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Our chess team was founded in spring 2002 by
team captain Michael Strehlau. For this purpose he asked several players who had put themselves on
the "Team wanted" list. One of these players was
Gerhard Bartsch, which he had in very pleasant remembrance from a BdF tournament. Gerhard was immediately exalted by the idea to engage some good
players with ELO >2350 to give us a good chance.
Helge Verhoef was another player on the "Team wanted" list. He also agreed to Michael's offer and promised to ask some aquaintances with ELO
>2350. His chess team colleague Günter Schulz agreed the very same day. Now our team was perfect. After some brain-storming we decided to use the obliging team name
"Aljechin's Erben" (Aljechin's
Heirs).
Dr. Alexander Aljechin (1892-1946)
Chess World Champion
1927-1935 / 1937-1946
Dr. Alexander Alexandrowitsch Aljechin was born as the son of a wealthy landholder on November 1st 1892 in Moskow. At the age of eight Aljechin showed deep interest for
playing chess. His exceptional skills became obvious very quickly.
In 1908 he won the first prize in an all-Russian tournament of amateurs and became a champion. Now even his family acknowledged his abilities and his reputation was
growing at school. After finishing the grammer school he joined the legal faculty at the Petersburg University.
It took until 1908 before he won his first important tournament in St. Petersburg. He shared the first place with Aron Nimzowitsch. This was his "coup de grace", an
expression he often used in his writings.
In 1921 he moved to Paris. The next six years - from 1921 till 1927 - he participated in 22 tournaments and also played several chess duels. In 1922 he won the second
place after Capablance in London and the first place in Hastings. In 1923 he shared the first place with Bogoljubov and Maroczy in Karlsbad. In 1924 in New York he occupied the third place
after Lasker and Capablanca. In 1925 Aljechin won the tournament in Baden-Baden, the first international tournament in Germany after World War One. The same year he became a French citizen.
In 1926 he won the competition against Euwe and challenged Capablanca to win the World Championship. The eagerly awaited competition started on September 10th 1927 in
Buenos Aires. The miracle happened. With the hardly contested 34th and last game the match was finished. Aljechin won that powerful fight with 18½:15½ points (25 draws). Neither visitors nor
photographers were allowed to watch the competition. With that Aljechin ended the legend of Capablancas "invincibility".
At the beginning of World War Two Aljechin participated in the Chess Olympics in Buenos Aires as a representative of France.
Dr. Alexander Aljechin died in the night between March 23 and 24 in 1946 in his hotel room in Estoril. In 1956 the USSR and the French Chess Organization agreed to
transfer the corpse of Aljechin to the cemetery Paris-Montparnasse. The FIDE paid the tombstone which was made of red granite in the shape of a chessboard.
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