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48 pages with diagrams, tables and photographs. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's quarter blue cloth in stiff boards. Annotations by F D Yates and W Winter. (Betts: 27-32) First edition. Contains short biographies of the players, with a brief history of the Championship matches, followed by the 25 annotated games and a theoretical review. A few days after Alexander Alekhine won the Capablanca - Alekhine World Championship Match (1927), both masters made a general agreement to play a rematch sometime within the next year, under the same rules as they had played the first match. Jose Raul Capablanca did not, however, issue a formal challenge at this time. On February 10, 1928 Capablanca wrote FIDE president Alexander Rueb, explaining his ideas about future changes to the world chess championship. Capablanca recommended altering the playing times and reducing the number of games to 16. He also forwarded this letter to Alekhine. Alekhine interpreted this as a wish to change the conditions for their planned rematch, and wrote Capablanca that he refused to play under any new conditions. Capablanca answered publicly, explaining that he had been talking about future matches, not the match with Alekhine, which "he hoped to arrange. under precisely the same conditions as those which obtained at Buenos Aires." In the meantime, on August 24, 1928 Efim Bogoljubov now challenged Alekhine to a world title match. Alekhine accepted in principle, provided that Bogoljubov could "give the guarantees provided for under the rules of London of 1922," which included a guaranteed $10,000 purse. On October 8, 1928 Capablanca now formally challenged Alekhine to a rematch. Alekhine wrote Capablanca that he would give Bogoljubov until January 15, 1929 to "arrange for and give me the guarantees provided for under the rules of London of 1922. In January 1929, Alekhine announced that "The match with Bogoljubow interests me far more than the battle with Capablanca. Bogoljubow is a much more serious opponent." In August 1929, when it became clear that Bogoljubov could not guarantee a $10,000 purse, Alekhine agreed to play him for a smaller amount. The match began September 6, 1929 under the following conditions: Alekhine would get $6,000 dollars win or lose, with any surplus going to Bogoljubov. A winner would be declared if he scored 15½ points with 6 wins from a maximum of 30 games. Unlike the Capablanca-Alekhine 1927 match, which had been played in private, the Alekhine-Bogoljubov match would be played in public. The organizers insisted on this, in order to raise money from ticket sales. Only those cities that contributed to the purse would be allowed to host the match: Wiesbaden (games 1-8; 24-25), Heidelberg (games 9-11), Berlin (games 12-17), The Hague (games 18-19; 23), Rotterdam (game 20), and Amsterdam (games 21-22). Emanuel Lasker served as arbiter in the Berlin games. Alekhine won the 1st game, but Bogoljubov kept pace, evening the score 1-1 after a win in Game 4. The world champion won the next game, and Bogoljubov came right back again to win Game 6, tying the score at 2-2. Alekhine attributed this loss to an "enforced exchange of queens" on move 15 which produced a position that "could not be defended against by accurate play." The world champion now began to draw away with two consecutive victories. Alekhine regarded his win with the black pieces in Game 8 to be among his best, featuring an incisive mating combination beginning with 26.żg3+! The match was now interrupted by a scheduled two week break so that Alekhine could attend the 6th FIDE congress in Venice. On resumption, Alekhine extended his lead to four games, but Bogoljubov clawed back to win games 13 and 14. This would be the challenger's last real resistance. Alekhine now won five of the next eight games, putting the match well out of reach. The final game proved a fitting example of the whole match, which featured exciting, but risky tactical chess. Seller Inventory # 000457
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