Alexander Alekhine vs Dmitri Shostakovich
Two child prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Alexander Alekhine | Dmitri Shostakovich | |
| Field | Sports | Music |
| Sub-field | Chess | Composer |
| Born | 1892 | 1906 |
| Died | 1946 | 1975 |
| Country of birth | France | Russia |
| Star sign | Scorpio | Libra |
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 →
Dmitri Shostakovich
In January 1936, Josef Stalin attended a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at the Bolshoi Theatre and left before the final act. Two days later, Pravda published an unsigned editorial — almost certainly authorized at the highest level — titled "Muddle Instead of Music." The article attacked the opera as "formalist" and "bourgeois," its dissonances described as deliberate assaults on Soviet socialist culture. Shostakovich was twenty-nine years old, the most celebrated composer in the Soviet Union, and now suddenly in danger. He had a new symphony nearly finished —…
Full biography of Dmitri Shostakovich →
What they share
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Different fields: Sports for Alexander Alekhine, Music for Dmitri Shostakovich.
- Born in different countries: France and Russia.
- 14 years separate their births (1892 and 1906).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Alexander Alekhine or Dmitri Shostakovich?
- Alexander Alekhine. Alexander Alekhine was born in 1892, Dmitri Shostakovich in 1906.
- What field is each of them in?
- Alexander Alekhine is filed under Sports (Chess). Dmitri Shostakovich is filed under Music (Composer).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.