Alekhine's cow

[JustinHorton]

The Chess History account tweets:



It's not the first time I've come across this claim, but is there any actual reason to think Alekhine ever owned a cow? If not, where did the story originate?

[Gerard Killoran]

Perhaps he had one of these...

cow, man a.jpg (31.76 KiB) Viewed 3011 times

[NickFaulks]

Or perhaps he shot his cow with Alekhine's Gun.

[JustinHorton]

Also note this from Bryan Smith

...there was something that neither the public nor Euwe knew: in the intervening years, Alekhine had bought a cow.

What this meant was that Alekhine was drinking fresh milk, straight from that cow, rather than his usual vodka, whiskey, or whatever.

which is the sort of thing I wouldn't mind seeing the source for.

[John Townsend]

Please note the item headed "Milk supply" in Edward Winter's Chess Jottings:

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/jottings.html

[JustinHorton]

Cheers. So does anybody have Chess World for July 1954?

[Ian Rogers]

There is no source for the cow claim in 'Chess World' July 1954, which is part of an overview of the previous quarter century.
Also, Purdy does not mention the cow in his book 'The Return of Alekhine', published in 1938.

[Jonathan Bryant]

It's not the first time I've come across this claim, but is there any actual reason to think Alekhine ever owned a cow? If not, where did the story originate?

Well, I for one find buying an actual cow is the simplest solution whenever I fancy a glass of milk. So I'm sure this anecdote is entirely true.

[JustinHorton]

There is no source for the cow claim in 'Chess World' July 1954, which is part of an overview of the previous quarter century.

So it's not even a quote?

[Ian Rogers]

No, just a statement.
There must be an earlier source, since Purdy was not in the habit of making things up (and published plenty of comments/interviews by the players after the 1937 match).

[Jonathan Bryant]

No, just a statement.
There must be an earlier source, since Purdy was not in the habit of making things up (and published plenty of comments/interviews by the players after the 1937 match).

It's not referenced in Extreme Chess (Thinkers Press 1999) which includes an 'edited reissue' of Purdy's The Return of Alekhine (1938). So I suppose it might have been in the original and Thinkers Press decided to edit it out from the re-issue - but that strikes me as unlikely.

In the Prologue to Extreme Chess - i.e. not written by Purdy - there's a reference to Alekhine losing in 1935 after "he gave in to a long-standing weakness for drink". The following paragraph begins, "If Alekhine loved alcohol, he loved chess and the championship even more. With determination he regained much of his fitness ...." and went on to defeat Euwe in the return match. no mention of a cow.


Worth mentioning, I think, that in the period in question Alekhine played in Nottingham (1936) and Hastings (1936/7). Is the suggestion that he pitched up with a cow as his second? And that nobody thought to mention it at the time?

[Jonathan Rogers]

....
Worth mentioning, I think, that in the period in question Alekhine played in Nottingham (1936) and Hastings (1936/7). Is the suggestion that he pitched up with a cow as his second? And that nobody thought to mention it at the time?

It would be nice to think that he did. There is this (presumably better supported) story of his appearing at the Polish border without a passport and grandly announcing his name, together with his cat called Chess. So all we need is to imagine that the cat died and he then took to touring Europe telling customs officers "come on, it's me, Alekhine, the ex-Champion of the World. And if you don't believe me, this is my cow. She is my "Milky Way" back to my title."

[Kevin Thurlow]

"And if you don't believe me, this is my cow. She is my "Milky Way" back to my title.""

It's been a stressful day and that cheered me up - thank you.

[John Townsend]

The association of a cow with Alekhine's recapture of the world title must date back to his lifetime, since the following appeared as part of a death notice in The Advertiser (Adelaide), 26 March 1946, page 7:

"But Alekhine went into strict training, gave up smoking (he had been a chain smoker), lived largely on the milk of a pedigreed cow, and defeated Dr. Euwe in 1937."

This was said to have been written by "A.A.P. and Our Special Representative, London, March 25".

I found the report on Trove: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

[JustinHorton]

Fantastic effort. Wonder if we can get closer to the original story.