Alexander Alekhine vs David Bowie
Two child prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Alexander Alekhine | David Bowie | |
| Field | Sports | Film |
| Sub-field | Chess | Actor |
| Born | 1892 | 1947 |
| Died | 1946 | 2016 |
| Country of birth | France | United Kingdom |
| Star sign | Scorpio | Capricorn |
Who they are
Alexander Alekhine
When Alexander Alekhine arrived in Buenos Aires in September 1927 to challenge José Raúl Capablanca for the World Championship, the chess world expected a formality. Capablanca had not lost a competitive game in eight years. Grandmasters whispered that chess had reached its apex in the Cuban — that the game, played perfectly, would always draw, and that Capablanca was the player who played perfectly. Alekhine, a Russian émigré living in France, was a fine attacking player, perhaps the best combinational talent of his generation, but attacking chess against someone who never made errors was considered…
Full biography of Alexander Alekhine →
David Bowie
On June 6, 1972, a twenty-four-year-old Brixton-born musician named David Robert Jones — performing under the name David Bowie, inhabiting a character he had named Ziggy Stardust — appeared on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops to perform "Starman," draped his arm around his guitarist Mick Ronson's shoulders in a gesture that was, for British television in 1972, practically avant-garde, and stared directly into the camera. The performance reached approximately fifteen million viewers. Within a week, the Ziggy Stardust album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was…
Full biography of David Bowie →
What they share
- Both are documented on this site with a verified biography.
Where they part
- Different fields: Sports for Alexander Alekhine, Film for David Bowie.
- Born in different countries: France and United Kingdom.
- 55 years separate their births (1892 and 1947).
- Their lifetimes never overlapped.
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Alexander Alekhine or David Bowie?
- Alexander Alekhine. Alexander Alekhine was born in 1892, David Bowie in 1947.
- What field is each of them in?
- Alexander Alekhine is filed under Sports (Chess). David Bowie is filed under Film (Actor).
- Were they contemporaries?
- No - their lifetimes do not overlap.