Letter #02 -  2004

Sub:    Was Alekhine murdered?
Date:   1/15/2004 8:44:20 PM MST
From:  AF Saidy
To:      service@chess-poster.com

1) I hadn't heard before about any cancer in Tal. Know any details or source?

2) Alekhine: watch for a current Evans col. GM Spraggett, who lives in Portugal, on his web site in1999 stated that Dr. Lupi privately disclosed it wasn't a piece of meat, but a gunshot.

No details given.

-Yrs, AF Saidy

Dear viewer,

Our source for Mikhail Tal cause of death was from Bill's Wall website: http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/death.htm. We went searching through the web and found that he died of kidney failure in Moscow. Our page was already updated with the correct information.

Also, we read Mr. Spraggett article about Alekhine's death and we found it very interesting. The original cause of death will not be changed in our site but we are publishing GM Spraggett's complete article:

The World Champion who died under the most
mysterious circumstances: Alexander Alekhine!

Alekhine died in Portugal (just outside Lisbon) in 1946. The 'official' account is that he choked on a piece of meat (while sitting down in a big arm chair) and studying Chess. There is even a photo of this, sure enough we can see Alekhine laying limp in the armchair, with all of the pieces still upright on the board:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3005

What is wrong with the official story? (I mean, apart from the fact that if a 'normal' person was sitting down and choking he would get up and become quite frantic, possibly even overturning the board and pieces in the process...!?)

The doctor who wrote the official death certificate (Dr. Antonio Ferreira, just by chance an avid chess player himself) later told friends that Alekhine's body was found on the street, in front of his hotel room! He had been shot! He said that government pressure had forced him to complete the death certificate as it now exists (Portugal was neutral during the second World War, and might have wanted to avoid any controversy).

According to well placed sources (including Spassky, who is married to a French woman who worked in the diplomatic services ) the French resistance created a super secret 'Death Squad' after the second world war to 'deal' appropriately with those people on a black list who had collaborated too willingly with the German Nazi's, once France was over run by Germany. Apparently the list was not less than 200,000 names!

Correspondence of Alekhine, shortly before his untimely demise, mentioned that he felt he was being followed! Alexander Alekhine's initials were AA, so that would put him at the top of any list! Alekhine died within a day or two of the British Chess Federation voting to hold the Botvinnik-Alekhine match...so, if there was an assassin then he had to move quickly since Alekhine was about to go to England!

The French government, even to this day, denies the existence of any such 'black list'! (of course, they also deny that any massacre of Algerians in Paris! The many bodies that were found floating in the river were described as 'swimming' accidents or 'suicides'...).

The truth is out there!!
Source: GM Kevin Spraggett

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