with links with White counter-intelligence after the Russians liberated the Ukraine from German occupation. He was sentenced by a Revolutionary tribunal to be shot by a firing squad. Some sources say that Leon Trotsky himself spared Alekhine’s life.

http://www.chessmaniac.com/index.php...ekhine-trivia/

You might be right about film. That is more sensible than my suggestion above. From the same article:

In the summer of 1919, Alekhine returned to Moscow. He became interested in acting and started working in a film studio intending to be an actor like his sister. He was studying at the State Studio for Cinematographic Art, Moscow’s first school for film actors, under the direction of V. Gardin.

If anyone thinks they have the right answer, the prize is a year’s subscription to NIC. Details on the official site.

We shall have to wait until Sunday for the right answer.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

5915. Alekhine at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1929 May (maybe)
in movie or with movie stars (?)



http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter53.html

and as mentioned 1919-1920 Alekhine took courses of movie acting.

Thus - possible answer - filming/movies :D

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

Friday, April 26, 2013

Photos of the participants of the Alekhine Memorial on the charter flight from Paris to St. Petersburg.

The lunch looks very healthy although I am not quite sure what is in the bowl with the carrots/beans and on the dish with the lemon slices. Undoubtedly it is the food of 2700+ champions.

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/11806

[Guy Gignac]

Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris Quiz question / Answer

5915. Alekhine at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1929 May (maybe)
in movie or with movie stars (?)



http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter53.html

and as mentioned 1919-1920 Alekhine took courses of movie acting.

Thus - possible answer - filming/movies :D

I answered inside two hours :

L'art cinématographique


--Il s'inscrivit à l'Institut d'État pour la formation des artistes professionnels de cinéma dirigé par Vladimir Gardine (de son vrai nom Blagonravov). Il passa les examens d'admission et songea sérieusement à abandonner les échecs.


--En mai 1929, le champion du monde se rendit à Los Angeles et rencontra dans l'une des plus prestigieuses maison de production de Hollywood le réalisateur, acteur, scénariste et producteur américain Fred Niblo, accompagné pour l'occasion de l'actrice d'origine française, Renée Adorée. En plus de rencontrer des vedettes hollywoodiennes, le champion du monde rencontra le producteur et réalisateur américain Cecil B. DeMille probablement au Metro-Mayer Picture (MGMP), l'une des principales filiales avec United Artists (UA), connue aussi en français sous le nom Les Artistes associés.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris Quiz question / Answer

Guy, I have your very fine Á Chacun Son Héros just 5 metres from my computer and I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t think of consulting it about the Alekhine quiz question.

I have been just looking at it and found the answer to another question – the size of the prize that Alekhine won at Mannheim.

You write: Alekhine fut proclamé vainqueur du tournoi des maîtres et reçut une somme avoisinant 1 100 marks. Aujourd’hui, cette somme représenterait 11 000 euros.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: Alekhine Memorial in Paris

Probably worth more than 11,000 Euros. Germany was on the gold standard in 1914, and a Mark was worth about $0.25 US (1100 Marks = $275 US in 1914) - or 1/80 ounce of gold (gold was $20.67 US per ounce; 1100 Marks = 13.75 ounces of gold in 1914).

Multiply 13.75 by today's gold price ($1460 per ounce) gives you a little over $20,000 US (a little over 15,000 Euros).