Chess Explorations (82)
By Edward Winter
Facts in chess history and lore are often distorted and doctored, but so too,
occasionally, are photographs. A familiar case concerns the picture of Alekhine
and Capablanca supposedly taken during their 1927 world championship match in
Buenos Aires:
Detailed information is provided in A
Fake Chess Photograph.
Another instance concerns Alekhine and the vanishing onlookers:
See C.N.s 6507 and 6525.
Airbrushing and doctoring may even occur in a group photograph and seemingly
without reason. In C.N. 5685 Philippe Kesmaecker (Maintenon, France) drew attention
to this pair taken at Carlsbad, 1907:


Subsequently, C.N. 5722 reproduced two good-quality scans received from Per
Skjoldager (Fredericia, Denmark). That item was able to give the three versions
below. They came, respectively, from a) page ix of Das Internationale Schachmeisterturnier
in Karlsbad 1907, b) opposite page 445 of the October 1907 BCM and
c) opposite page 257 of the September 1907 Deutsche Schachzeitung:
As Mr Kesmaecker remarked, the figures in the background progressively disappear.
He also mentioned the existence on the Internet of a slightly different shot
of the group (with, for example, Janowsky in profile), and we added that a copy
of that one (also with much airbrushing) is in the plates section of Maróczy
Géza élete és pályafutása by József Szily (Budapest, 1957):

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by Edward Winter
Edward Winter is the editor of Chess
Notes, which was founded in January 1982 as "a forum for aficionados
to discuss all matters relating to the Royal Pastime". Since then, over 7,600
items have been published, and the series has resulted in four books by Winter:
Chess
Explorations (1996), Kings,
Commoners and Knaves (1999), A
Chess Omnibus (2003) and Chess
Facts and Fables (2006). He is also the author of a monograph on Capablanca
(1989). In 2011 a paperback
edition was issued.
Chess Notes is well known for its historical research, and anyone browsing
in its archives
will find a wealth of unknown games, accounts of historical mysteries, quotes
and quips, and other material of every kind imaginable. Correspondents from
around the world contribute items, and they include not only "ordinary readers"
but also some eminent historians – and, indeed, some eminent masters. Chess
Notes is located at the Chess
History Center. Signed copies of Edward Winter's publications are
currently available.