What, exactly, is Alekhine wearing here?

[MJMcCready]

lol, okay gents, its just that I wondered what his intentions where (if he were allowed to have such things) and WHO is that third person, did Lasker suddenly look 20 years younger that day?

It has been hand-coloured, I think, so that might make people look younger than they really are.

(Has it been coloured by a modern retoucher? It says "colour by Klimbim" see: https://klimbim2014.wordpress.com/)

Black-and-white original is here:

https://klimbim2014.wordpress.com/2016/ ... hine-1913/

That's some gifted photographer if so.

[MJMcCready]

By that I mean was it really necessary to wear uniform at law school. If so, why does Alekhine wear it outside school when he's playing chess? Because he wishes to dress formally? Could he not wear a suit like his opponent?

I should imagine the social conventions of pre-revolutionary St Petersburg are lost to us.

I should imagine that the social conventions of pre-revolutionary St Petersburg, rather than being lost to us, are perfectly well preserved in the Russian literature of the time. Though what the conventions were for chess tournaments, I have no idea. Looking at the social milieu in which chess players of different eras moved in might be of interest to some.

And for those of us who love research, its rarely about materials being lost in the midst of time and much more about 'where the bloody hell are they'. The great tragedy is, of course, little of the Russian/Soviet materila of the early twentieth century is still yet to be translated.

[Jon Mahony]

lol, okay gents, its just that I wondered what his intentions where (if he were allowed to have such things) and WHO is that third person, did Lasker suddenly look 20 years younger that day?

It has been hand-coloured, I think, so that might make people look younger than they really are.

(Has it been coloured by a modern retoucher? It says "colour by Klimbim" see: https://klimbim2014.wordpress.com/)

Yeah, that ain’t Lasker though, he had more of the Albert Einstein look by that time. Rubinstein maybe?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Approximate ages for Alekhine and Capablanca are 21 and 25 respectively.

Lasker is around 45, and looks much like he does in this 1907 photo:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lasker.png

So I don't think he looks too young there (if it is indeed Lasker).

EDIT: I think Jonathan is right, it does look like Rubinstein (who would have been around 32).

[MJMcCready]

There are some truly great scholars around by the way, if we think in terms of beyond chess that is. Churchill once said 'Russia is a riddle wrapped inside a mystery inside an enigma' but if you read Mark Steinberg's literature that is clearly not so anymore. I recommend his truly wonderful publication 'Proletarian Imagination'.

[MJMcCready]

Approximate ages for Alekhine and Capablanca are 21 and 25 respectively.

Lasker is around 45, and looks much like he does in this 1907 photo:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lasker.png

So I don't think he looks too young there (if it is indeed Lasker).

EDIT: I think Jonathan is right, it does look like Rubinstein (who would have been around 32).

Ah this is interesting: separate question, its rumoured that some people thought Rubinstein was a bit mad because he thought he had a fly buzzing round his head all the time. So was it the case that he just had tinnitus then?

[John McKenna]

It's definitely not A.K. Rubinstein sitting on the left in the photo.

(Exhibition match game 1 played in St. Petersburg, Russia on December 14, 1913.
There's a fourth man standing behind Capa further to the right, by the way.)

aliejin: At this time Alekhine, as was customary
in the Russian nobility, studied two professions:
the military and the law...

... found out this week a curious tidbit about Capablanca and Alekhine – ofcourse, I always knew it but it had never dawned on me until someone actually pointed it out: They were both born in the month of November; they both died in the month of March; and they were both age 53 when they died! Isn’t life strange… Kevin Spraggett

[AustinElliott]

One assumes the unidentified chap must be a player, given he's sitting on the same kind of chair as A and C. Looks pretty young, too. The obvious candidates would be younger Russian masters who played in competitions in St P and/or Moscow in 1913/1914. The style of moustache would likely be fairly common, I'd guess, but moustache plus glasses might narrow it down. Znosko-Borovsky wore a moustache, at least in the photos I've seen, but the hair looks too curly. A young Grigory Levenfish, perhaps? Unfortunately one tends to see pictures of such folk mostly from their middle or later years, unless one finds an old tournament photo online.

[Gordon Cadden]

Pre-Revolution Days. Alekhine was probably a Cadet Officer in the Imperial Russian Army. Pity we can't get a close-up on the rings attached to his elegant hand. The unidentified player may well be Znosko-Borovsky. Another candidate could be David Janowsky.
This is a splendid photograph. Alekhine seemed none too concerned with Capablancas reputation.

[David Williams]

Curly hair or not, surely it's Znosko-Borovsky, seeing as he was playing in the same series of matches.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=82969
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=47512

[MJMcCready]

Curly hair or not, surely it's Znosko-Borovsky, seeing as he was playing in the same series of matches.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=82969
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=47512

It could be him but more pictures would help.

[MJMcCready]

It's definitely not A.K. Rubinstein sitting on the left in the photo.

(Exhibition match game 1 played in St. Petersburg, Russia on December 14, 1913.
There's a fourth man standing behind Capa further to the right, by the way.)

aliejin: At this time Alekhine, as was customary
in the Russian nobility, studied two professions:
the military and the law...

... found out this week a curious tidbit about Capablanca and Alekhine – ofcourse, I always knew it but it had never dawned on me until someone actually pointed it out: They were both born in the month of November; they both died in the month of March; and they were both age 53 when they died! Isn’t life strange… Kevin Spraggett

And the lesson to be learned from Alekhine's tragic death is?

[John McKenna]

Keep your financial and legal affairs in order if you're going to kick the bucket in a foreign hotel room, perhaps.

[Brian Towers]

And the lesson to be learned from Alekhine's tragic death is?

Drink a lot less and be a bit nicer to the women in your life.
If he'd been living with his wife at the time there would have been an Alekhine v Botvinnik world championship match in England.

[MJMcCready]

Well without being pedantic, that's not quite true. There's a more significant reason which was the principal cause of his demise.