08 January 2017

Alekhine 1913

In the weeks following Christmas, the short list for Top eBay Chess Items by Price always gets shorter. I was happy to find an item that fits in with another ongoing series, recently seen in

Titled 'Original vintage photo chess tournament Scheveningen 1913: Aljechin winner', the item shown below sold for US $345 after one bid. I've constructed a composite image from portions of the original photo to show its highlights.

The description added,

Cardboard-mounted black and white photo of the tournament in Scheveningen 1913. • Size of the photo: 22.5 x 16.5 cm; sheet size: 35.5 x cm. • Participants of the tournament: Aljechin, Janowski, Olland, Yates, Breyer, Ed. Lasker, Mieses, Englund, etc. • The photo is slightly faded, bumped and has usage traces. • The cardboard is dusty, stained and has strong edge defects, see images.

In the top portion of my composite image, Alekhine is seated to the left. At first I thought his opponent might be Frederick Yates, but all photos of Yates show him wearing glasses. The fellow sitting behind Alekhine's opponent, partially obscured by the curious rectangle, is more likely Yates. For more about the tournament, see Scheveningen 1913 (chessgames.com).

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