Hitler + Lenin and Chess.
I remember reading in a history of chess article that Adolf Hitler privately told Dr Fritz Todt that he was a good player in Vienna during his jobbing street artist days. Vienna was a chess café haven. The Bohemian corporal told Todt that he had tried to eradicate this part of his personal history, due his Jewish chess playing connections.
Please See this link and the engraving – any comments on if it is another Hitler Diary story?
Would a famous Lenin play a young patzer? Doubtful.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/cult ... Lenin.html
I also notice this chess game of Lenin. The man who made Chess the official Sport of the Soviet Union (cf Chess as a Sport). [ IMHO -- Maxim Gorky looks a useful player].
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin vs Maxim Gorky
Capri, Italy (1908) · Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack. Main Line (B03) · 0-1
Not bad in 1908 a mainline Hypermodern Defence - 4 pawns attack, pre 1914 in the Balkans, pre Berlin -1918 (Budapest Defence- of Rubenstein v Dr Vidmar - the often quoted major milestone of Hypermodernism) .
Also rather beats the usually references of…
“The opening is named after Alexander Alekhine, who introduced it in the 1921 Budapest tournament in games against Endre Steiner[2] and Fritz Sämisch. “
Shades of the Lucena Book (1497) where clearly games had come from a decade or two earlier.
A picture -- a different game ---
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=100761
Regards Gary Kenworthy, Bletchley.