A Poetry Collection Dedicated to Alekhine
Hello everyone!
I recently published a poetry collection dedicated to Alexander Alekhine, the fourth world chess champion. I do not really play chess. It's surprising, I know, but bear with me. I promise you, you'll not find a book quite like this.
The premise of "Anachronic Love: Songs to Alexander Alekhine" is as follows: a woman who doesn't play chess, falls in love with the long dead chess grandmaster Alexander Alekhine, and writes a massive love poetry collection in his honour. This unconventional idea came to me because Alekhine's life struggles and his triumphs over them greatly inspired me in the fight against my own struggles.
I know Alekhine is a controversial figure. I do not condone all that he did. But at the same time, I feel a strange kinship to him. He was a complicated man, not easily embraced. So I sought to write this book.
It's divided into three sections: Songs of Life, Songs of Chess, and Songs of Love. Although it's primarily a love poetry book, I've included the Songs of Chess section specifically to honour his achievements and of course for you chess lovers. The poems are a blend between chess and poetry, and since I don't play chess, I've used the annotations from Alekhine's "My Best Games Of Chess" as a guide on which moments were critical and what actually transpired.
As a sample, I give below one of my chess poems:
Alekhine-Schwartz 1926
During the London exhibition
With pure unsighted precision,
There crystallized this gem by the name
Of the immortal blindfold game.
Alekhine played many a board
But quarry to his sightless sword
Was poor Nicolai Eugen Schwartz,
Martyr to Alekhine's dark arts.
Thus with the King's Indian Defense
The psychic battle did commence;
But 7...Na5 would find
Black's cornered knight in a bind.
8...b6 intended to drive
His knight posthaste to c5,
But 14...Rae8 by Black
Would lead to two missteps back-to-back.
With axb4 the sightless White
Truly buried alive Black's knight;
White as the blind game went along,
Meanwhile was also facing a throng.
34.c5! launched the creation
Of a ten-move combination,
That when concluded and done,
A whole piece for White would be won.
Schwartz by now was clearly in pain,
His lot he tried to salvage in vain;
With moves like ...Rfe8,
He strained to elude his fate.
38.Qxe5!! struck a fatal blow
Winning on a single tempo;
Alekhine even when blind would not give–
His 43.Be6! was decisive.
The game had all the tactical flair,
White queened his pawn on the c8 square;
But although Schwartz captured it back,
The game was entirely lost for Black.
But the resolute Schwartz held on,
For the game could still be drawn
By means of 54.Kf5 stalemate;
Alas, the blind only gave...checkmate!
I hope you'll check it out and give it a chance! It's available on Amazon Kindle and Google Play Books.
Posted Jun 11, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC