1.
Manchester
Manchester is a major city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, with a population of 514,414 as of 2013. It lies within the United Kingdoms second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.55 million, Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council and it was historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated during the 20th century. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a township but began to expand at an astonishing rate around the turn of the 19th century. Manchesters unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and its fortunes declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation.
The city centre was devastated in a bombing in 1996, but it led to extensive investment, in 2014, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city, the highest-ranked British city apart from London. Manchester is the third-most visited city in the UK and it is notable for its architecture, musical exports, media links and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the worlds first inter-city passenger railway station and in the city scientists first split the atom, the name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunium and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. These are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, both meanings are preserved in languages derived from Common Brittonic, mam meaning breast in Irish and mother in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English ceaster and their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford.
Central Manchester has been settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell, much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North. Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor and constructed a church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral, the premises of the college house Chethams School of Music. The library, which opened in 1653 and is open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom. Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282, around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the regions textile industry
2.
Leipzig
Leipzig is the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. With a population of 570,087 inhabitants it is Germanys tenth most populous city, Leipzig is located about 160 kilometres southwest of Berlin at the confluence of the White Elster and Parthe rivers at the southern end of the North German Plain. Leipzig has been a city since at least the time of the Holy Roman Empire. The city sits at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, Leipzig was once one of the major European centers of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing. Leipzig became an urban center within the German Democratic Republic after the Second World War. Leipzig played a significant role in instigating the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, through events which took place in, Leipzig today is an economic center and the most livable city in Germany, according to the GfK marketing research institution. Since the opening of the Leipzig City Tunnel in 2013, Leipzig forms the centerpiece of the S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland public transit system, Leipzig is currently listed as Gamma World City and Germanys Boomtown.
Outside of Leipzig the Neuseenland district forms a lake area of approximately 300 square kilometres. Leipzig is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means settlement where the linden trees stand, an older spelling of the name in English is Leipsic. The Latin name Lipsia was used, the name is cognate with Lipetsk in Russia and Liepāja in Latvia. In 1937 the Nazi government officially renamed the city Reichsmessestadt Leipzig, the common usage of this nickname for Leipzig up until the present is reflected, for example, in the name of a popular blog for local arts and culture, Heldenstadt. de. Leipzig was first documented in 1015 in the chronicles of Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg as urbs Libzi and endowed with city, Leipzig Trade Fair, started in the Middle Ages, became an event of international importance and is the oldest remaining trade fair in the world. During the Thirty Years War, two battles took place in Breitenfeld, about 8 kilometres outside Leipzig city walls, the first Battle of Breitenfeld took place in 1631 and the second in 1642.
Both battles resulted in victories for the Swedish-led side, on 24 December 1701, an oil-fueled street lighting system was introduced. The city employed light guards who had to follow a schedule to ensure the punctual lighting of the 700 lanterns. The Leipzig region was the arena of the 1813 Battle of Leipzig between Napoleonic France and a coalition of Prussia, Russia and Sweden. It was the largest battle in Europe prior to the First World War, in 1913 the Monument to the Battle of the Nations celebrating the centenary of this event was completed. The railway station has two entrance halls, the eastern one for the Royal Saxon State Railways and the western one for the Prussian state railways
3.
Harry Nelson Pillsbury
Harry Nelson Pillsbury was a leading American chess player. At the age of 22, he won one of the strongest tournaments of the time but his illness, Pillsbury was born in Somerville, moved to New York City in 1894, to Philadelphia in 1898. By 1890, having only played chess for two years, he beat noted expert H. N. Stone, in April 1892, Pillsbury won a match two games to one against World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz, who gave him odds of a pawn. Pillsburys rise was meteoric, and there was no one to challenge him in the New York chess scene. The Brooklyn chess club sponsored his journey to Europe to play in the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, the dynamic style that Pillsbury exhibited during the tournament helped to popularize the Queens Gambit during the 1890s, including his famous win over Siegbert Tarrasch. His next major tournament was in Saint Petersburg the same year, Pillsbury appears to have contracted syphilis prior to the start of the event. Although he was in the lead after the first half of the tournament, he was affected by severe headaches and scored only 1½/9 in the second half, ultimately finishing third.
He lost a critical fourth cycle encounter to Lasker, and Garry Kasparov has suggested that had he won, he could well have won the tournament, in spite of his ill health, Pillsbury beat American champion Jackson Showalter in 1897 to win the U. S. Chess Championship, a title he held until his death in 1906, poor mental and physical health, the result of his syphilis infection, prevented him from realizing his full potential throughout the rest of his life. He succumbed to the illness in a Philadelphia hospital in 1906, Pillsbury is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Reading, Massachusetts. Pillsbury had a record against Lasker, a feat matched or surpassed by few. Pillsbury was a strong blindfold chess player, and could play checkers and chess simultaneously while playing a hand of whist. His maximum was 22 simultaneous blindfold games at Moscow 1902, Pillsbury gave a marvellous performance, winning 13 of the 16 blindfold games, drawing two, and losing only one. He played strong chess and made no mistakes and it was quite an astounding demonstration, but Alekhine made quite a number of mistakes, and his performance did not impress me half as much as Pillsburys in Breslau.
Harry Nelson Pillsbury, A Genius Ahead of His Time, harry Nelson Pillsbury player profile and games at Chessgames. com Edward Winter, Pillsburys Torment The Boston Globe article A New Grave Marker with Reunited Family
4.
Isidor Gunsberg
Isidor Arthur Gunsberg was a Hungarian chess player, best known for narrowly losing the 1891 World Chess Championship match to Wilhelm Steinitz. Gunsberg began his career as the operating the remote-controlled chess automaton Mephisto. He moved to Great Britain in 1876, becoming a naturalized British citizen on 12 May 1908, in the late 1880s and early 1890s Gunsberg was one of the top players in the world. He decisively won a tournament in London in July 1885. In match play, he defeated Joseph Blackburne and Henry Bird in 1886, in 1887, he shared first with Amos Burn in the London tournament. In 1890 he drew a match with Mikhail Chigorin, a former, that year, Gunsberg himself challenged Wilhelm Steinitz for the world title. The match took place in New York City and Gunsberg lost with four wins, six losses, in 1916 he sued the Evening News for libel when they said that his chess column contained blunders. He won the suit after the British High Court accepted a submission that in chess matters, arpad Elo calculates that Gunsbergs best 5-year average Elo rating was 2560.
According to Chessmetrics, Gunsbergs best single performance was his 1887 match against Blackburne, Gunsbergs performance in the world championship match against Steinitz indicated he was a part of the world elite in the late 1880s and early 1890s. However, in the year he qualified for the match against Steinitz,1889, at Amsterdam, he finished in 5th place out of 9 competitors with a −1 score, 4/9, behind Burn, a young Emanuel Lasker and Van Vliet. At the German Chess Congress, he finished tied for 4th–7th places out of 18 competitors, with a +3 score, 10/17, behind Tarrasch, Burn, on, Gunsbergs position among the foremost chess masters would slip. In the famous Hastings 1895 chess tournament, Gunsberg finished with a −3 score of 9/21, the Family Life of Grandmaster Gunsberg. Jacobs, Porter, A. Gunsberg, Isidor Gunsberg player profile and games at Chessgames. com Winter, Edward. Chess in the Courts CN3824, July 2005, Libel Suit CN5113, August 2007, Isidor Gunsberg CN5136, September 2007, An Interview with Gunsberg
5.
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city and, after Leipzig, the second-largest city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the border with the Czech Republic, Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendour. The city was known as the Jewel Box, because of its baroque, the controversial American and British bombing of Dresden in World War II towards the end of the war killed approximately 25,000, many of whom were civilians, and destroyed the entire city centre. After the war restoration work has helped to reconstruct parts of the inner city, including the Katholische Hofkirche, the Zwinger. Since German reunification in 1990 Dresden is again a cultural and political centre of Germany, the Dresden University of Technology is one of the 10 largest universities in Germany and part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative.
The economy of Dresden and its agglomeration is one of the most dynamic in Germany and it is dominated by high-tech branches, often called as “Silicon Saxony”. The city is one of the most visited in Germany with 4,3 million overnight stays per year. The royal buildings are among the most impressive buildings in Europe, main sights are the nearby National Park of Saxon Switzerland, the Ore Mountains and the countryside around Elbe Valley and Moritzburg Castle. The most prominent building in the city of Dresden is the Frauenkirche, built in the 18th century, the church was destroyed during World War II. The remaining ruins were left for 50 years as a war memorial, the church was rebuilt from 1994 to 2005. Although Dresden is a relatively recent city of Germanic origin followed by settlement of Slavic people, Dresdens founding and early growth is associated with the eastward expansion of Germanic peoples, mining in the nearby Ore Mountains, and the establishment of the Margraviate of Meissen. Its name etymologically derives from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning people of the forest, Dresden evolved into the capital of Saxony.
Around the late 12th century, a Slavic settlement called Drežďany had developed on the southern bank, another settlement existed on the northern bank, but its Slavic name is unknown. It was known as Antiqua Dresdin by 1350, and as Altendresden, Margrave of Meissen, chose Dresden as his interim residence in 1206, as documented in a record calling the place Civitas Dresdene. After 1270, Dresden became the capital of the margraviate and it was given to Friedrich Clem after death of Henry the Illustrious in 1288. It was taken by the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1316 and was restored to the Wettin dynasty after the death of Valdemar the Great in 1319, from 1485, it was the seat of the dukes of Saxony, and from 1547 the electors as well. The Elector and ruler of Saxony Frederick Augustus I became King Augustus II the Strong of Poland in personal union and he gathered many of the best musicians and painters from all over Europe to the newly named Royal-Polish Residential City of Dresden. His reign marked the beginning of Dresdens emergence as a leading European city for technology, during the reign of Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland the Zwinger Royal Palace, the Hofkirche and the Frauenkirche were built
6.
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin.
This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index.
Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD.
With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
7.
Bavaria
Bavaria is a free state and one of 16 federal states of Germany. Located in the German southeast with an area of 70,548 square kilometres and its territory comprises roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany, with 12.9 million inhabitants, it is Germanys second most populous state. Munich, Bavarias capital and largest city, is the third largest city in Germany, the Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century CE, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when Bavaria became a republic. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria re-organised itself on democratic lines after the Second World War, Bavaria has a unique culture, largely because of the states Catholic majority and conservative traditions. Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes such as Oktoberfest. The state has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, modern Bavaria includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia.
The Bavarians emerged in a north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Celts. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Allemanni, Thuringians, Scirians, the name Bavarian means Men of Baia which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520, a 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BCE. From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria and their daughter, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibalds successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the frontier against the expansion of Slavs.
Tassilos son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616, after Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and his son, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodos death the duchy was divided among his sons, at Hugberts death the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighbouring Alemannia. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748, saint Boniface completed the peoples conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Bavaria was in ways affected by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century
8.
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a called Ingermanland.
A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter.
However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
9.
Aron Nimzowitsch
Aron Nimzowitsch was a Russian-born, Danish leading chess master and a very influential chess writer. He was the foremost figure amongst the hypermoderns, born in part of the Russian Empire, the Jewish German-speaking Nimzowitsch came from a wealthy family, where he learned chess from his father, who was a merchant. In 1904, he travelled to Berlin to study philosophy, but set aside his studies soon and he won his first international tournament at Munich 1906. Then, he tied for first with Alexander Alekhine at St. Petersburg 1913/14, during the 1917 Russian Revolution, Nimzowitsch was in the Baltic war zone. He escaped being drafted into one of the armies by feigning madness and he escaped to Berlin, and gave his first name as Arnold, possibly to avoid anti-Semitic persecution. Nimzowitsch eventually moved to Copenhagen in 1922, which coincided with his rise to the world chess elite, in Copenhagen, he twice won the Nordic Chess Championship, in 1924 and 1934. He obtained Danish citizenship and lived in Denmark until his death in 1935, the height of Nimzowitschs career was the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Chessmetrics places him as the third best player in the world from 1927 to 1931, behind Alexander Alekhine, Nimzowitsch never beat Capablanca, but fared better against Alekhine. He even beat Alekhine with the pieces, in their short 1914 match at St. Petersburg. One of Nimzowitschs most famous games is his celebrated immortal zugzwang game against Sämisch at Copenhagen 1923, another game on this theme is his win over Paul Johner at Dresden 1926. When in form, Nimzowitsch was very dangerous with the black pieces, Nimzowitsch is considered one of the most important players and writers in chess history. His works influenced other players, including Savielly Tartakower, Milan Vidmar, Richard Réti, Akiba Rubinstein, Bent Larsen and Tigran Petrosian. Mein System is considered to be one of the most influential books of all time. Nimzowitschs chess theories, when first propounded flew in the face of widely held orthodoxies enunciated by the dominant theorist of the era, Siegbert Tarrasch, and his disciples.
Tarraschs rigid generalizations drew on the work of Wilhelm Steinitz. Notable in his system were concepts such as overprotection of pieces and pawns under attack, control of the center by pieces instead of pawns, blockading of opposing pieces and he was a leading exponent of the fianchetto development of bishops. Perhaps most importantly, he formulated the terminology still in use for various complex chess strategies, others had used these ideas in practice, but he was the first to present them systematically as a lexicon of themes accompanied by extensive taxonomical observations. A great and profound chess thinker second only to Steinitz, and his works – Die Blockade, My System, GM Robert Byrne called him perhaps the most brilliant theoretician and teacher in the history of the game
10.
Joseph Henry Blackburne
Joseph Henry Blackburne, nicknamed The Black Death, dominated British chess during the latter part of the 19th century. He learned the game at the late age of 18 but quickly became a strong player. At one point he was the second most successful player, with a string of tournament victories behind him. Blackburne published a collection of his own games, Joseph Henry Blackburne was born in Manchester in December 1841. In July 1861 he lost 5-0 in a match with Manchesters strongest player, Eduard Pindar, next year he became champion of the city club, ahead of Bernhard Horwitz. Up to that point time-keeping was measured with hourglasses, and it was Blackburne who suggested chess clocks and this trip cost Blackburne his job back in Manchester, and he became a professional chess player. In the 1868-69 season he won the British championship by beating the current holder, Cecil Valentine De Vere and his best results were in international tournaments. In the 1870s and 1880s he was almost always a high prize-winner and he achieved 2nd place in, a strong mini-tournament in London 1872, George Alcock MacDonnell and De Vere, shared 2nd place at Hamburg 1885, shared 2nd place at Frankfurt 1887.
His worst result from this 20-year period was 6th place in the 1882 Vienna super-tournament, in the mid to late 1890s Blackburnes was less successful in tournaments, but by this time he was competing against the next generation of players, Emanuel Lasker and Laskers major rivals. Chessmetrics concludes that Blackburnes best performances, taking account of the strength of his opponents, were his second places at Frankfurt 1887, at London 1892 he finished only ½ point behind Emanuel Lasker and 2 points ahead of the third-placed player, Mason. Emanuel Lasker thought that Blackburne had more talent than Steinitz, but lacked the willpower, Emanuel Lasker beat Blackburne in 1892, but Lasker beat Steinitz very decisively in their 1894 championship match. Blackburne was beaten in 1881 by Zukertort, who was in great form at the time. The 1876 match against Steinitz was held at the West-end Chess Club in London, the stakes were £60 a side with the winner taking all. This was a sum of money in Victorian times – £60 in 1876 would be roughly equivalent to £29,000 in 2006s money.
This was the first time spectators were charged an entrance fee to see a chess match. He even travelled to Australia in 1885 to give exhibitions, on his arrival in Melbourne he was fined five pounds for assaulting a passenger on the ship. The Teesside Chess Association invited world-class players to give exhibitions, in order to raise money for the Association, Blackburnes fee for two simultaneous displays and a blindfold event in 1889 was 9 guineas. Players paid the club a shilling for a game or a half-crown to play him blindfold
11.
Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players ever, by the age of 22, Alekhine was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played, in 1921, Alekhine left Soviet Russia and emigrated to France, which he represented after 1925. In 1927, he became the fourth World Chess Champion by defeating José Raúl Capablanca, in the early 1930s, Alekhine dominated tournament play and won two top-class tournaments by large margins. He played first board for France in five Chess Olympiads, Alekhine offered Capablanca a rematch on the same demanding terms that Capablanca had set for him, and negotiations dragged on for years without making much progress. Meanwhile, Alekhine defended his title with ease against Efim Bogoljubov in 1929 and 1934 and he was defeated by Max Euwe in 1935, but regained his crown in the 1937 rematch.
His tournament record, remained uneven, and rising stars like Paul Keres, Reuben Fine. Negotiations for a match with Keres or Botvinnik were halted by the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939. Negotiations with Botvinnik for a title match were proceeding in 1946 when Alekhine died in Portugal. Alekhine is the only World Chess Champion to have died while holding the title, Alekhine is known for his fierce and imaginative attacking style, combined with great positional and endgame skill. He composed endgame studies. Alekhine was born into a family in Moscow, Russia. His father, Alexander Ivanovich Alekhin, was a landowner and Privy Councilor to the conservative legislative Fourth Duma and his mother, Anisya Ivanovna Alekhina, was the daughter of a rich industrialist. Alekhine was first introduced to chess by his mother, a brother, Alexei. Alekhines first known game was from a chess tournament that began on December 3,1902. He participated in several tournaments, sponsored by the chess magazine Shakhmatnoe Obozrenie.
In 1907, Alekhine played his first over-the-board tournament, the Moscow chess clubs Spring Tournament, that year, he tied for 11th–13th in the clubs Autumn Tournament, his older brother, tied for 4th–6th place. In 1908, Alexander won the clubs Spring Tournament, at the age of 15, in 1909, he won the All-Russian Amateur Tournament in Saint Petersburg
12.
Kingdom of Prussia
It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent.
The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade.
Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion
