Editing Alexander Alekhine (section)

==Loss of the World title (1935–1937)==
[[File:Om_het_wereldkampioenschap_schaken.webm|thumb|thumbtime=0:26|Alekhine speaks (1937)]]
In 1933, Alekhine challenged [[Max Euwe]] to a championship match.<ref name="Münninghoff2001EuweBiography">{{cite book |last=Münninghoff |first=Alexander |author-link=Alexander Münninghoff |title=Max Euwe. The Biography |publisher=New in Chess |year=2001 |orig-year=1976 |quote=Inexplicably, one of these letters does not get an immediate reply. It is an invitation from no less a person than Alekhine: he wants to play a match against Euwe, similar to their 1927 encounter – but this time on a big passenger ship to the Dutch Indies and back, with a lot of pomp and circumstance. Five games on the way there, five during the return voyage. The stake: the world championship if need be. Alekhine was clearly in no doubt about his superiority. |translator=Piet Verhagen |isbn=9056910795}}</ref> Euwe, in the early 1930s, was regarded as one of three credible challengers (the others were José Raúl Capablanca and [[Salo Flohr]]).<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames"/> Euwe accepted the challenge for October 1935. Earlier that year, Dutch radio sports journalist [[Han Hollander]] asked Capablanca for his views on the forthcoming match. In the rare archival film footage, in which Capablanca and Euwe both speak, Capablanca replies: "Dr. Alekhine's game is 20% bluff. Dr. Euwe's game is clear and straightforward. Dr. Euwe's game—not so strong as Alekhine's in some respects—is more evenly balanced." Then Euwe gives his assessment in Dutch, explaining that his feelings alternated from optimism to pessimism, but in the previous ten years, their score had been evenly matched at 7–7.<ref>[http://www.geschiedenis24.nl/speler.program.7099385.html Han interviews Dutchman Max Euwe and Capablanca] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928055630/http://www.geschiedenis24.nl/speler.program.7099385.html |date=2013-09-28 }}, ''Dutch Public Broadcasting'' archives, 18 May 2012</ref>

On October 3, 1935, the world championship match began in [[Zandvoort]], the Netherlands. Although Alekhine took an early lead, from game thirteen onwards Euwe won twice as many games as Alekhine. The challenger became the new champion on December 16, 1935, with nine wins, thirteen draws, and eight losses.<ref name="chessgamesAlehineEuwe1935Table">{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=54135 |title=Alekhine vs. Euwe 1935 |website=chessgames.com |access-date=2008-05-23 |archive-date=2017-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727094018/http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=54135 |url-status=live }}</ref> This was the first world championship match in which seconds were officially employed: Alekhine had the services of [[Salo Landau]], and Euwe had [[Géza Maróczy]].<ref name="WinterChessNotes5202">{{cite web |url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter39.html#5214._Ernst_Klein_C.N._5202 |title=5214. Ernst Klein (C.N. 5202)|last=Winter|first= Edward|website=Chess Notes |access-date=2008-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509142943/http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter39.html |archive-date=9 May 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> Euwe's win was a major upset.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames"/> Kmoch wrote that Alekhine drank no alcohol for the first half of the match, but later took a glass before most games.<ref name="KmochGMsIveKnown" />
However, Salo Flohr, who also assisted Euwe, thought overconfidence caused more problems than alcohol did for Alekhine in this match, and Alekhine himself had previously said he would win easily.<ref name="Sosonko2001RememberingEuwePart1"/><ref>Münninghoff 2001</ref> Later World Champions [[Vasily Smyslov]], [[Boris Spassky]], [[Anatoly Karpov]] and [[Garry Kasparov]] analyzed the match for their own benefit and concluded that Euwe deserved to win and that the standard of play was worthy of a world championship.<ref name="Sosonko2001RememberingEuwePart1">{{cite web |last=Sosonko |first=Gennadi |author-link=Gennadi Sosonko |title=Remembering Max Euwe Part 1 |url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles167.pdf |website=[[ChessCafe.com]] |year=2001 |access-date=2008-05-20 |archive-date=2011-08-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806014241/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles167.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to Kmoch, Alekhine abstained from alcohol altogether for five&nbsp;years after the 1935 match.<ref name="KmochGMsIveKnown" /> In the eighteen&nbsp;months after losing the title, Alekhine played in ten&nbsp;tournaments, with uneven results: tied for first with [[Paul Keres]] at [[Bad Nauheim]] in May 1936; first place at [[Dresden]] in June 1936; second to Flohr at [[Poděbrady]] in July 1936; sixth, behind Capablanca, [[Mikhail Botvinnik]], Reuben Fine, [[Samuel Reshevsky]], and Euwe at [[Nottingham]] in August 1936; third, behind Euwe and Fine, at [[Amsterdam]] in October 1936; tied for first with [[Salo Landau]] at [[Amsterdam]] (''Quadrangular''), also in October 1936; in 1936/37 he won at the [[Hastings International Chess Congress|Hastings]] New Year tournament, ahead of Fine and [[Erich Eliskases]]; first place at [[Nice]] (''Quadrangular'') in March 1937; third, behind Keres and Fine, at [[Margate]] in April 1937; tied for fourth with Keres, behind Flohr, Reshevsky and [[Vladimirs Petrovs]], at Kemeri in June–July 1937; tied for second with Bogoljubow, behind Euwe, at [[Bad Nauheim]] (''Quadrangular'') in July 1937.<ref name="WallAlekhine">{{cite web |last=Wall |first=Bill |url=http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/alekhine.htm |title=Alexander Alekhine (1892–1946) |access-date=2008-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028083454/http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/alekhine.htm |archive-date=October 28, 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}}