Saturday, March 2

Alekhine-Levitsky match, Game 1: Alekhine lands first blow, wins with Black in Bishop's Gambit

St. Petersburg:  Alexander Alekhine scored a victory in the first game of his match against Stepan Levitsky when the latter, at the 25th move, committed an oversight, losing his Queen for Rook and Knight and incurring a disadvantage that proved insuperable in the subsequent play.  Alekhine thus leads the match, whose victor will be the first to win seven games outright, by the score of 1-0.

As we reported previously, certain specific conditions have been agreed governing the openings to be allowed in the current contest, and Levitsky selected the Bishop's Gambit as his weapon of choice for the initial encounter, following, with 6.Qf3, the path chosen by Duras on several occasions at last year's gambit tournament in Abbazia.  The game, a lively affair, seemed in balance through the first 20 moves, before beginning to turn in favor of Black, a process substantially accelerated by the unfortunate 25.Qe5?  Readers will find the score of the game subjoined, along with a few comments by the winner, Alekhine, translated from the Russian for exclusive publication here.  The second game is scheduled for today; we expect to present it forthwith.


No comments: