Phantoms of the recent past - Page 2 - Chess Forums

JacksonWShowalter · 11-21-2008, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by notlesu

I always thought the Alekhine police death photo was unusual. The police report said he choked to death on a piece of meat. Now this has a ring of truth to it---if you believe the reports of Alekhine, when eating alone, would wolf down his food, not even using silverware. However, the death photo shows Alekhine, sittin in his easy chair, in heavy overcoat, the empty dishes stack up, all the food is gone! Is this the way a man chokes to death? Did he choke to death on the very last bite (there is not a single morsel left on the table)? Was there no heat in his room (overcoat)? Would not a man choking to death be running around hysterically, knocking over tables, beating on the walls, breaking dishes? I cant help but believe he died by some other means.
I'm new to the forum and you may have already gone over these questions.

Here’s two interesting links:

ChessBase.com - Chess News - Alekhine's death – an unresolved mystery?

Alekhine’s Death by Edward Winter

notlesu · 11-21-2008, 11:10 PM

As regards petrov--- Botvinnik explained his poor performance in the 1940 USSR championship was because controll
was too loose , thats why the powers that be created the 1941 absolute championship. Well, Petrov, who played in
the 40 championship, was liquidated by the Soviet govt. for bad
behavior. Apparently word got around that he was bad mouthing the soviet Govt. The guy was not a world class chess player---he was a guy who could be liquidated without much fuss.
I mean---here is a guy who bit the big one, bought the farm,
bought a pine condo, took a trip to cadaver city, took the big sleep,
took a trip to the happy hunting ground, headed for the last roundup,
started pushing up parsley. Just off the top of my head it sounds
like USSR 1940 was a pretty stringent tournament to me.
Regards, notlesu

notlesu · 11-21-2008, 11:30 PM

As regards Bogolubov, the man was a naturalized German citizen, and had been for a couple of decades. It seems only natural he would do everthing in his power to help Germany. I doubt if he had enough influence to throw anyone in prison. No one has ever named anyone he had thrown in prison.

Kind of reminds me of the Korchnoi-Karpov battles in the 70's. Korchnoi told Karpov to free his son who was in a soviet prison---and then perhaps Korchnoi would be able to play his best chess. Karpov responded---'I'm a chessplayer. I cannot get anyone out of prison, when was the last time Fischer got someone out of an American prison?'

"So just shut your piehole Korchnoi and lets play chess!"---Hey, I just made that last sentence up. Thats not right---I shouldnt do that!
See ya, notlesu