Editing Alexander Alekhine (section)

====1920–1927====
When conditions in Russia became more settled, Alekhine proved he was among Russia's strongest players. In January 1920, he swept the [[Moscow City Chess Championship|championship of Moscow]] (11/11), but was not declared champion because he was not a resident of the city. In October 1920 he won the All-Russian Chess Olympiad in Moscow (+9−0=6); the tournament was retroactively called the [[1920 USSR Chess Championship|first USSR Championship]]. His brother Alexei took third place in the tournament for amateurs.<ref name="chessarchAlexey">{{cite web |last=Lissowski |first=Tomasz |date=1999 |title=Alexey, Brother of Alekhine |url=http://www.chessarch.com/archive/0009_alexey/alexey.shtml|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080419053022/http://www.chessarch.com/excavations/0009_alexey/alexey.shtml |archive-date=19 April 2008 |access-date=2008-05-20 |website=Chess Archaeology}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Popovsky |first=Alexey |title=I Championship of USSR- Moscow 4-24.10.1920 |url=http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_urs/1920/ch_urs20.html |access-date=2021-01-22 |website=Russian Chess Base |archive-date=2016-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604115920/http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_urs/1920/ch_urs20.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In March 1920, Alekhine married Alexandra Batayeva. They divorced the next year.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shaburov |first=Yuri |title=Alexander Alekhine. Nepobezhdyonny champion |trans-title= Alexander Alekhine. Unbeaten champion. |publisher=Golos |year=1992 |page=104 |isbn=5-7055-0852-2}}</ref> For a short time in 1920–21, he worked as an interpreter for the Communist International ([[Comintern]]) and was appointed secretary to the Education Department. In this capacity, he met a Swiss journalist and Comintern delegate, [[Annelise Rüegg]], who was thirteen years older than he was, and they married on March 15, 1921. Shortly after, Alekhine was given permission to leave Russia for a visit to the West with his wife. He never returned. In June 1921, he left his second wife in Paris and went to Berlin.<ref name="WallAlekhine"/>{{unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}}

In 1921–1923, Alekhine played seven mini-matches. In 1921, he won against [[Nikolay Grigoriev]] (+2−0=5) in Moscow, drew with [[Richard Teichmann]] (+2−2=2) and won against [[Friedrich Sämisch]] (+2−0=0), both in Berlin. In 1922, he won against [[Ossip Bernstein]] (+1−0=1) and [[Arnold Aurbach]] (+1−0=1), both in Paris, and [[Manuel Golmayo]] (+1−0=1) in [[Madrid]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thechesslibrary.com/files/ShortMatchesOf20thCentury.htm |title=Short Matches of the 20th Century |access-date=2008-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928140535/http://www.thechesslibrary.com/files/ShortMatchesOf20thCentury.htm |archive-date=September 28, 2007}}</ref> In 1923, he won against [[André Muffang]] (+2−0=0) in Paris.<ref name="AlekhineMyBestGames1908to1937"/>

From 1921 to 1927, Alekhine won or shared first prize in about two-thirds of the many tournaments in which he played. His ''least'' successful efforts were a tie for third place at Vienna 1922 behind [[Akiba Rubinstein]] and [[Richard Réti]], and third place at the [[New York 1924 chess tournament]], behind ex-champion [[Emanuel Lasker]] and world champion [[José Raúl Capablanca]] (but ahead of [[Frank Marshall (chess player)|Frank Marshall]], [[Richard Réti]], [[Géza Maróczy]], [[Efim Bogoljubov]], [[Savielly Tartakower]], [[Frederick Yates (chess player)|Frederick Yates]], [[Edward Lasker]], and [[Dawid Janowski]]).<ref name="KhalifmanAlekhine1935To1946"/> Technically, Alekhine's play was mostly better than his competitors'&mdash;even Capablanca's&mdash;but he lacked confidence when playing his major rivals.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames"/>

Alekhine's main goal throughout this period was to arrange a match with Capablanca.<ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames"/> He thought the greatest obstacle was not Capablanca's play but the requirement under the 1922 "London rules" (at Capablanca's insistence) that the challenger raise a purse of US$10,000 (~$162,000 in 2022 terms<ref>{{Cite web |title=Your Results in Table Format |url=https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/result.php?year_source=1922&amount=10000&year_result=2022}}</ref>), of which the defending champion would receive over half even if defeated.<ref name="WinterCapablancaVsAlekhine1927"/> Alekhine in November 1921, and Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch in 1923, challenged Capablanca but were unable to raise the $10,000.<ref name="chessmaniacCapablancaOnlineTribute">{{cite web |title=Jose Raul Capablanca: Online Chess Tribute |url=http://www.chessmaniac.com/2007/06/jose-raul-capablanca-online-chess.php |date=2007-06-28 |publisher=chessmaniac.com |access-date=2008-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513151615/http://www.chessmaniac.com/2007/06/jose-raul-capablanca-online-chess.php |archive-date=13 May 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=January 2021}} Raising the money was Alekhine's preliminary objective; he even went on tour, playing simultaneous exhibitions for modest fees day after day.<ref name="ScottishChessAlekhine1923">{{cite journal |title=Alekhine and Love: Greenock, 1923 |author=Linklater, J. |journal=Scottish Chess Magazine |issue=189 |date=March 1989 |url=http://www.chessscotland.com/history/Alekhine_visit.htm |access-date=2008-05-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214032034/http://www.chessscotland.com/history/Alekhine_visit.htm |archive-date=2009-02-14}}</ref> In New York on April 27, 1924, he broke the world record for simultaneous blindfold play when he played twenty-six opponents (the previous record was twenty-five, set by [[Gyula Breyer]]), winning sixteen games, losing five, and drawing five after twelve hours of play. He broke his own world record on February 1, 1925, by playing twenty-eight games blindfold simultaneously in Paris, winning twenty-two, drawing three, and losing three.<ref name="WallAlekhine"/>{{unreliable source?|failed=y|date=December 2013}}

In 1924, he applied for the first time for a residence privilege in France and for French citizenship while pursuing his studies in the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] Faculty of Law to obtain a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]]. There is no record that he completed his studies there, but he was known as "Dr. Alekhine" in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite web |title=World Chess Champion and Favourite of Hans Frank? |author=Christian Rohrer |translator=Emily Pickerill |publisher=University of Stuttgart, Institute of History |date=29 June 2021 |access-date=11 January 2023 |url=https://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/bitstream/11682/11576/1/2021_Rohrer_Alekhine.pdf |page=19}}</ref>

His French citizenship application was postponed because of his frequent travels abroad to play chess and because he was reported once in April 1922, shortly after his arrival in France, as a "bolshevist charged by the Soviets of a special mission in France". Later in 1927, the [[French Chess Federation]] asked the Ministry of Justice to intervene in Alekhine's favor to have him lead the French team in the first Nation tournament to be held in London in July 1927. Nevertheless, Alekhine had to wait for a new law on naturalization which was published on 10 August 1927. The decree granting him [[French nationality law|French nationality]] (among hundreds of other appliers) was signed on 5 November 1927 and published in the [[Journal officiel de la République française|Official Gazette of the French Republic]] on 14–15 November 1927, while Alekhine was playing Capablanca for the World title in Buenos Aires.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://alekhine-nb.blogspot.fr/p/facts.html |title=Alekhine's naturalization files |access-date=2013-10-09 |archive-date=2013-10-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014010335/http://alekhine-nb.blogspot.fr/p/facts.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1927-11-14 |title=Journal officiel de la République française. Lois et décrets |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6529751g |access-date=2023-11-23 |website=Gallica |language=EN}}</ref>

In October 1926, Alekhine won in [[Buenos Aires]]. From December 1926 to January 1927, he beat [[Max Euwe]] 5½–4½ in a match. In 1927, he married his third wife, Nadiezda Vasiliev (née Fabritzky), another older woman, the widow of the Russian general V. Vasiliev.{{sfn|Linder|Linder|2016|loc=Chapter 1: Life and Destiny}}