Life's Pleasures Quote by Alexander Alekhine

Alekhine’s line is a cold-blooded attempt to drag chess out of the realm of gentlemanly pastime and into something closer to moral combat. By comparing time trouble to drunkenness in a criminal act, he doesn’t just dismiss an excuse; he criminalizes the very impulse to ask for leniency. The move is rhetorical violence: a player who blunders under the clock isn’t unlucky or pressured, they’re culpable.

The intent is partly practical. In tournament chess, “I was low on time” is the most common alibi for a bad move, and Alekhine is trying to seal that escape hatch. But the subtext is bigger: elite play is about self-command. If you can’t manage your nerves, your calculation, and your clock, you’re not a victim of circumstance; you’re unfit for the level you’re claiming.

It also reflects Alekhine’s era and persona. Early 20th-century chess culture prized willpower, discipline, and a kind of aristocratic severity. Champions cultivated an image of mastery that extended beyond the board: not only finding the best move, but doing so under constraints that everyone shares. The drunken-lawbreaker analogy is deliberately unfair, which is why it works. It jolts the listener into accepting a harsh standard: responsibility doesn’t dissolve when conditions get stressful; that’s exactly when it’s tested.

Underneath the moralism is gamesmanship, too. If time pressure gets no sympathy, opponents are encouraged to create it, and the “real” champion is the one who can weaponize the clock without apologizing for the damage.